Klondike Annie (1936)

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Mae West (play)
Marion Morgan (story) ...

Release Date:

21 February 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

She Made the Frozen North... Red Hot!

Plot Keywords:

Sled Dog | Dog Sled | Mistaken Identity | Based On Play

Cast

Mae West	...	The Frisco Doll / Rose Carlton / Sister Annie Alden
Victor McLaglen	...	Bull Brackett
Phillip Reed	...	Insp. Jack Forrest
Helen Jerome Eddy	...	Sister Annie Alden
Harry Beresford	...	Brother Bowser
Harold Huber	...	Chan Lo
Lucile Gleason	...	Big Tess (as Lucille Webster Gleason)
Conway Tearle	...	Vance Palmer
Esther Howard	...	Fanny Radler
Soo Yong	...	Fah Wong, Rose's Maid
John Rogers	...	Buddie
Ted Oliver	...	Grigsby
Lawrence Grant	...	Sir Gilbert
Gene Austin	...	Organist
Vladimar Bykoff	...	Marinoff

Also Known As:

Frisco Kate (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) (cut) | UK:U (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

The Frisco Doll: When caught between two evils, I generally like to take the one I never tried.

Soundtrack:

Little Bar Butterfly

KLONDIKE ANNIE (Raoul Walsh, 1936) **1/2

This is another middling Mae West vehicle: though there's something approximating a plot in its case (involving her taking up the guise of a missionary!), this has the unfortunate effect of producing unwarranted sentimentality – consequently, the star's trademark sauciness gets downplayed – which, frankly, doesn't suit her in the least…or convince us for a second! At least, director Walsh vividly renders the turn-of-the-century atmosphere and changes of locale: we start in Chinatown, where Mae's the kept woman of an Oriental establishment owner, then spend a good deal of time aboard ship with rowdy captain Victor McLaglen – during which the real (and elderly) Sister Annie perishes from a heart attack – and, finally, settle in the titular gold-mining region – where the heroine above all turns the head of a young Mountie (actually after West for the death of her Asian master that occurs off-screen!) even if he believes her to be a pious woman.

Needless to say, West's bubbly personality and smart business sense (acquired via her former capacity of world-renowned torch singer) turns around the mission's formerly pitiful fortunes – which even come to threaten the takings at the local saloon (especially since she's recruited many of the performers there to liven up her own "joint")! I was under the impression that KLONDIKE ANNIE was something like 80 minutes long (the Leslie Halliwell Film Guide even gives the running-time as 83), so that I was surprised when it abruptly ended – by having the star forsake the young career man for experienced lout McLaglen – at a little over 73 minutes in PAL mode (with a bit of research, I was able to determine that Image's presumably long out-of-print R1 DVD actually only ran for 76 minutes).