Main Cast: Mae West, Victor McLaglen, Phillip Reed, Harold Huber, Lucille Gleason
Release Year: 1936
Country: US
Run Time: 77 minutes
Plot
Mae West butts heads with Victor McLaglen in Raoul Walsh's Klondike Annie, but the real victor was the Legion of Decency, whose censorship strictures transformed a saucy and spicy gumbo into something closer to chicken noodle soup. West plays Rose Carlton, the kept woman of Chan Lo (Harold Huber), who takes her from walking the streets to pacing the floors of her high rent apartment. Rose ends up killing Chan and beats it from San Francisco to the frozen north. She boards a ship where burly sea captain Bull Brackett (McLaglen) takes a shine to her; when he finds out she killed Chan, he blackmails her into coming up and seeing him sometime. Boarding the ship in Seattle is missionary Annie Alden (Helen Jerome Eddy), who dies on the way to Alaska. Rose assumes Annie's identity and, upon arrival in Alaska proceeds to preach the Good Book, saving sinners by unorthodox methods. Mountie Jack Forrest (Philip Reed) arrives in town searching for Chan's murderer and he falls in love with Rose, unaware that the woman he loves is the killer he seeks. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Helen Jerome Eddy - Sister Annie Alden; Tetsu Komai - Lan Fang; Harry Beresford - Brother Bowser; Conway Tearle - Vance Palmer; Ted Oliver - Grigsby; Esther Howard - Fanny Radler; John Rogers - Buddie; George Walsh - Quartermaster; Philip Ahn - Wing; Richard Allen - Miner; Gene Austin - Organist; Edna Bennett - Dance Hall girl; James Burke - Bartender; D'Arcy Corrigan - Missionary; Nell Craig - Missionary; Guy D'Ennery - Alvaredos; Jack Daley - 2nd Mate; Chester Gan - Ship's cook; Huntly Gordon - Clinton Reynolds; Lawrence Grant - Sir Gilbert; Otto Heimel - Cocoa; Kathleen Key - Dance Hall girl; Paul Kruger - Sailor; Philo McCullough - Extra; Jack Mulhall - Officer; Maidel Turner - Lydia Bowley; Nella Walker - Missionary; Jack Wallace - Third mate; Wong Wing - Ah Toy; Soo Yong - Fah Wong; Gladys Gale - Dance Hall girl; Pearl Eaton - Dance Hall girl; Edwin J. Brady - Sailor; John Lester Johnson - Sailor; Marie Wells - Dance Hall Girl; Vladimir Bykoff - Marinoff
Credit
Hans Dreier - Art Director, Bernard Herzbrun - Art Director, Raoul Walsh - Director, Stuart Heisler - Editor, George Clemens - Cinematographer, William Le Baron - Producer, A.E. Freudeman - Set Designer, Mae West - Screenwriter, George B. Dowell - Short Story Author, Marion Morgan - Short Story Author
Klondike Annie is a 1936black-and-white comedy film starring Mae West and Victor McLaglen. The film was co-written by West from one of her plays and directed by Raoul Walsh. This film caused a rift between West and William Randolph Hearst, who decided never to print West's name in any of his newspapers. The reason given was the racy material of the film and West's sexual persona. This may have been considered hypocritical, due to his extramarital affair with actress Marion Davies. This and a famous radio appearance announced the end of her period at Paramount Pictures. She was quoted as saying " I may have invited censorship into Hollywood, but I also saved the industry and Paramount."
