Mae Clarke is best known for two things: her role as Elizabeth in the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN and having a grapefruit shoved in her face by James Cagney in THE PUBLIC ENEMY. She deserves to be known for more than that, though. Clarke was an extremely versatile actress who always managed to make an impression in every film she was in, no matter how small the part.
She was infinitely tragic in WATERLOO BRIDGE, yet she was also convincing as conniving women in FAST WORKERS and LADY KILLER. Clarke even stole a movie away from Jean Harlow in THREE WISE GIRLS. She could be fragile and demure, but when she had to she could present a Barbara Stanwyck-like spunky attitude--no surprise considering that Stanwyck and Clarke were pals and roommates when both of them were struggling chorus girls in 1920s New York City.
Clarke shows plenty of that spunk in the 1933 Columbia film PAROLE GIRL. Mae plays Sylvia Day (no relation to me), who gets caught up in an extortion racket aimed at a department store. Sylvia's partner Tony (Hale Hamilton) leaves her to suffer the consequences, which involves spending a year in jail. Sylvia decides to get revenge on the store big-wig who ordered that she be prosecuted, Joe Smith (Ralph Bellamy). Sylvia uses an ingenious plan to get released after only a month, and she proceeds to stalk Joe, take advantage of him during a drunken night out on the town, and convince him that they were married. Complicating the situation even more are Tony and the woman who claims to have married Joe years before (Marie Prevost).
PAROLE GIRL gives Mae Clarke plenty of chances to show off her versatility. She goes from tearfully pleading to not be prosecuted, to being hard-as-nails and determined to get her hooks into Joe, to acting as a dutiful, loving wife to impress Joe's boss. The script attempts to set up Sylvia as a victim of circumstances, but her ability to take advantage of whatever situation comes up makes a viewer wonder how innocent she really is.
One expects PAROLE GIRL to be a hard-edged Pre-Code look at female criminality, but it's nowhere near as salacious as one would expect. It has plenty of comic moments, and Sylvia makes it very clear to both Tony and Joe that her relationships with them are strictly business. Ralph Bellamy's Joe has many of the slow-witted, naive elements one would see in the actor's later screwball roles, but Bellamy also gets to do a drunk scene, and he even gets to strike Sylvia at one point. A series of contrivances sets up a happy ending, but one feels there's no way Sylvia and Joe would last as a couple.
Mae Clarke by far is the main attraction of PAROLE GIRL. She sports a sleek, modern hairstyle, and she gets to wear plenty of fashionable outfits. Personal problems and health issues would stymie Clarke's career just as it was gaining momentum, but I have to say that every time I see one of her performances, my admiration for her acting talent grows.
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