I've now seen Gail Patrick in My Favorite Wife and in this, and I don't understand why she wasn't more famous. Did she get typecast as 'bitchy' perhaps? I find her remarkably beautiful and a very good actress with a unique voice.
shareBecause of her patrician looks, bearing, and classic elegance, she did seem to get more than her fair share of bitchy parts. She was very good at doing them, but I too, would have liked to see her in more sympathetic roles. I think her talents were unappreciated and underused. She had a wonderfully sympathetic and expressive face when the camera snuck up on her, and caught her unaware. It makes me think that she could have done any part, and done it very well. Her range was certainly greater than the body of her work indicates.
shareHi there rd102, I totally agree with you about Gail Patrick. Thank you for your nice posting.:-)
shareI've seen her in a handful of films, and it seems like she was typecast in "bitchy" roles. Besides My Favorite Wife and My Man Godfrey, she's quite good in Stage Door. Yes, Gail Patrick was very beautiful and talented. I hope to see more of her movies.
By the way, I always thought Patrick resembled Kay Francis. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks so, I don't know.
"Dry your eyes baby, it's out of character."
She and Bill Powell were ex-boyfriend/girlfriend in Love Crazy. She plays a good comedy role in that- and it's a Powell/Loy movie so it really can't be beat. I like when she's hitting on him and tickling him trying to get him to stay with her and he's trying to leave her apartment to go home and celebrate his anniversary. They have a little struggle and as he escapes out the door she calls after him "You weren't married, you were embalmed!"
"All you need to start an Asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people"-(My Man Godfrey)
...Matter of fact, csu16387, I mixed up Gail Patrick with Kay Francis myself! But Francis wasn't as pretty as Patrick, and was much older.
Kay Francis did look very glamorous, however, as Cary Grant's "bitchy" wife in 1939's "In Name Only"--which also co-starred Carole Lombard and probably contributed to my own confusion between Francis and Patrick...
Everyone does get older than everybody else at some point, you know.
Kay Francis is quite alluring in "Trouble In Paradise," don't you think?
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I should warn you -- he's a Fourierist.
I thought she was far more interesting than Lombard's character, Irene, in My Man Godfrey. I would have liked it if Cornelia and Godfrey had ended up together. Their relationship had an actual arc, whereas Godfrey's relationship with Irene went nowhere.
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Just watched this and I have to agree. Carole Lombard was was perfect as the scatterbrained Irene, but she couldn't possibly hold the interest of an intelligent, sophisticated man like Godfrey.
Cornelia on the other hand was smarter, more mature, and grew as a person. She could have made the ideal wife for him.
I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.
Have you ever heard the saying 'Opposites attract'?
shareHello Billelis, I agree with you on Gail Patrick. She is one of the very best classic Hollywood actresses ever. Thank you for your posting and support of Gail Patrick.:-)
shareGail Patrick was the first bitch goddess in Hollywood. Later, as Gail Patrick Jackson, she was the executive producer of the Perry Mason show which ran for years.
shareI always found it odd that she and Powell had more chemistry in My Man Godfrey as the movie progressed. She was a bitch in the movie but oddly she was my favorite. She seemed the most realistic.
I will never understand Hollywood's partiality to blonds over brunettes.
I agree with you, ande_80. I usually never root for the bad girl, but Gail Patrick made Cornelia so elegant, cool, magnetic, and gleefully bitchy that I found myself wishing that Godfrey would end up with her instead of vacuous, immature Irene.
Gail Patrick was indeed an underrated actress. She played bitches, but somehow never in the typical way. She always brought a dose of humanity to her roles that made them more interesting. I'm probably the only person on Earth who felt sorry for her character in "My Favorite Wife", but that's for a different thread entirely.
"I will never understand Hollywood's partiality to blonds over brunettes."
Me neither. I stopped trying to figure it out a long time ago.
"Will you stop feeling sorry for yourself?! It's bad for your complexion!"-"Sixteen Candles"
Gail Patrick was all that you've all said and more. Incredibly beautiful and a wonderful actress. She was so wonderful in these second-lead "cold bitch" and or ex-wife parts - STAGE DOOR, MY FAVORITE WIFE, etc. that she became typecast in them and the studios then never saw her as star material but it's obvious today she was. I always find it odd when she's in a movie and the "star man" ultimately chooses the "star lady" over Gail despite the fact that Gail is not only younger but almost always more beautiful than the star lady. (In GODFREY Gail and Carole are not rivals for William Powell though and Carole is one of the few star ladies whose beauty matches Gail's.)
shareIrene may have been a ditz but don't forget that she was the only one that had the spunk to chase after Godfrey while the rest of them stood around weeping. She also had the biggest heart and a lovable tomboy attitude.
As an actress, Patrick may have been cool and lovely, but so were most of the other glamour queens of that era, and she lacked the spark of mad comic genius that set Lombard apart.
As for Hollywood's supposed "partiality to blondes", that remark has no validity whatsoever when movie history is replete with brunette icons, as anybody can see. Jane Russell, Ava Gardner, Hedy Lamarr, Audrey Hepburn, Sofia Loren, etc etc, need I go on?
Brunette jealousy is so old. Get over it y'all.
I will never understand Hollywood's partiality to blonds over brunettes.
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I totally agree. I think that Gail Patrick was one of the most gorgeous women in the movies, ever. She had a patrician, aristocratic bearing and was cast in parts to fit that mold. You will rarely see her smile, but when she does, wow! She was also extremely intelligent, having been the dean of a small woman's college (in Alabama, I believe) before going to Hollywood. Thank you for the posting, I thought I was the only one.....
shareI'm so glad I found this post. I just finished "My Man Godfrey". Loved it but I definitely found the chemistry and dynamic between Godfrey and Gail Patrick's Cornelia far more interesting than the amusing but annoying Irene.
I loved her in "Stage Door" too and I've always found her beautiful and captivating on screen. Such a shame she was typecast in the supporting "bitchy" roles because I feel like if she had more chances in lead roles her name would be better known and up there with other legendary actresses of the Golden Age.
lauraeileen894: You are not the only one who felt very sorry for her character in "My Favourite Wife". I got so annoyed with Cary Grant's character and his waffling.
I suspect that with the passage of time and changing audience tastes that we see the cast differently today. Carol Lombard is lovely but in this film she is so one-note full-on ditzy it's almost irritating. Gail Patrick gets the cooler bitchy role and better cloths and comes good at the end. It's interesting that people are still posting appreciatively about a supporting actress 60+ years after her acting career ended.
shareI'll add to the appreciation, she was great in this!
shareGail Patrick's role as Cornelia was one of the most complicated characters I think I've ever seen, and she played it perfectly. And, yes, I think she was more suited to Godfrey, but this is what they call a "screwball comedy" so we have to accept it.
shareShe's not as interesting in straight up dramatic roles. I saw her in a western - nothing striking. She was just great as glamorous women who made smart observations. I think Cordelia should have ended up with Godfrey. You should see Patrick with Myrna Loy and William Powell in "Love Crazy". She has some stuff at the end where she's helping him avoid the police while he's trying to get to Myrna. She hides him in the bathroom where he's scalded by a shower. She's basically functioning as his wingman/straight man, and it's really funny and entertaining - one of my favorite parts of the movie. They did really well together chasing around the place. You could tell that he trusts her as an actress. I think he asked for her in that role. She should have had more leads of that type.
shareI showed this movie to a friend, who had a strange reaction to it. She hated Irene and thought that Cordelia was much more likable. Of course I can't agree, and Cordelia's attempt to frame Godfrey for theft is pretty awful. But, it's interesting to get a different perspective.
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