Margaret Lindsay
Margaret Lindsay (September 19, 1910 - May 9, 1981) was an American film actress with 88 film credits, the most significant of which occurred during her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s era of James Cagney, Bette Davis and Paul Muni.
Her career was noted for her supporting work in successful films of the 1930s and 1940s such as Jezebel (1938) and Scarlet Street (1945) and her leading roles in lower-budgeted B-movie films such as the Ellery Queen series at Columbia in the early 1940s.
Critics regard her portrayal of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hepzibah Pyncheon in the 1940 film adaptation of The House of the Seven Gables as Lindsay's standout career role.
Background
Margaret Lindsay was born as Margaret Kies in 1910 in the Mississippi River city of Dubuque, Iowa. She was the oldest of five children of a pharmacist father who died in 1930 before her Hollywood career began. According to Tom Longden of the Des Moines Register, "Peg" was "a tomboy who liked to climb pear trees" and was a "roller-skating fiend" whose favorite spot was the circular sidewalk at Dubuque's Visitation Convent. She was a 1930 graduate of Dubuque's Visitation Academy, an image of which can be found here
Career
1930s
After attending the National Park Seminary in Washington, D.C., Lindsay convinced her parents to enroll her at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She then went abroad to England to make her stage debut where she appeared in plays such as "Escape," "Death Takes a Holiday," and "The Romantic Age".
Lindsay was often mistaken as being British due to her convincing ability with an English accent, which impressed Universal Studios enough to sign her for their 1932 version of The Old Dark House.
As authors James Robert Parish and William T. Leonard wrote in Hollywood Players:The Thirties (Arlington House, 1976), Lindsay returned to America and arrived in Hollywood to discover that Gloria Stuart had actually been cast in her role in the film.
After some minor roles, she rebounded by being cast in the Fox Film Corporation's award-winning Cavalcade. Lindsay was chosen for the small but memorable role of Edith Harris, a doomed English bride whose honeymoon voyage takes place on the Titanic, which, remarkably ironically, would be Lindsay's competitor, Gloria Stuart's, claim to fame after appearing in the movie Titanic as a 101 year old survivor. Stuart won some awards and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and was thought likely to win, but lost to Kim Basinger).
Lindsay won the role by backing up her convincing British accent with an elaborate "biography" that claimed she was born in a London suburb, the daughter of a London broker who sent her to a London convent where she was educated.
"Although I looked and talked English", she later explained, "to tell them I was actually from Iowa would have lost the assignment for me."
Her work in Cavalcade won her a contract at Warner Bros. where she became a reliable supporting player at the studio, working with actors such as Paul Muni, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Warren William, Leslie Howard, George Arliss, Humphrey Bogart, Boris Karloff and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Lindsay was cast four times as the love interest of James Cagney in Warner films from 1933-1935.
She appeared with Cagney in Frisco Kid, Devil Dogs of the Air, G-Men and Lady Killer, an underrated film in which she winningly portrayed an unaffected, humble, successful (American) actress in Hollywood who becomes the lover of Cagney's character, a gangster turned bit actor who becomes a star.
She co-starred with Bette Davis in four Warner Bros. films: as Davis' rival in the award-winning Jezebel (1938), as Davis' sister in the forgotten 1934 gem Fog Over Frisco, and two films from 1935, Dangerous (for which Davis won a Best Actress Academy Award) and Bordertown.
The latter film starred Paul Muni as the male lead. Playwright Jerome Lawrence, Muni’s biographer, regarded Lindsay's "cool, civilized detachment" as Dale Elwell to be in "striking dramatic contrast" to Muni's "inner fury" as Johnny Ramirez.
"Lindsay", Lawrence noted, "got equal feature billing alongside Bette Davis. It was ideal casting: the tall, imperious handsome aristocrat, a civilization apart from Bette Davis' gutter spitfire."
An example of her work in a leading role in lower budget films while at Warner Bros. was 1936's The Law in Her Hands, in which she played a mob lawyer. As film historian John McCarty wrote, it's "that rarity among gangster films to offer a female in the male-dominated mouthpiece role." Author Roger Dooley identified the film as "being the only film of the 1930s to concern itself with a pair of female legal partners." Unfortunately made after the Motion Picture Production Code came into effect, McCarty noted, The Law in Her Hands ultimately took a "reactionary stance towards the gender switch" and concluded with a plot twist that was the complete opposite of the fascinating Pre-Code period of 1930-1934 when "female characters on the screen could say, do, and be whatever they wanted" to be.
1940s
Lindsay's finest film role was in The House of the Seven Gables in 1940, with George Sanders and Vincent Price. Directed by Joe May with a screenplay by Lester Cole, the film's musical score by Frank Skinner was nominated for an Academy Award.
Vincent Price recalled that "Margaret Lindsay was a delight to work with and a very good actress."
As authors Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver wrote in Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-46 (McFarland, 1990), Lindsay, "...one of the loveliest and most talented of '30s leading ladies, contributes a fine, mature performance that's probably the best, certainly the most striking, in the picture....[h]ad a Bette Davis played Hepzibah, this same performance would be hailed as a classic...".
Historian Colin Briggs wrote (in a 2004 Classic Images article about one of Lindsay's co-stars, Jon Hall) that in a letter written to him by Lindsay, The House of the Seven Gables was chosen as her "favorite role."
However, Briggs explained, the film she had the most fun with was 1947's The Vigilantes Return. "...[T]his role was a complete departure from my usual parts and I grabbed it," she wrote. "I even warbled a Mae West type ditty. As a man-chasing saloon singer after Jon Hall it was for me a totally extroverted style and I relished the opportunity....I have a framed still from that film on a wall in my home."
Her 1940s series work in Hollywood included Columbia's first entry in its Crime Doctor series as well as her continuing role of Nikki Porter in Columbia's Ellery Queen series from 1940-1942.
Author James Robert Parish wrote that "Columbia's one inspired touch in their Ellery Queen series was the addition of Nikki Porter (Margaret Lindsay) as a freelance mystery writer who goes to work for Ellery as his secretary. She added a bubbling note of pretty distraction, since more often than not the plots called for her to do some amateur sleuthing to help out boss Ellery."
Author Jon Tuska's sincere affection for the Ellery Queen series clearly mystified its star Ralph Bellamy during an interview conducted by Tuska for his 1978 book,The Detective in Hollywood. "I'm one of the few who does [like the series]" Tuska began. "I don't know how," Bellamy replied. "They were such quickie pictures."
Tuska cited Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940) and Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941) as the best of the Bellamy-Lindsay pairings. "The influence of The Thin Man series was apparent in reverse," Tuska noted about Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery. " Ellery and Nikki are unmarried but obviously in love with each other. Probably the biggest mystery... is how Ellery ever gets a book written. Not only is Nikki attractive and perfectly willing to show off her figure," Tuska wrote," but she also likes to write her own stories on Queen's time, and gets carried away doing her own investigations."
In Ellery Queen, Master Detective, "the amorous relationship between Ellery and Nikki Porter was given a dignity, and therefore integrity," Tuska wrote, "that was lacking in the two previous entries in the series" made at Republic Pictures before Bellamy and Lindsay were signed by Columbia.
She appeared in a supporting role in 1942's version of The Spoilers with John Wayne and in Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street in 1945 in support of Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea.
While her work in the late 1940s would occasionally involve a supporting role in MGM films like Cass Timberlane with Spencer Tracy, her film career was in decline with roles in films at Poverty Row studios like Monogram Pictures and PRC.
She returned to the stage and co-starred with Franchot Tone in The Second Man.
1950s and 1960s
She then made her television debut in 1950 in The Importance of Being Earnest, which allowed her to once again display her finely honed British accent. More television work followed.
Lindsay appeared in only four films during the 1950s and two in the 1960s. Her final feature film, released when she was only 53, was 1963's Tammy and the Doctor with Lindsay as a nurse in love with doctor Macdonald Carey.
Personal life
Offscreen, Lindsay lived with her sister Helen in Hollywood. Despite being romantically linked to actors such as William Gargan and Edward Norris, she never married. That aspect of Lindsay's personal life has inevitably become the object of speculation in today's era in which more and more deceased actors/actresses from the Classic Hollywood period are identified as having been gay, lesbian or bisexual.
In Lindsay's case, it is rumor and "reported" facts rather than actual supporting evidence that is cited. Some, such as gay Hollywood historian David Ehrenstein, claim that Lindsay was involved in a lesbian affair with actress Janet Gaynor. Despite the fact that Hollywood producer Paul Gregory, the last of Gaynor's three husbands, memorably and humorously debunked the whole notion of Gaynor's bisexuality when he was interviewed for the television documentary, Janet Gaynor: A Star Was Born [A&E's Biography series, 2000], the speculation will continue and Lindsay will remain linked to that rumor.
Lindsay died at the age of 70 of emphysema in 1981 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, survived by her four sisters and one brother. She was buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. While not a major actress, her impressive body of work, especially her Warner Bros. films, can be rediscovered regularly on Turner Classic Movies.
Trivia
Margaret Lindsay's sister, Jane Kies (1909-1985), was also an actress under the name of Jane Gilbert. In 1940, Jane married the son of Hedda Hopper, actor William Hopper, best known for his role as Paul Drake in the Perry Mason television series. Their daughter Joan was born in 1942, and the couple divorced in the early 1960s.
Adventures of Rusty (Columbia, 1945), with Ace the Wonder Dog in the title role opposite Lindsay, was the first of eight Columbia Rusty films.
The opening scenes of Bordertown (Warner Bros., 1935) were shot on location in 1934 in Los Angeles’ Olvera Street, providing modern viewers with a fascinating glimpse of that historic setting.
Broadway Musketeers (Warner Bros., 1938) was a watered-down, Post-Code remake of the fascinating Pre-Code Three on a Match, with Lindsay in the role originally played by Ann Dvorak.
Some scenes of The Case of the Curious Bride (Warner Bros., 1935) were shot on location in San Francisco.
The world premiere of Cass Timberlane (M-G-M, 1947) was held as a charity event for the John Tracy Clinic for deaf children, founded in 1943 by Spencer Tracy’s wife Louise and named for their deaf child.
Devil Dogs of the Air (Warner Bros., 1935) was filmed on location in 1934 at the U. S. Marines flying base on North Island in San Diego.
The Dragon Murder Case (Warner Bros., 1934) was the first Philo Vance film to star Warren William, rather than William Powell. Director H. Bruce “Lucky” Humberstone took the directing assignment after the script was turned down by Michael Curtiz, Archie Mayo, Mervyn Le Roy and Alfred Green.
A Close Call for Ellery Queen (Columbia, 1942) was the first of three William Gargan EQ films after he replaced Ralph Bellamy in the role.
Club Havana (PRC, 1945) was directed by cult director Edgar G. Ulmer. According to the AFI Catalog, Feature Films, 1941-1950, much of the film was improvised as it was made.
The Florentine Dagger (Warner Bros., 1934) was based on a novel by Ben Hecht.
Parts of Fog Over Frisco (Warner Bros., 1934) was filmed on location in San Francisco. The film was remade in 1942 as Spy Ship with Irene Manning & Craig Stevens.
G-Men (Warner Bros., 1935) was initially banned in Chicago for its violence.
Vincent Price was cast opposite Lindsay in The House of the Seven Gables after Robert Cummings had to step aside due to an illness.
According to Film Daily, Patricia Ellis was originally considered for Lindsay’s role in Lady Killer (Warner Bros., 1933).
Lindsay’s co-star in Louisiana (Monogram, 1947) was Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis, playing himself.
Scarlet Street (Universal, 1945) was initially banned in the state of New York for “excessive violence and immorality.” Producer Walter Wanger cut the number of ice pick stabs in Joan Bennett’s death scene from seven to one, and the film was approved.
Seven Keys to Balpate (RKO, 1947), the fifth film version of Earl Derr Biggers’ novel & George M. Cohan’s play, was originally set to star Boris Karloff, Jack Haley and June Clayworth. Karloff & Haley bowed out, and Lindsay replaced Clayworth
Part of The Vigilantes Return (Universal, 1947) was filmed at the historic Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, CA.
External links
- De Moines Register Famous Iowans
- Margaret Lindsay at IMDb
- All Movie Guide's profile of Margaret Lindsay
- George Hurrell's photograph of Margaret Lindsay
- Ellery Queen website profile of Margaret Lindsay
- Examples of Hollywood promotional artwork and publicity photos from Margaret Lindsay's films
- TVNow's monthly guide to television airings of Margaret Lindsay's films
- Find a Grave entry on Margaret Lindsay
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Selected filmography
- 1932 Okay, America!
- 1932 The Fourth Horseman
- 1933 Cavalcade (Academy Award for Best Picture)
- 1933 Christopher Strong
- 1933 Private Detective 62
- 1933 Baby Face
- 1933 Voltaire
- 1933 The World Changes
- 1933 Lady Killer
- 1934 Fog Over Frisco
- 1935 Bordertown
- 1935 Devil Dogs of the Air
- 1935 The Florentine Dagger
- 1935 The Case of the Curious Bride
- 1935 G-Men
- 1935 Frisco Kid
- 1935 Dangerous
- 1936 Public Enemy's Wife
- 1937 Green Light
- 1937 Slim
- 1938 Jezebel
- 1938 Broadway Musketeers
- 1939 On Trial
- 1940 British Intelligence
- 1940 The House of the Seven Gables
- 1940 Ellery Queen, Master Detective
- 1941 Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery
- 1941 Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime
- 1941 Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring
- 1942 A Close Call for Ellery Queen
- 1942 The Spoilers
- 1942 Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen
- 1942 A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen
- 1943 Crime Doctor
- 1943 The Adventures of Rusty
- 1945 Scarlet Street
- 1947 Seven Keys to Baldpate
- 1947 Cass Timberlane
- 1947 The Vigilantes Return
- 1960 Please Don't Eat the Daisies
- 1963 Tammy and the Doctor
Bibliography
- Briggs, Colin. (2004). Jon Hall: The King of Technicolor in Classic Images, January, 2004 issue. Muscatine, Iowa: Classic Images
- Brunas, Michael, Brunas, John and Weaver, Tom. (1990). Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931 - 1946. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 0899503691.
- Dooley, Roger. (1984). From Scarface to Scarlett: American Films in the 1930s. New York: Harcourt. ISBN 0156339986
- Katz, Ephraim. (2001). The Film Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. Revised by Klein, Fred and Nolen, Ronald Dean. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0062737554.
- Lawrence, Jerome. (1974). Actor: The Life and Times of Paul Muni. New York, New York: Samuel French, Inc. ISBN 0573690340.
- McCarty, John. (2004). Bullets Over Hollywood: The American Gangster Film from the Silents to The Sopranos. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press. ISBN 0306813017.
- Maltin, Leonard. (1994). Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia. New York, New York: Dutton/Penguin. ISBN 0525936351.
- Parish, James Robert, editor. (1971). The Great Movie Series. South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes. ISBN 0498078477
- Parish, James Robert and Leonard, William T. (1976). Hollywood Players: The Thirties. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers. ISBN 0870003658.
- Sennett, Ted. (1971). Warner Brothers Presents. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers. ISBN 0870001361.
- Tuska, Jon (1978). The Detective in Hollywood. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0385120931.
- Variety Obituaries, Volume 9: 1980 - 1983. New York and London: Garland Publishing. ISBN 082400843X,
