Gail Patrick makes good manners distinctly unfriendly. Her haughty rivals give comedies someone worth arguing with, and we value her most in Gregory La Cava's films, where being disagreeable is allowed to be funny.
Fi1m perspective
In Stage Door (1937), Gail Patrick's Linda Shaw treats the people around her with contempt. We looked forward to her entrances because she made that contempt so funny. Gregory La Cava gives her room to spar with Ginger Rogers among the out-of-work actresses, and Patrick makes the rivalry worth attending to even in such busy company. She does not ask us to like Linda. The pleasure is in watching someone be so confidently unpleasant.
La Cava also puts that hauteur to use in My Man Godfrey (1936), casting her as Cornelia Bullock, Carole Lombard's spoiled, treacherous sister. William Powell and Lombard give the farce its warmth; Patrick has the useful task of making the demanding household harder to indulge. We find the film too forgiving of wealth, and Cornelia gives it someone whose selfishness is difficult to excuse. The character is familiar, though, and Patrick's sharpness cannot entirely disguise how readily we recognise the troublesome society woman. This is good supporting work within a narrow assignment.
Her early parts included Jerry Evans in Murders in the Zoo (1933), before sophisticated rivals became her regular employment. A cultured voice and patrician appearance made that casting easy to understand. The repetition can flatten the differences between characters, leaving us waiting for the next display of selfishness rather than wondering about the woman. That is a limitation of the parts, rather than proof that Patrick could do nothing else.
Disbarred (1939), directed by Robert Florey, gave her one of her rarer leading roles, as attorney Joan Carroll. My Favorite Wife (1940) returned her to rivalry as Bianca Bates, Cary Grant's exacting second wife opposite Irene Dunne. For an introduction, we would still choose the La Cava pair. In those films, the contrast with more sympathetic players gives her sharpness a clear comic purpose.
She stopped acting around 1948 and later became executive producer of Perry Mason (1957–1966). That change of work should discourage us from treating the narrow casting as a measure of all she could do. For the performances, begin with Stage Door and give her as much attention as the more sympathetic women.
Biography
Gail Patrick (born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick, 20 June 1911 – 6 July 1980) was an American film actress and television producer. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, she appeared in more than sixty feature films between 1932 and 1948, often cast as the "other woman" or in supporting roles.
She is known for her performances in My Man Godfrey (1936) as Cornelia Bullock, Stage Door (1937) as Linda Shaw, and My Favorite Wife (1940) as Bianca Bates. After retiring from acting, she became executive producer of the CBS series Perry Mason (1957–1966) under the name Gail Patrick Jackson, one of the first women to hold that position in prime-time television.
