Klondike Annie (1936) User Reviews (16)

She Done Hymn Wrong

[lugonian · 7/10 · 15 August 2004]

KLONDIKE ANNIE (Paramount, 1936), directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Mae West, who's also credited with story and dialog, is a different kind of Mae West production without taking away from the traditional Mae West persona. The movie title is as memorable and most associated with Mae West than the story itself, however, this is one of her most interesting, if not entirely successful projects.

Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1890s, Rose Carlton (Mae West), better known as "The San Francisco Doll," (but billed in the closing credits simply as "The Frisco Doll") works an entertainer at the House of Chan Lo. Aside from earning her living as a singer , her other position is acting as mistress to her employer Chan Lo (Harold Huber), who rewards her with luxury but not happiness. After more than a year under his constant guided protection, she becomes bitter, feeling more like a prisoner and annoyed with his abusive behavior and possessive jealously. She now yearns for a man of her "own race" and decides to make leave with Vance Palme r(Conway Talmer), a middle-aged millionaire. After one of her servants, Ah Toy, is put to the torture test, Chan Lo learns of the Doll's attempt to board passage on the next steamer for Alaska. Rose and her Chinese maid, Fah Wong (Soo Yong), leave the casino, and arrive on board the Java Maid where they become only passengers, in fact the only females, sharing the steamer with Captain "Bull" Brackett (Victor McLaglen) and his crew. Rose soon catches the attention of the captain who makes her his special passenger. As a promise to her maid, Rose arranges for Bull to stop in Seattle where Fah Wong reunites herself with the man she loves. While on port, Bull obtains information about Rose, alias "The San Francisco Doll," wanted for murder. Blinded by her beauty, he decides to help her. After the steamer docks at Vancouver, Sister Annie Alden (Helen Jerome-Eddy) of the Salvation Army, comes on board to pursue her mission to save fallen souls at the Settlement House in Nome. During the voyage, Sister Annie suddenly becomes ill and dies. Arriving in the Klondike, authorities come on board to arrest Rose. Rose switches identities with Annie, with Rose Carlton's name listed in the log book as passenger who died on board. While in Nome, Rose's impersonation of Sister Annie gradually changes her heart and soul. Out of respect for the dead woman, she uses her methods to inspire dance hall girls, gamblers and prostitutes to attend the prayer meetings. It's not long before her special brand of preaching earns her a special place in the congregation. In spite of being on an errand of mercy, Rose, who has encountered Jack Forrest (Philip Reed), of the Mounted Police, who, like Brackett, knowing her identity, plans to resign his post and go away with her. Rose is soon placed in a position as to which man she would have as well as the tough decision whether or not return to San Francisco and face up to the murder charge that awaits her.

While a theme about a troubled or bitter woman finding religion could have produced a fine and inspirational film, instead, is something with great potential, but little else. KLONDIKE ANNIE (which could have been titled I'M NO ANGEL had it not been used already), was reportedly faced with censorship problems leading to severe editing process. A notable scene early in the story was one involving a struggling match between Rose (West) and Chan Lo (Harold Huber), ending with the villain accidentally getting stabbed by one of his own daggers. This ranks one of the more regrettable cuts, making that abrupt blackout from casino to steamer a bit puzzling. Learning what had taken place through the "wanted for murder" posters does help to comprehend the continuity of the rest of the story.

Aside from deletion of other scenes leading to its final print of 77 minutes, KLONDIKE ANNIE, being the most dramatic of all Mae West films, not only takes time for some lighter moments in comedy but takes time for song numbers with West taking the spotlight, with music and lyrics credited to Gene Austin, who also appears as vocalist and organ player during the church service. The opening number, "I'm an Occidental Woman in the Oriental Mood for Love," as sung by West, is quite effective especially with the accompaniment of Oriental musical instruments. This is followed by "Mr. Deep Blue Sea" as West sings this one to McLaglen in his cabin. Subsequent songs sung by others include: "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," "Little Bar Butterfly," "Cheer Up, Little Sister," "It's Better to Give Than to Receive" (sung by Gene Austin and parishioners during the collection; and the traditional New Year's Eve theme song of "Old Acquaintance."

Out of circulation from the commercial and public television markets for quite some time now, KLONDIKE ANNIE eventually moved to the cable channel of American Movie Classics where it played several times from September 1991 to March of 1992. In fact, KLONDIKE ANNIE was the only Mae West feature from her Paramount years (1932-1938) to be presented on AMC. KLONDIKE ANNIE along with the other West/ Paramount titles, were distributed on video cassette from MCA/ Universal in 1992, and later to DVD a decade or so later. Aside from a story with a Jack London (author to "The Call of the Wild") Yukon setting, Mae West, with her attempt to be relatively different, keeps the traditional formula and style sizzling, yet goodness did have something to do with it. (**1/2)

Bold, Brassy, and Sassy

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 17 July 2007]

In 1915 Cecil B. DeMille did a silent film for Paramount called The Cheat. In it, Fannie Ward contracts a Shylock like debt for sexual favors in payment for borrowed money. Trying to kill the oriental who lent the money was deemed justifiable in the end. In that same tradition, Paramount and Mae West did Klondike Annie where she actually kills Harold Huber, the oriental she's involved with and escapes from San Francisco to Nome.

Prejudice against orientals was rampant on our west coast during the Gay Nineties when this story takes place. Mae has two strokes of good luck, first in ship's captain Victor McLaglen who loves her any way and keeps her secret. Secondly she meets missionary Helen Jerome Eddy who is going to the wild north to head a mission in Nome. Eddy sickens and dies aboard ship, but she's the real deal as a missionary and it's the only time Mae West ever trod the straight and narrow. She escapes the police by taking the late Ms. Eddy's identity.

I'm not sure how this one escaped the Code. Not the racial prejudice, mind you, but the fact that Mae and Victor live happily ever after and Mountie Philip Reed who also falls for Mae let's her go. You were not supposed to go unpunished under Code rules.

Mae's as bold and brassy as ever. She's got the right buxom build for these parts as back then feminine ideal beauty was someone like Lillian Russell who had a bit of heft to her figure.

Mae wrote the script as she did in most of her films and she wrote it with an awareness of the times she grew up in. Klondike Annie might not sit well with some audiences today, but it's also the sad truth about those times. Anyway, she's got fabulously sassy lines.

Did any actor's career suffer from the production code as Mae West's did?...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 8 July 2017]

...well, maybe Warren Williams' career perhaps, but that's another story.

Set in 1890's San Francisco, West is hamstrung by the two year old production code, and it shows, especially in the watered down dialogue and lack of double entendres. The films' highlight is about fifteen minutes into the movie as West sings "I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood For Love". The Code censored the overtly sexual lines, but they missed enough that the first 35 minutes is pleasant. It's when West starts trying to pass as a missionary(?!) that the film becomes actively painful.

West looks like she's gagging on the mealy mouthed dialogue set in Nomes' missionary center. The film misses numerous opportunities for fun. West gets screen credit for the script, but from the sanctimonious tone of the scripts' second half, I'd say she got "help" whether it was wanted or not.

West is truly the whole show. The Code censored her words, but they couldn't censor her eye-rolling gagging air of supreme confidence, or her way of making an innocuous line an innuendo.

Not as good as I'd hoped or as bad as I'd feared, it is worth the watch, just realize the film peaks early.

Mae as Frisco Doll and Sister Annie of Nome

[weezeralfalfa · 7/10 · 3 February 2017]

There have been various movies about the Klondike gold rush, but this isn't one. Nome, of course, is nowhere near the Klondike, not even in the same country. There was a smaller gold rush to Nome at about the same time. Later, there would be a much better known movie about the Nome rush, called "The Spoilers". I liked the present film, as well. In addition to Mae, the presence of Victor McLaglen as a lead player is a major plus.

I found the song list at this site none too accurate. Most of the songs were performed at a meeting of the Nome mission with town people. Mae did sing "Little Bar Butterfly", but Gene Austin or a small group of men gathered around him, not Mae, sang "Cheer Up, Little Sister", and "It's Better to Give Than to Receive". Also, the unlisted traditional songs Auld Lang Syne" and "There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" were group sings, excluding Mae. Austin composed all the new songs and played the organ for all the songs above. In addition, Mae sang "Mister Deep Blue Sea" and "I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for Love". For this last song, she was on stage in a very fancy outfit and oriental -looking headpiece, with a big sun-like circle behind her, that served to center her.. The first song listed as sung by Mae: "My Medicine Man", I didn't detect.

The Hays Commission did at least one major disservice to the film in cutting out the scene where Mae and her master, Chan Lo, struggle with a knife and she accidentally stabs him a fatal wound in self defense. This sets the stage for the rest of the film, and we only learn about it later. The reason Chan tried to kill her was that he intercepted a note to her relating her ambition to go to Alaska and weasel some of the gold from the miners. Just how she ended up a virtual prisoner of Chan for a year is not discussed. Any way, fearing she will be charged with murder, she flees on the first ship available for Alaska, which is a freighter captained by the always interesting McLaglen, known as Bull Brackett, who takes an immediate liking to her. At first he's angry when he receives a letter saying she's wanted for murder, but he's so infatuated with her, he decides not to turn her in. The same is true of the Nome harbor inspector, who romances Mae some before he discovers she's actually the wanted Frisco Doll, suspected of having gone to Alaska. Mae decides to leave Nome with McLaglen, so that the inspector hopefully won't loose his job for failing to report her.

Between these events, to hide her identity in Nome, she switches clothes with sister Annie Alden and assumes her identity after Annie dies of a heart attack on board the ship. Mae then proceeds to make considerable progress in cleaning up the seamy side of Nome society. She wanted to stay longer, but her problem with the inspector induced her to sail with McLaglen, requesting that he take her to San Francisco to stand trial, hopefully being judged not guilty. Good luck!

As always in her films, Mae struts around like a peacock, throwing out snide remarks here and there. For example, McLaglen says "Ill be back later". Mae replies "The later, the better". When shown a Nome dance hall, she remarks "I suppose they have to dance to keep warm in Alaska".

Mae West the Goddess Aphodite of the thirties !!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 20 August 2019]

Despite I wasn't from those golden era, in fact my background starts on the seventies, as a die hard cinephile when I'd hear about the fabulous Mae West I have to confess that l've stayed really impressed when l realize such greatness, what a woman!!! Then I began to study his career, she was the first Goddess on the thirties, bolded and sexy impregnating on collective imaginary of the men, in this movie she around 44 years, she running away from Frisco in a cargo ship of the rough Captain Bull Brackett (Victor Maclaglen), along the way she meets with a Christian Sister Annie Alden who intent to help a church at Nome, sadly she dies before, Rose (West) having wanted by the police changes places with Annie, at the ground she has to play an opposite character henceforth, well-craft plot, a perfect vehicle to Mae West, after her came up, several Goddess, nevertheless Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe stay closest as sexy symbols, my wife always wonder why l love all them so much, I guess she is jealous!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

I can't believe it's not pre code

[nickenchuggets · 7/10 · 21 February 2022]

For plenty of reasons, there's something about Mae West's films that just spell "provocative." This isn't very surprising, considering she was at the forefront of 1930s sexuality, and had gotten in trouble a few times in the past for using this to her advantage. I already talked about a movie with her some months ago called I'm No Angel, which co-stars a young Cary Grant. While West still radiated lewdness in that movie, this film from 1936 is probably even more tasteless. Don't get me wrong the movie actually does have a storyline and its share of interesting (and even enchanting) moments, but the reason it has a negative reputation in my opinion is because it has to do with religion, the involvement of which in a sexually driven story is rarely a good idea. The movie starts, strangely enough, in San Francisco's chinatown. Rose Carlton (Mae West) works as something of a singer at what looks like a casino, and has a sizable array of outlandish outfits. Behind her glamorous exterior, she isn't happy with her job. Her boss, Chan Lo, is reluctant to let her go anywhere or do anything without him knowing about it, as she is his mistress. One day, Rose kills him and flees the city on a ship heading to the icy fringes of the north. The captain of the ship, Bull Brackett, is smitten with Rose the second she comes onboard, but soon finds out about her murder. Later, a woman named Annie also boards the ship, and because she's essentially a missionary, Rose gains respect for her. However, Annie dies before the ship reaches its destination. Rose impersonates Annie in order to both avoid detection from the cops and to save a certain alaskan church from bankruptcy. In a complete role reversal, Rose transitions from an alluring, wisecracking harlot to one of the church's most admired members. As "sister Annie", she raises a lot of money for the church because she is a talented singer. While in alaska, "Annie" starts having an affair with Jack Forrest (Philip Reed), who is a member of law enforcement and is supposed to be arresting Rose, but doesn't. To make a long story short, Rose gets back on the ship she came to alaska on and tells Brackett she has to go back to california and admit her crime because Annie would have wanted that. As stated earlier, this movie has quite a number of scenes in it that would be lewd even today, which is surprising since this is not a pre code film. For one thing, because it starts in chinatown, it has a lot of instances where asian actors are depicted as being subservient to white ones, and West's relationship with Chan is a good example of this. Aside from that, there's also the fact that West later becomes a member of a church and attempts to intertwine her activities there with her promiscuity. Like most Mae West movies, Klondike Annie was subjected to a large amount of censorship, basically just because she stars in it. About 8 minutes worth of footage was cut from the movie, and the cut portion is now gone forever. One of the cut scenes allegedly has Annie dress as a prostitute when she is still alive. To summarize, Klondike Annie was a good enough movie, but only mostly because Mae (and her singing voice) carry the whole thing. The movie is otherwise a curiosity.

No Place Like Nome!

[Cyrn · 7/10 · 28 March 2009]

One interesting aspect that hasn't been touched upon is the fact that Mae's character of Rose actually shows some genuine affection for the real missionary named Annie before Annie's death- a rare thing for Mae to do for another woman in a movie. I wonder if perhaps, Annie may have even been slightly based on Mae's own deceased, supportive mother?

The movie plays like a more lighthearted version of 'Sadie Thompson' with Mae's character using religion rather than vice versa- and it's a good touch that the captain is actually far less of a pushover than many of Mae's other leading men. He actually tries to deny and fight his affection for her (rare indeed in a Mae West movie). But Victor McLaglin was too tough to have been believable as a pushover and it's a nice touch at the end that Rose admits he's 'no oil painting' but that he's 'an interesting monster' when admitting her affection for him.

Also, it needs to be noted that at no point does the action ever venture to the Klondike- despite the movie's title. I suppose they wanted to keep Rose near the ocean (and the captain) instead of having her venture into the interior- giving the captain no reason to stay around. Perhaps 'Nome Annie' didn't suit Mae (who, curiously referred to the movie as 'Klondike Lou' in her autobiography - in spite of there having been no character of that name appearing in the move).

Religion is truly just another form of Show Biz.

[NothingSacred_com · 9/10 · 18 July 2023]

For many years, I've watched an old TV copy of this film and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I saw that it had been released on Blu-ray, I immediately bought it, hoping the new version might contain the long-lost scenes cut by censors. Alas, those scenes remain lost. But the print is gorgeous, and the sound is better than ever.

KLONDIKE ANNIE is a fascinating treatise on the power and mechanics of religion in America of the Thirties, written and performed by the great screen goddess of the Depression, Mae West. Having already commented in her previous films, through her medium of sex comedies, on Hollywood, the New York society scene, and small town culture, here West examines organized religion as just another form of Show Business. (And yes, she also finds some screen time to kiss and cuddle with two very virile men.)

In the Hollywood of her time, two powerful competing Abrahamic cults controlled the motion picture industry: The strict patriarchal culture of east European Jews dominated the studio system, and the monstrously corrupt Catholicism of the ascending east-coast American church controlled censorship. West, rejecting the temptation to directly criticize either cult, instead strips down the business of modern religion to its bare bones and puts it on display: Manipulation and self-enrichment achieved through ignorant superstition, passionate emotion, and above all else, human crowd power dynamics.

Of course, West is far too canny to arouse the ire of any one religious cult by using its name and iconography, and so the 'brand' of religion she presents is called the Settlement House, a workable substitute for the Salvation Army. West's protagonist is a professional singer named Rose Carlton, a shady character known as The San Francisco Doll. After performing a number for the customers of the man who is 'keeping her', Carlton goes on the lam from the San Francisco cops aboard a ship bound for Nome, Alaska, during the 1890s gold rush. (The actual seven minute scene in which she kills her captor in self-defense was cut by the censors.)

Onboard the Java Maid, Rose encounters Captain Bull Bracket, played by Victor McLaglen, as well as Sister Annie Alden, played by Helen Jerome Eddy. Annie is a practitioner of the Settlement House, a sort of temperance league/self-help group which spells God with two o's. While fending off McLaglen's impressive attempts to 'rassle her', Carlton makes friends with the female reformer. Initially skeptical of one she sees as a do-gooder, Carlton is soon won over by Annie's genuine concern, kindness, and humanity. When the reformer dies of a heart attack at sea, Carlton, desperate to shake the cops, switches places with her, and thus Klondike Annie is born.

West could have played Annie as a hardened cynic simply out to make a buck, and indeed this is approach Carlton's former associates are all expecting. Fanny Radler (played by the great Esther Howard), the madam operating the 'dance hall' where the miners lose all their money, is rocked back on her heels when Carlton, as Annie, confronts her and demands she serve a better cause: "I speak your language," Carlton growls in West's signature nasal tones. "You'll do what I tell you, if you know what's good for you," she threatens, strong-arming the shadier performers into helping out at the Settlement House. West draws an equal sign in the air between the hookers, their piano players and bartenders, and the ineffective missionaries and reformers at Settlement House. The only difference is the degree of fun offered for sale. Everyone, including the audience, assumes Carlton's Sister Annie act is just a con job.

But what they fail to appreciate is the real sense of obligation Carlton now feels toward the real Sister Annie, who offered the former prostitute friendship and compassion instead of judgement and condemnation. This genuine caring has transformed The Doll for the better. It's one thing to shake down suckers for their cash, whether in a bar or in a church: it's quite another make a true convert. It is this bond of real sisterhood that has converted Carlton, and which galvanizes the woman as she quickly takes the dirty mining town by storm.

At the center of the film is an absolutely perfect extended scene set in the Settlement House, in which Mae assumes the mantle of that most peculiarly American creature, the tent revivalist. Crafty performer that she is, Rose Carlton knows that the only way to juice up the impact of the poorly-attended Settlement House meetings is, literally, to pack the house. This leads to an amusing scene in which Victor McLaglen literally throws and pushes people through the doors of the modestly-sized building, quickly resulting in a capacity crowd.

And that's when the magic happens.

Every performer, whether preacher, politician, singer, cheer leading team or speaker, knows that there is no substitute for the synergy of a tightly-packed human audience. And when West as Carlton as Annie takes the stage, without colored lights, crosses, robes, glitz, or any of the other trappings of formal religion, the magic happens once more. Every performer knows the undeniable power of the audience: every great performer knows instinctively how to unite her audience into a single mighty entity, and then take wing, bringing us along. In the capacity crowd of miners, hookers, and sundry other riff raff, West's Sister Annie character preaches a fiery sermon on the wages of sin, the evils of drunkenness, and the inevitable toll of dissipation. In this scene West fuses song, movement and oratory in the best tradition of southern Black Baptists and other performance-based religions, and her acting and singing is brilliant. Such is the power in the scene that you can see West herself deeply affected by the salvation of her targets.

But, alas, the police are still on her trail, and closing in. The dramatic irony of West's performance quickly escalates as she effortlessly, simultaneously, portrays both the ruthless floozy and the fire-breathing evangelist, switching back and forth sometimes within a single line. Using all the skills of the San Francisco Doll, Carlton makes Annie's mission a roaring success. The tension in her tightrope act only deepens as the danger of exposure and capture by the police grows, and we expect West's character to abandon her Annie act in order to save her own skin. Instead, Carlton commits more fully to her mission of redemption and repayment of the debt she owes Sister Annie, so much so that when the simple miners are inevitably moved to redemption, we also are swept away for a moment, experiencing the undeniable power of West/Carlton's whole-hearted embrace of preaching as another aspect of Show Business. For it is West's own thrilling headlong commitment to preaching that captivates and moves us, rather than the Settlement House's simple message of 'Do Better'.

In the end, Mae West gives us a deep insight into the real power of any and all religions. It's not the silly and dodgy dogmas that each man-made faith invents that can transform lives: it's the one-on-one contact of people who care about people, combined with the transformative magic of a great performer connecting with a packed house.

Others here have commented on the sickening censorship of the film: the Catholic priests in charge of enforcing the Hays code removed the entire scene depicting her murder in self-defense, known to us now only through internal references in the script. The Catholic church, the single largest patriarchal organization on the planet, could never allow the sympathetic depiction of a woman who defies, escapes and kills her male oppressor. The Salvation Army also demanded a scene be cut, when Carlton trades places with the dead Alden. They objected, not to the depiction of their cult as a bandwagon fund raising con, but rather to the woman's corpse being dressed up to look like an entertainer. Go figure.

What these censors left intact is West's display of the bare-fanged struggle at the heart of religion, between personal piety and the Show Business ethic that demands payment for entertainment. Far more damning than Carlton's censored murder scene is West's conclusion that all religious power ultimately comes down to personal contact and sweat equity, and that every sermon in every church is just another show.

KLONDIKE ANNIE (Raoul Walsh, 1936) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 30 December 2008]

This is another middling Mae West vehicle: though there's something approximating a plot in its case (involving her taking up the guise of a missionary!), this has the unfortunate effect of producing unwarranted sentimentality – consequently, the star's trademark sauciness gets downplayed – which, frankly, doesn't suit her in the least…or convince us for a second! At least, director Walsh vividly renders the turn-of-the-century atmosphere and changes of locale: we start in Chinatown, where Mae's the kept woman of an Oriental establishment owner, then spend a good deal of time aboard ship with rowdy captain Victor McLaglen – during which the real (and elderly) Sister Annie perishes from a heart attack – and, finally, settle in the titular gold-mining region – where the heroine above all turns the head of a young Mountie (actually after West for the death of her Asian master that occurs off-screen!) even if he believes her to be a pious woman.

Needless to say, West's bubbly personality and smart business sense (acquired via her former capacity of world-renowned torch singer) turns around the mission's formerly pitiful fortunes – which even come to threaten the takings at the local saloon (especially since she's recruited many of the performers there to liven up her own "joint")! I was under the impression that KLONDIKE ANNIE was something like 80 minutes long (the Leslie Halliwell Film Guide even gives the running-time as 83), so that I was surprised when it abruptly ended – by having the star forsake the young career man for experienced lout McLaglen – at a little over 73 minutes in PAL mode (with a bit of research, I was able to determine that Image's presumably long out-of-print R1 DVD actually only ran for 76 minutes).

"A hot time in the old town"

[Steffi_P · 5/10 · 8 October 2010]

The period of strict enforcement of the production code, beginning in 1934, was to Mae West what the end of prohibition was to bootleggers. West was a star whose self-penned stories made an art of promiscuity, and whose overt sex appeal made even the subtlest of innuendoes as see-through as a chiffon stocking. She is sometimes pinpointed as the main reason the code-enforcing Hayes Office was established, although it wasn't so much that her pictures were the most risqué out there (something like Baby Face is a far more flagrant flaunting of the code than I'm No Angel and She Done Him Wrong). It was the fact that she was also a box office sensation – and thus a much more potent influence – that made the Legion of Decency moralists take notice.

In this light, Klondike Annie seems to be not so much a watering down of pre-code Mae, but an apology and atonement for her past misdemeanours. While it begins with some of West's familiar man-hopping sass (albeit without so much of her sly wit), half-an-hour or so in the plot is suddenly hijacked by a Christian missionary, from whereon Mae is a reformed woman, as if in direct response to the proclamation of I'm No Angel. This was in a way self-censorship on her part, because as with her earlier pictures West wrote the screenplay, and despite her antics both on and off screen was truly a devout Christian. Luckily this means Ms West still appears in control and enough of her personality has survived intact, even when she's dressed in black and preaching a sermon. It's a testament to her credible acting skills that she manages to pull this off, making Rose Carlton's redemption and unconventional adoption of the moral crusader role a believable one, tweaking her ability to command attention and work a crowd into a slightly new direction.

West also has a very flattering and focused director in Raoul Walsh. Walsh makes his camera placement a slave to Mae, keeping her almost constantly foregrounded, staring hypnotically out at the audience. Take for example the scene where Victor McLaglen prepares breakfast for her, in which we see the table in a fairly standard sideways-on set-up. When Mae comes in Walsh switches to a sharply different angle, purely so that she can enter bearing down upon the camera. Walsh is also blunt in bringing out plot points, making for example Sister Annie's first address to Mae a close-up straight into the camera (a Walsh speciality), to let us know that this is a key moment in the story.

Another odd side-effect here is that without all the usual sexual politics and bed-hopping Klondike Annie actually has a far clearer and more substantial plot than the earliest Mae West pictures, even transitional ones like Belle of the Nineties, which took out the sex but left in the battle-of-the-sexes. But to what purpose this clarity? Klondike Annie may be technically one of the better Mae West pictures, but without her free-spiritedness and playful man-conquering exploits the very heart of the Mae West formula has gone. While the picture served to keep her in work for a few years, it has little of value for those of us in the audience. The production code had not only put a cramp West's style, it had wiped out her box-office appeal in the process.

Out of the frying pan into another frying pan

[caroline-macafee · 8/10 · 25 August 2022]

Whether or not the Code had anything to do with it, this film tells a different kind of story from the enjoyment of sexual power in many of Mae West's other films. It's a story of moral redemption - very old-fashioned, and sincere.

Mae's character can deploy her sexuality to use men, but she then becomes trapped by their jealousy - first Chan Lo, then Bull Brackett, whose closing declaration that he would kill her rather than lose her echoes the threats of Chan Lo at the start of the film. But the story doesn't just cycle round to the same point - the Doll's character has traversed a very large arc in the meantime. The real Sister Annie, whose identity the Doll assumes after her death, has succeeded in awakening the Doll's conscience, and this brings the realisation that she must face up to her past. So when she surrenders to Bull in the end, it's not just to get what she needs from him - conveyance back to San Francisco to face trial for the murder of Chan Lo - but also a great sacrifice, as she is giving up the handsome lawman who would have sacrificed his career for her.

Another thing that's different is that the genuine relationships are between Mae and women. There is mutual trust and affection between the Doll and her maid Fah Wong. When the Doll uses Bull first it's on Fah Wong's behalf. But the pivotal relationship is between the Doll and the real Annie, which turns the course of the Doll's life completely around.

The Doll was a good sort from the beginning - a tart with a heart of gold - as we see from her relationships with her Chinese servants, who are all willing to take great risks for her. The measure of her rapport is that she speaks Chinese with them (but of course the dialogue is in English when the audience needs to know what is being said). Since she killed Chan Lo in self defence, and since the servants will no doubt vouch for her, she has a good chance of a happy ending - if she can escape the clutches of Bull, which can hardly be beyond our resourceful heroine.

Taken on its own terms, this is a very watchable film, with scenes of comedy and jeopardy, great musical numbers, convincing acting from Mae West as the Doll goes through her emotional and spiritual trials, and terrific support from Victor McLagan as Bull.

Come on and see it sometime.

[gbrumburgh-1 · 4/10 · 3 January 2002]

The inimitable Mae West struts her stuff yet again in this breezy, passable, but lesser Paramount Studio vehicle. Based on her play ("Frisco Kate") and co-credited for the writing here, she is the whole show naturally.

The story, if you care, has Mae playing Rose ("the Frisco Doll") Carlton, an 1890s entertainer who has to take it on the lam after bringing down one of her paramours - not with sly one-liners, but with a knife in the back. She's forced to slum it on a ship headed for the Klondike. With the police breathing down her bodice, she winds up impersonating a Salvation Army missionary (Helen Jerome Eddy), who conveniently dies of a `bad heart attack' while on board. In a change of heart, the sultry Mae, now dressed down in drab, basic black, vows to fulfill the woman's mission and ventures on to reform an Alaskan town full of drunks, prosties and other sinner types with her own revamped style of Bible-thumping. Somehow you feel these unfortunates will never be ENTIRELY saved, but that's never the point anyway. Interspersed throughout are a few typical West songs, notably `I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood for Love' decked out in full Oriental regalia, including headgear, which really has to be seen to be believed.

It's always grand entertainment to see the most virile of men falling all over themselves over La West -- reduced to simpering, whimpering fools once they zero in on our gal. This time one of filmdom's most rugged and respected character stars, Victor McLaglan, becomes her prime, buffoonish play toy. McLaglan (who had won an Oscar a year or two before) plays Bull Brackett, a brusque, salty ol' sea captain here, who barks out orders in his best Wallace Beery imitation and roughs up nearly every guy within throwing distance. But watch the big brute turn to pure mush at the first sight of Mae -- sulking, grousing, bumbling, even running into poles, for God's sake. And McLaglan's not the only one. Dashing, doe-eyed Philip Terry's Mountie, McLaglan's chief rival, risks all respect, not to mention his career, in his play for her, while obsessive-compulsive `Oriental' Harold Huber loses much more than that over his fascination with " the pearl of lotus flower.' Ah, yes, in a distinct case of reverse gender discrimination, every man is weak, inept, servile, and just plain putty around dear ol' Mae. Improbable fun...but fun.

And speaking of support roles, nobody has ever been given the chance to steal a Mae West movie, so to mention anyone else in the cast would be a waste of time. By the way, you won't see any pretty dames supporting West either. She wouldn't stand for it. So every other female -- bar girls, suffragettes, society ladies, you name it - are at least 50-70 in age here, and either much heavier than the quite zaftig West or downright ugly. Smart girl that Mae!

Suffice it to say there's never much action in a Mae West movie because the old girl (she was 44 at the time this movie was released) simply can't move in those tight, breath-taking (literally!) outfits she wears. She simply sashays from place to place, plants herself, and lets out a few double entendres. The dramatic action is usually compromised by a series of set poses - lighting a cigarette, filing her nails, primping her platinum-blonde locks, laying carefully on a settee, or shoving some pawing, lovesick puppy away from her camera light. Actually, what you're waiting for anyway are Mae's delicious quips, but, sadly, there are way too few of them in "Klondike Annie", none of those classic lines we all enjoy and remember so well. Methinks those dastardly censors cut out her best lines this time, because there's not a lot of zing in the ones she delivers here. Rumor has it William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper establishment took offense at Mae portraying any kind of religious figure and insisted on immediate congressional action. Whatever.

Raoul Walsh directed this but there is really little directing going on. The narcissistic Mae could never have been considered a director's star. And as for her acting? Well, if Mae were alive today, I'd love to ask her, "What the hell DO you see looking up at the ceiling all the time?" Whatever it is, I'm sure it's better than some of the silliness we're seeing down here.

But Mae is Mae, so what you see is what you get.

Raoul Walsh Directs Mae West

[Kalaman · 21 April 2004]

My only reason of watching this rather trifling Mae West vehicle is that the director is Raoul Walsh. I've never been a big Mae West fan, though I thoroughly liked "She Done Him Wrong" and "I'm No Angel." I had some hopes for "Klondike Annie," but it lamentably turned out one of her dullest efforts. Mae's suggestive one-liners are surprisingly exhausting; her characterization of "the Frisco Doll" is rather fake and unremarkable. Walsh's direction is curiously flat and there's very little of his trademark exuberance to wither the contrived silliness of Mae's script (adapted from her own play "The Frisco Kate").

I saw it back to back with another Mae West movie called "Every Day's a Holiday"(1937). Though Walsh is a vastly superior director than Edward Sutherland, I much prefer that one because it's breezier, funnier, and more enjoyable.

The only good or likable things in "Klondike Annie" are Mae's romantic liaison with the rugged Victor Mclaglen as the rough, grumbling captain of the ship, and the moment when Mae impersonates the Salvation Army missionary. The rest is forgettable

Regarded as One of Mae West's Most Popular Films

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 8 July 2023]

Whenever a Mae West film was coming up for scrutiny with the Hays Office's Production Code Administration, the censors could be heard blocks away sharpening their pencils and scissors. Her February 1936 "Klondike Annie" was especially confounding when the PCA cut an early crucial scene of a murder which would explain the subsequent actions of West's character. In those early days of unmitigating censorship, however, nothing was more paramount in the eyes of the censors than protecting young viewers witnessing an unjustifiable killing.

Mae West and the censors have had an ongoing battle for years, beginning from her early days on the New York City stage in the 1920s. After her helicon early successes with a much relaxed film production code, the actress was testing the limits in "Klondike Annie" under head censor Joseph Breen. West's character is a kept woman who murders her boyfriend, Chan Lo, in a scene that hit the cutting room floor. Eight minutes in total were chunked out of West's latest effort, and the viewer remained in the dark as to why she's on a steamer headed for Nome, Alaska. Loosely adapted from her 1921 play, 'Frisco Kate,' "Klondike Annie" has been both praised as one of her best films, her magnum opus as film reviewers labeled it, while others saw the movie as an excuse to mix religion, hypocrisy and West's double entendres all into one motion picture. Newspaper publisher William Hearst, upset at Mae's off-handed unflattering remarks about his mistress, actress Marion Davies, was especially critical of the film, directing his editors, "That Mae West picture Klondike Annie is a filthy picture. We should have editorials roasting that picture, Mae West, and Paramount. DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE." In public Hearst lambasted the film, asking "Isn't it time Congress did something about the Mae West menace?"

Another source of outrage came from religious groups, who insisted censors ban the movie entirely. On the steamer, captained by Bull Brackett (Victor McLaglen), the boat takes on Sister Annie of The Salvation Army, who died en route to her mission in Nome. To get away from the law, West as The Frisco Doll applies make-up to the deceased Sister Annie to make her look like a hooker so she could take her place. Individual states, such as Georgia, as well as several communities, outright prohibited "Klondike Annie." Where the film was permitted to play, West was able to say lines such as "When caught between two evils, I generally like to take the one I never tried" that the Hays' censors allowed in the film.

West made a habit of reporting to the studio late every morning during the shoot, causing the director, Raoul Walsh, to tear his hair out. Ernst Lubitsch, Paramount Pictures' head of production, took West aside to inform her she must arrive on time. The order triggered Mae so much she took a nearby mirror and smacked Lubitsch with it. And she continued to come in late, holding the film crew and the other actors waiting.

Despite the cuts and drama behind the scenes, "Klondike Annie" remains one of Mae West's more popular films. Reviewer Karl Dahlke writes that even though the slices impair the movie, "What remains, however, is still a compelling story, with enough of West's trademark licentiousness, bravado, and coyly lacerating humor to please fans."

Mae as a missionary?!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 2 December 2020]

In the earlier days of Mae West's career, she made a huge name for herself on Broadway. Her shows were very popular...and were perhaps made MORE popular after she was arrested for lewdness for this act! Hollywood during the early 1930s jumped at the opportunity to bring West out west....because in this Pre-Code era, pretty much anything went in films...and West's bawdy humor was perfect. However, bowing to public pressure in mid-1934, a much tougher Production Code was put into effect--and banned all sorts of illicit content. In other words, the new Code pretty much eliminated most of West's appeal! And in her films from 1934 and later, her humor was essentially neutered...and this explains why she really never made that many films. The double entendres and risque plots simply were unfilmable in this Code era...and the few films she did make after this time were pretty dull by comparison.

In the case of "Klondike Annie", Mae cannot be the old Mae at all. She is still seen by men, inexplicably, as a sex symbol...but she's now a sex symbol without that sharp tongue that made her so funny. And, in the case of "Klondike Annie", the film was so neutered that it had little edge at all. Imagine....Mae playing a missionary, of sorts, in rough, tough gold rush era Alaska!

When the story begins, Rose (West) is a performer who is essentially being held prisoner by her evil boss. In desperation, she kills him and runs--hitching a ride on a ship heading to Alaska. But, because it was a Code film, you never see the killing (it was removed from the finished print) and this made the story a bit confusing.

After a missionary on the cargo boat dies on the way to her job in Alaska, Rose poses as Annie in order to avoid the police....and the captain helps her. After all, like most men in these films, he's smitten with her and the plan is for her to disappear from the mission sooner or later...though it ends up being much later than she anticipated.

While I was never a big fan of Mae West, I must admit that her post-Code pictures were mostly a sad lot. This one just seemed all wrong for her and her persona...especially when the stuff she's preaching as a missionary comes to actually change her into a good woman! It's just hard to imagine this sort of thing...and the film suffers from this and is simply too 'nice' for West.

By the way, late in the film, a Chinese man tosses an ax at Mae...and you can clearly see it's actually on a string!

Dull West Vehicle

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 24 April 2009]

I've never been a huge fan of Mae West but watched this because it was directed by Raoul Walsh, a director who could usually be relied upon to deliver a few tricks to distinguish his work from the production line fodder that the Hollywood studios were churning out in the 30s. This one's a dull affair though, curiously flat with no spark at all between West and McLaglen as the woman of dubious character and the rowdy sea captain who spirits her away from an evil Chinaman. It's difficult to understand why the plump and plain Miss West was considered such a sex symbol in her day. For much of this film she doesn't so much have lines to deliver as a series of one-liners that fall far short of her more famous saucy quips. Definitely one for completists only.