Well, once again, I’m eating humble pie. The morning after Roy and my discussion of “Freaky Friday” (1976), during which I was not entirely convinced the housekeeper wasn’t played by Marie Windsor, I discover Roy was correct and that the unflattering character was indeed played by Patsy Kelly.
In common with Windsor, Kelly was another Golden Age actor, a brash supporting player, who often (yes) played a maid. Or a gun moll. Or a wacky sidekick. She was one smart-talking, sassy dame. In 1933, a serious accident that compromised her lungs brought a diagnosis of only ten years to live, but Kelly wound up carrying on for decades. Likely, she was just too cantankerous to die.
At first, she didn’t think much of Hollywood, but she came to adore film in all its facets. However, it was the stage that was her first love, and she won a Tony Award for her work in the 1971 Broadway revival of “No, No, Nanette.” To my knowledge, the only other “modern” movie I’ve seen her in is “Rosemary’s Baby,” and there, I have to say, she looks quite different, on account of the coke bottle glasses.
Because of her unfortunate proximity to several actors who suffered untimely deaths (including Thelma Todd, Lyda Roberti, and Jean Malin), early on Kelly developed a reputation for being “bad luck.” So even though “Freaky Friday” is in itself set on Friday the 13th, Kelly only reinforces the appropriateness of our choice.
As for Windsor, I guess I just assumed that noir can age you hard, what with all the bourbon and cigarettes (to say nothing of the bullets). However, here it turns out Windsor is still looking quite well as Mrs. Murphy, Jodie Foster’s typing teacher. Like most of the supporting cast, she was onscreen for such a short time that if you blink, you’ll miss her. I must have been caught up in the drama of Annabelle’s typing exam.
In addition to always being easy on the eyes, Windsor had a sharp sense of humor. Though a beauty pageant winner, she got her real break in Hollywood after submitting jokes to Jack Benny under an assumed name. After she retired from acting, she devoted herself to painting and sculpture.
Favorite line in a Marie Windsor movie? It’s from the 1952 noir “The Narrow Margin,” uttered by Charles McGraw as the hardbitten police detective assigned to protect her, a mob boss’s widow, on a train ride from Chicago to L.A., where she’s expected to testify before a grand jury. Asked by his partner what he thinks of her, McGraw replies, “She’s a sixty-cent special: cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy.”
Anyway, here she is, pictured upper left, still looking quite the dish, in “Freaky Friday,” and upper right, in her heyday with Sterling Hayden in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing.” I guess I must have been distracted by Barbara Harris. I’m glad Windsor didn’t have to suffer Kelly’s indignity of spinning on the back tire of a bicycle during the eyerolling final chase.
You can watch our whole “Freaky” conversation here:
Next week, Roy and I will tackle a George Pal classic fondly recollected by his dad, “Destination Moon” (1950). Breathe a sigh of relief in the comments section that we’re actually covering sci-fi, for a change, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. (Robert A. Heinlein contributed to the screenplay.) As always, the journey is the destination when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., next Friday evening at 7:30 EST!
