Constance Cummings

This highly talented blonde actress made 20 Hollywood films in four years before moving to England where her sophistication and abilities were better served in both motion pictures and on the stage. Constance Cummings was born in Seattle and began her career in stock companies at age 16. Within two years, she had made it to Broadway as a chorine in "Treasure Girl," subsequently playing in "The Little Show" (1929) before scoring a success as the leading lady of "This Man's Town" in 1930. Inevitably, Hollywood beckoned and Cummings lent her talents to a string of films at several studios. She debuted as the daughter of a prison warden (Walter Huston) who falls in love with an ex-con (Phillips Holmes) in the creaky melodrama "Criminal Code" (1931). Often, though, Cummings was superior to the material in which she was cast (e.g., "Lover Come Back" 1931). She was too classy a rival to Mae West for George Raft in "Night After Night" (1932) but offered strong support to Walter Huston in Frank Capra's early study of an idealist fighting what's right in "American Madness" (1932). "Movie Crazy" (also 1932) cast her as leading lady to Harold Lloyd in this semi-autobiographical behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking. Cummings made a suitable rival to Irene Dunne in "This Man Is Mine" (1934) and was fine as the socialite wife of Robert Young in James Whale's comedy whodunit "Remember Last Night?" (1935).