Noir Nook: Unlikely Ladies of Noir – Cathy O’Donnell

Unlikely Ladies of Noir – Cathy O’Donnell

If you’re familiar with Cathy O’Donnell, with her sweet smile and gentle demeanor, you may associate her with her first speaking role, Wilma Cameron in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). In this post-WWII classic, O’Donnell played the loyal and loving girlfriend of a veteran who’d lost both hands in combat. Or you may remember her as Tirzah in her last film, Ben-Hur (1959), where her character is healed of leprosy during the crucifixion of Christ.

But for me, O’Donnell falls into that category of Unlikely Ladies of Noir – those actresses whose feet you’d never expect to see firmly planted in the world of noir . . . but they are.  This month’s Noir Nook takes a look at O’Donnell’s life and her features from the noir era.

O’Donnell was born Ann Steely on July 6, 1925, in Siluria, Alabama (which is no longer a town, but a neighborhood in Shelby County). As a student at Oklahoma State University, she was bitten by the acting bug, appeared in several productions, and later got a job as a stenographer, saving up enough funds to finance a trip to Hollywood. (“I only had enough money to last for a couple of weeks,” she recalled. “If I didn’t break into the movie business by then, I was going to have to go back home to Oklahoma City.”)

Luckily, shortly after her arrival in Tinsel town, while sitting at the counter at Schwab’s Drug Store, she was discovered by an agent who introduced her to producer Sam Goldwyn. After a screen test (which Goldwyn reported did even view), the future actress secured a contract and a name change, and began work with a coach to lower her voice and lose her Southern accent. Goldwyn gave her a part as an extra in a 1945 Danny Kaye vehicle, Wonder Man (1945), and she also appeared in a few stage roles – in one of them, Life With Father, she was spotted by directed William Wyler, who cast her in her credited screen debut, The Best Years of Our Lives. And just a few years later, O’Donnell entered the realm of shadows with a starring role in her first film noir.

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They Live By Night (1948)

In this Nicholas Ray feature – which is one of my favorites from the era – O’Donnell played Keechie Mobley, whose uncle Chickamaw (Howard da Silva) has recently busted out of prison with two fellow inmates, T-Dub (Jay C. Flippen) and Arthur “Bowie” Bowers (Farley Granger). When the trio hides out at the home of Keechie and her father, she finds herself falling for Bowie, who isn’t a hardened criminal like his comrades. But when Bowie and Keechie get married and find themselves on the lam from the law, she discovers that she might not wind up with the rosy future she dreams of.

O’Donnell turns in a touching, unforgettable performance here, bringing to life a character with a tough and cynical exterior, but who’s equally loving, loyal, and sentimental beneath. She and co-star Granger were praised by critics, but the film was shelved for nearly a year by RKO Studio head Howard Hughes and by the time it was finally released, according to Granger, “the bloom was off the rose . . . no one at RKO really understood it.”

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Side Street (1950)

O’Donnell and Farley Granger were re-teamed the following year in Side Street, where they played Joe and Ellen Norson, newlyweds whose shaky finances are further strained due to the fact that they have a baby on the way. The couple’s ends are barely meeting with Joe’s part-time letter carrier job, but things appear to be looking up when Joe “borrows” a folder from an attorney’s office that he thinks contains $300. Unfortunately, the amount in the pilfered folder is actually $30,000 and Joe’s in a whole lot more trouble than he knows.

In this feature, which was helmed by Anthony Mann, O’Donnell was a sweet, loving, and understanding wife, but in the vast scheme of things, she really didn’t have much to do. She was singled out by a few critics, though, including one who labeled her as “poignantly moving.”

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Detective Story (1951)

O’Donnell’s final noir, Detective Story, was based on a 1949 play by Sidney Kingsley and set almost exclusively in a New York precinct. The story revolves around highly principled, thoroughly inflexible detective James McLeod (Kirk Douglas) and the variety of criminals, would-be criminals, families, and friends who pass through the precinct station on a single day. These include a pickpocket experiencing her first arrest (Lee Grant), an unscrupulous abortionist (George Macready), and Arthur Kindred (Craig Hill), a young man accused of embezzling funds in an effort to impress a high-priced model. O’Donnell plays the model’s younger sister, who’s secretly in love with Arthur and is determined to ensure his release – even dipping into her own savings and pawning personal items to pay back his employer.

The critic for the L.A. Times praised O’Donnell’s performance, writing that the actress “invest[ed] her role with simple and genuine feeling,” and she was singled out as “notable” in the New York Daily News. Her role wasn’t a showy one, but her devotion and quiet determination were memorable.

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Sadly, the career of O’Donnell – who was married to producer Robert Wyler (director William Wyler’s older brother), was cut short when she fell ill in the mid-1960s and she died of cancer in 1970. She was only 46 years old, but she left behind an impressive body of work, and all three of her noirs are more than worth your time.

Treat yourself and check ‘em out!

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
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