- Evelyn Brent, Travelling Husbands, 1930. Psst ! You heard the one about the travellling salesmen… ? No, well, this was it – RKO #536. With Clarke and James Gleason turning into Brent and Frank Albertson.
- Myrna Loy, The Prizefighter and the Lady, 1933. As MGM switched from directors Josef von Sternberg to Howard Hawks to, finally, “One Take Woody” Van Dyke, so did the The Lady… from Clarke and Joan Crawford to Jean Harlow and Elissa Landi. The Prizefighter was a real one – Max Baer. He won every round.
- Sally Eilers, Made on Broadway, 1933. Vivacious Mae missed the tame and lame mystery number opposite Robert Montgomery as a kind of Sammy Glick press agent. The Filmintuition site called it: 68 Minutes in Search of a Plot.
- Gladys George, Straight Is The Way, 1934. MGM’s first plan – Clark Gable and Clarke – was lowered to B staus.. Mae was the lady grapefruited by Jimmy Cagney in The Public Enemy, 1931. And in Lady Killer the following year, he dragged her along the floor by her hair. He finally treated her nice in Great Guy, 1935.
- Valerie Hobson, Bride of Frankenstein, 1934. “Dr” Colin Clive and monstrous Boris Karloff returned for the sequel, but blonde Clarke was ill and replaced as Elizabeth by a brunette London teenager as Elizabeth. Clarke was the model for Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but remains best known for having a grapefruit crushed into her face by James Cagney in The Public Enemy, 1930, the seventh of her 117 screen roles between 1929-1970. He next dragged her along the floor by her hair in Lady Killer, 1932… before – finally – treating her nice in 1935 … but by then he was a Great Guy.
- Edith Barrett, Lady For A Night, 1941. Remembered still, after all these years, as the repository for James Cagney’s grapefruit in The Public Enemy, 1930, Clarke won a Republic contract in May and promised “a featured role” in the John Wayne/John Blondell vehicle. Do not look for her…
Birth year: 1910Death year: 1992Other name: Casting Calls: 6