I’ve noted that if you’re going through Hollywood history, you keep running into people who had short but interesting careers. Maybe, like Zita Johann, they were in the movies for just a few years, then went off to do something else. Maybe they were only in one movie ever: but wow, their performance in that one movie was something to behold. (I have someone specifically in mind in this category, but you’ll have to wait for that one.)
I’ve also threatened to start doing a regular series about these people, and now seems to be as good a time as any to kick it off. Let’s talk about Kathleen Burke.
She was 19 years old and working in Chicago as a dental assistant when she won a Paramount Pictures sponsored contest. She was announced as the winner on September 29, 1932. The first film she was in was released in December of 1932 (according to Wikipedia and IMDB). Seems like a really, really, short production schedule: it makes me wonder if those sources are right. Or maybe they filmed certain parts of the movie first, and then just backfilled the sections she was in? Interesting question.
After that first movie, she was in a fair amount of stuff between 1933 and 1938. Most of it I’ve never heard of, though “Murders at the Zoo” is described as “particularly dark for its time”. She was also in “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” though I can’t tell how big her part was.
By 1938, she’d retired. She died in 1980: she was 66.
What about that contest? And what about that first movie?
Well, there were (allegedly) 60,000 entrants in the contest. And Ms. Burke, as the winner, got the role of…
…Lola, “The Panther Woman” in “Island of Lost Souls”.
“Island of Lost Souls” is the first (real) adaptation of H. G. Wells “The Island of Dr. Moreau”. (I add that qualifier as there were apparently two short silent adaptations before it.) I want to say it is probably the best, but I confess: I have not seen most of the other ones (including, tragically, the Brando/Kilmer/Frankenheimer version). We watched “Island of Lost Souls” around Halloween last year: it may just have been the state of mind I was in, but I found it genuinely interesting and creepy.
And Ms. Burke is quite memorable in it. I wouldn’t say she was “attractive” in a conventional sense, but “Lola, The Panther Woman” did have something going on for her. Actually, pretty much everyone in this movie is good. There’s an excellent Criterion edition of “Island of Lost Souks” that’s packed with extras, including interviews with David J. Skal and members of Devo. (“Island of Lost Souls” was, I gather, a big influence on the band.)
(Damn, those Ohio boys really get around. But I digress.)
I commend “Island of Lost Souls”, and Ms. Burke’s work as “The Panther Girl” to your attention. It may be a little late this year, but perhaps next year, when the pumpkins start showing up in church parking lots and the air turns cold, you can start a fire, plug in the Criterion blu-ray, and admire Ms. Burke and her work.