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| Lady in the Lake |
Svelte siren of Austro-Slovenian-Swedish descent, the scourge of milquetoast males in the hardboiled milieu of post-war cinema. Equally adroit at playing scheming society sexpots or devious drugstore dames, she conveyed that mental hardness that comes from spending quality time in bad company. However, despite her caustic patter and tough gal bearing, she had one of the widest ranges of noir’s leading ladies.
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| With George Raft in A Bullet for Joey |
After graduation, began her career as a performer on radio – known as ‘the girl of 1,000 voices’. Impressed so much that MGM gave her a contract in 1944. First film was crime drama Main Street after Dark, then majored with a key role in simmering classic The Postman Always Rings Twice. Purrs a libido-stoking line to rival that of star, Lana Turner: “It’s a hot day and that’s a leather seat. And I’ve got on a thin skirt.” Abrasive, sultry deliveries would become part and parcel of Totter’s performances.
Was elected by Robert Montgomery to play to camera in the subjectively filmed Marlowe thriller Lady in the Lake. (Length of production lost her the role of Kitty Collins in The Killers.) Would often stand out with her scorching acting and flamboyant costumes. Sparred with some of the era’s most highly regarded leading men: pinched into a black satin dress as Claude Raines’ covetous niece in the Michael Curtiz mystery The Unsuspected; held a torch for Dana Andrews in leopard-skin furs in the baffling anti-communist potboiler Assignment: Paris.
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| The Unsuspected |
In the exemplary boxing drama The Set-Up, she played the emotionally embattled wife of Robert Ryan’s physically battered pugilist. In Faustian drama Alias Nick Beale Totter played temptress yet again – this time on the payroll of Old Nick himself, employed to distract the DA from his fight against organised crime.
In
the Fifties she flitted between studios, enriching many a B-budget production. Made
mincemeat out of Richard Basehart in Tension,
let wise-guy Richard Conte endure a prison stretch in Under the Gun, and traded in old timer George Raft for a more intellectual
model in A Bullet for Joey.
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| With MacDonald Carey in Man or Gun |
Moved
into westerns with ease, dragging along her hardboiled persona. Enjoyed prime roles
in second-string productions with novel slants – proto-feminist, The Woman they Almost Lynched;
psychological, Man or Gun;
pro-Indian, The Vanishing American. Later,
worked in numerous TV western series – Cimarron
City, Rawhide, Bonanza, The Virginian.
Despite
her outstanding talent, she was never elevated to star status – Lionel
Barrymore implored her to project more of her own personality. Dated Clark
Gable, Cary Grant and John Payne but married a man of science, Dr Leo Fred.
Upon her death, donated her body to medical science.
Five standout roles
As Dr. Ann Lorrison in High Wall, she discards the bad-girl image as a psychiatrist who doubts whether Robert Taylor is guilty of murdering his wife. Her performance is less impudent than usual but, in keeping with her character’s profession, is crisp and objective.
As Julie in The Set-Up, she describes a lonely soul, walking by neon-lit streets waiting to see if her man, Robert Ryan, survives his latest bout. Their final scene together is as emotionally devastating as it is life affirming.
As Claire Quimby in Tension, she channels noir’s dark energy as the archetypal crowing, cheating wife – until she’s suckered at her own game by rugged cop Barry Sullivan.
As Kate Quantrill in The Woman They Almost Lynched, she stands out in a town of tough frontier matriarchs. Despite being married to a notorious outlaw, she manages to save Joan Leslie from a hanging and restore justice, while looking resplendent in leather duds.
Clark Hodgkiss
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