The odd career of Veronica Lake

I don't think anyone had better luck than Veronica Lake when starting out. Her first decent part was a choice, showy support role in a big hit, I Wanted Wings - a military romantic drama released just as America was gearing up for a war.

She followed this with great parts in five fantastic films:
* Sullivan's Travels - a classic Preston Sturges comedy;
* This Gun for Hire - an exciting thriller which teamed her with Alan Ladd;
* The Glass Key - another top thriller with Ladd;
* I Married a Witch - delightful Rene Clair comedy with Lake at her sexiest as a witch;
* So Proudly We Hail - gripping war story with a very flashy part for Lake as a Bataan nurse.

Lake made a notable contribution to all five films - being effective, her limitations protected.

Then the tide turned. She cut her hair, lost a baby, developed a bad reputation, and was in a series of duds:
* The Hour Before Dawn
* Bring on the Girls
* Hold That Blonde
* Out of This World

Things turned around a little with Miss Susie Slagle's, The Blue Dahlia and Ramrod. But then it was back to crap:
* Saigon
* The Sainted Sisters
* Isn't it Romantic?

Then she left Paramount, and could never recover her previous position.

What happened? Was it inevitable?

Well, Lake wasn't a very good actor - she had to be carefully used. She couldn't survive bad material (unlike, say, Alan Ladd).

You could say "Paramount shouldn't have put her in comedies" - but she'd had success in Sullivan's Travels and I Married a Witch.

Most of the films she appeared in during the second half of her Paramount career were simply ineptly made - they helped killed the careers of Eddie Bracken, Joan Caulfield and Diana Lynn as much as Lake.

It's a shame she wasn't teamed with Ladd more - she could've easily slipped into say OSS (as she did on radio) or Wild Harvest or Calcutta. (She may have refused these parts, to be fair - it's just a pity since Ladd was rarely as effective with another girl.)

There was also a curious reluctant to use her as an out and out vamp. Lake looked like a bad girl but rarely played one - there was always some excuse or redemption for her behaviour. Sometimes this made the film more interesting (eg The Blue Dahlia) but often it weakened the drama - several of her films would've been better had Lake played a flat out villain eg The Sainted Sisters. Also she would've seemed a natural for film noir as a femme fetale, but she didn't - noirs, yes, but as good girls.

Maybe it was simply karma. But it's as hard a slog to get through Lake's last films at Paramount as it is a pleasure to get through her first.

So anyway a Lake top ten

1) I Wanted Wings
2) This Gun for Hire
3) Sullivan's Travels
4) The Glass Key
5) I Married a Witch
6) So Proudly We Hail
7) The Blue Dahlia
8) Ramrod
9) Miss Susie Slagle's
10) Saigon (not very good but at least with Ladd)