Locke, Katherine

Katherine Locke was born on June 24, 1910 in the village of Kalinkovichi , Minsk Province , the Russian Empire (now the territory of the Republic of Belarus ), however, as a child, she moved to the US East Coast with her family. Her parents sent her to study at the Academy of the famous musician Walter Damrosh in New York , hoping that she would become a concert pianist. However, Locke fled to Southern California , where she joined the young energetic acting troupe The Potboilers in Los Angeles ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} .

By 1928, Locke returned to New York , receiving a role in the play “The Joy of Serpents” at the Provincetown Theater in Greenwich Village ^[5] . Since 1932, Locke began performing on Broadway , playing episodic and small roles in the performances “The Firebird” (1932), “Halfway to Hell” (1934), “Crime and Punishment” (1935) and “If the Body” (1935 ) ^{[5] [1] [6]} .

A breakthrough for Locke came in 1937, when, together with John Garfield, she played the main role in Arthur Kober 's Broadway comedy “Having a wonderful time” (1937-1938, 372 performances) ^{[5] [2]} . As one enthusiastic critic wrote after the premiere of the play, “This morning I present to you a young girl named Catherine Locke - this is a star.” As Mirna Oliver noted in the Los Angeles Times , this role “made Locke the star of the 1937 Broadway season” ^[2] , and, according to Variety , “the favorite of Broadway” ^[1] .

At the end of 1938, a play on the tragedy of William Shakespeare " Hamlet " with Maurice Evans in the title role, in which Locke appeared in the form of Ophelia ^{[5] [1] [6],} was released on Broadway. According to Variety , Locke "received excellent reviews for playing this role" ^[1] . In particular, the famous New York theater critic John Mason Brown “was delighted with her play”, calling Locke “the greatest” actress in this role ^[2] . The performance lasted on stage (intermittently) from October 1938 until January 1940, withstanding more than 130 performances ^[6] . As Sandra Brennan noted, “in the late 1930s, Locke was one of the brightest stars in the Broadway theater” ^[3] .

In 1940, Locke played in the play The Fifth Column (1940), which was based on the play of Ernest Hemingway about the Civil War in Spain . Her partners in the play were recognized actors Franco Tone and Lee J. Cobb ^[5] . And finally, in 1941-1942, Locke played in the play “Clash in the Night” based on the play by Clifford Odets . The performance was staged by Lee Strasberg , and the roles were performed by such recognized actors as Tallulah Bankhead , Lee J. Cobb and Robert Ryan ^{[2] [1] [6]} .

Locke made her film debut back in 1936, playing a major female role in the crime drama Paramount Pictures “ Shoulder ” (1936) ^[3] . After a successful Broadway career in 1937-1943, Locke again came to try her luck in Hollywood. Her first picture after the break was the biographical drama Twentieth Century Fox " Wilson " (1944) about the American President Woodrow Wilson , where she played a supporting role. In the same year, the drama thriller Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer “ The Seventh Cross ” (1944) about the escape from the German concentration camp in 1936 was released. The film was directed by Fred Zinneman , Spencer Tracy played the main role of the fugitive, and Locke got the role of the German Frau, who is disappointed in her husband after he refuses to help the fugitive ^[7] .

Locke returned to filming only four years later with a small role in the drama 20th Century Fox “ Snake Pit ” (1948), which tells about a patient in a psychiatric clinic ( Olivia de Havilland ), who goes through a difficult healing process ^[8] .

Two years later, Locke played in the social film noir “ Sound of Fury ” (1950) about the lynching of two kidnappers and killers in a small California town. This time she played the simple and naive girl Hazel, who, together with her friend, accidentally met two kidnappers and killers, hoping to have fun with them. Later, one of the abductors, tormented by guilt, confesses to Hazel murder, and when she starts screaming in horror, he tries to strangle her. However, Hazel manages to escape from his hands and call the police. The picture received rave reviews from contemporary critics. In particular, Michael Keeney wrote that “the film gives everything - a fascinating story, an excellent acting, high-quality camera work and social problems that will remain with you for a long time”, not to mention “an exciting, thought-provoking climax, one of the best of its kind " ^[9] . As for Locke’s work, even Bosley Krauser, who critically evaluated the picture, wrote in the New York Times that she “gets a brief opportunity to play a simple unhappy girl from a small town, and she does it pretty well” ^[10] .

Locke's next work was a small role in the romantic comedy 20th Century Fox " What People Say " (1951) with Cary Grant in the title role. A year later, the Noir boxing drama Universal Pictures followed with Tony Curtis “ Flesh and Rage ” (1952), where she played a small role as the mother of the protagonist. And finally, in 1958, Locke last appeared on the screen in a melodrama based on the novel “ Vague Smile ” by Francoise Sagan (1958), again playing the mother of the main character ^{[2] [1] [5]} .

Katherine Locke has been married twice. In 1934, she married Morris A. Helprin, whom she divorced in 1942. In 1947, she married movie, television and radio screenwriter Norman Corwin. For a while she performed in one of her husband's radio shows. In the marriage, the couple had two children - son Anthony and daughter Diana. The couple lived in Sherman Oaks , California . The marriage ended with Locke's death in 1995 ^{[2] [5] [1]} .

Katherine Locke died on September 12, 1995, at her home in Los Angeles, from a brain tumor at the age of 85. ^{[2] [5] [1]}

Michael F. Keaney. Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940–1959 . - Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003. - ISBN 978-0-7864-1547-2 .

• Katherine Locke on IMDb
• Katherine Locke on AllMovie
• Katherine Locke at Internet Broadway Database