It’s her birthday today.
Criminally, Theresa Harris often went uncredited in the films she appeared in. Nevertheless, she always made an impression. She is probably most well-known now for her unforgettable and realistic performance in the pre-Code Baby Face, as Chico, best friend of Barbara Stanwyck. She also played Jean Harkow’s BFF in Hold Your Man, and had a big role opposite Ginger Rogers in Professional Sweetheart. In Baby Face, she and Barbara Stanwyck, trapped in their positions as speakeasy waitresses – at the mercy of violent handsy men – come up with a plan to get out. Stanwyck will sleep her way out of there into the higher echelons of society and will bring Chico with her. That’s exactly what happens. It’s not a pretty story! But their friendship is a galvanizing force.
if you’ve seen Baby Face, then you know that you don’t forget her. It’s practically a two-hander.
She ends up being Barbara Stanwyck’s “maid”, but the quotation marks are necessary. It’s almost like her maid function is a cover, part of their shared cover story hiding what they are really up to, which is attempting to haul themselves out of poverty and prostitution. Neither one can do it alone. At a crucial moment late in the film, Stanwyck, now perched in a penthouse, is presented with an even greater opportunity, and her “maid” is brought up in the conversation, basically in the context of “You can get rid of her now and hire a proper staff”, and Stanwyck, face turned away, barely moving, says, in a flat uncompromising voice, “Chico stays.” Non-negotiable.
When the Code came down, interracial friendships like this one vanished from the screen practically overnight.
Harris had uncredited roles in many films now considered classics – Gold Diggers of 1933 (she’s part of a canoodling couple in the number “Pettin’ in the Park”), Morning Glory, Horse Feathers. She was Bette Davis’ maid in Jezebel. At the time, Harris boldly spoke to the press about her frustrations with the lack of opportunities, and this is of the many reasons I admire her, beyond her talent. She spoke the truth of what non-white actors faced in Hollywood, at a time when there really wasn’t a sympathetic listening public for this kind of message.
Theresa Harris and Ginger Rogers, “Professional Sweetheart” (1933)
“Hold Your Man” (1933)
Any time she shows up you remember her. For example: she’s in the film noir classic, Out of the Past, directed by Jacques Tourneur. She appears in just one scene where she’s questioned by Robert Mitchum. Mitchum tracks her character down at a nightclub. She sits at a table, she has flowers in her hair, and she’s out with a date.
She looks glamorous, her date is handsome, she’s out having fun, she’s a woman “having it all”, a life happening off-screen. Producer Val Lewton adored her and used her a lot. He was known for giving Black actors non-stereotypical roles, roles with a little bit more meat on them, roles where they could be people, not stereotypes. You can see this in Harris’ performance in Cat People. Let’s not get it twisted: It’s a nothing part, she’s only in it for a moment, but you remember her. Harris plays a sarcastic waitress. And sarcasm shows a sense of self, a sense that this waitress knows the score. She’s not submissive. She’s not a stereotype. It’s why you remember her.
Harris appeared in another Lewton production – I Walked With a Zombie, also directed by Jacques Tourneur, and went on to be active in the burgeoning live television “scene” in the 1950s, which gave way more opportunities to all kinds of actors than the strict studio system.
Theresa Harris’ experiences in the Pre-Code screwball era inspired the play By the Way Meet Vera Stark, written by Lynn Nottage, which premiered off-Broadway in 2011 (starring the great Sanaa Lathan, a fave of mine, wrote about her here). It’s about a maid-slash-actress in the Pre-Code period, told in a screwball tone, mimicking the screwball films in which Harris often appeared.
Stephanie J. Block and Sanaa Lathan, “By the Way Meet Vera Stark”
Thanks to the advent of videotape these films came back into circulation in the 70s and 80s, and now – just for example – TCM has done day-long tributes to Harris. This is a long-overdue recognition of her gift!
