Today is the birthday of this great character actress, ubiquitous in pre-Code films – many of which are classics. She cared deeply about acting.
The quote posted at the bottom of this piece is instantly apparent when you encounter her work, even in supporting roles (like in Heroes for Sale). She “read” older than she actually was, she brought a sense of self-awareness and confidence to the screen. She skipped the ingenue stage. Aline MacMahon was a leading lady on the New York stage, a star in New York theatre, so when she came to Hollywood to check it out she was fully formed as a trained and serious actress. She wasn’t needy. She had talent and she knew it. She started out with a substantial part opposite Edward G. Robinson in Five Star Final. MacMahon plays his secretary, an experienced woman with a sense of humor, who is also secretly in love with him. From the moment she appears, she is instantly real, grounded, subtle and deep. She stands out. She is probably most well-known for her wisecracking role in Gold Diggers of 1933. MacMahon is mischievous, doesn’t take things seriously – certainly not love – but she takes her work seriously! She takes her friendships and her responsibilities seriously. When she has the monologue about how the show HAS to be a hit, she makes the point that otherwise the entire ensemble will be out of work, it’s 1933, most of the girls will have to resort to things she doesn’t even want to mention – i.e. prostitution. She is the older sister, protector, of the group.
She is utterly real.
I must point to White Lightning, where, for the first time, Aline MacMahon plays the lead role. It’s fantastic to see her take up the center. She does so easily, playing a self-sufficient car mechanic and garage-owner living in the middle of the desert with her wild teenage sister (Ann Dvorak). It is the typical McMahon role, seen most clearly in the brutal hard-hitting Heroes for Sale: she is hearty, strong, with a sense of humor. She’s equal to men, there’s no doubts about it, and men recognize it too. However, she’s got a softness and a pain within, something only the movie camera is allowed to see. In Heroes for Sale, there is one heartbreaking closeup of her face, showing everything swirling around underneath her jokey friendly public facade. Here you can see why McMahon was a celebrated actress in New York. She studied with the first wave of Russians who came over, vibrating with all the new ideas being put into play by Russian theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky. These Russians – Richard Boleslavsky, Maria Ouspenskaya, etc. – held workshops and intensives for a small group of hand-picked people, of which MacMahon was one. She was fascinated by what she learned (the seeds of the American Method). She used these techniques in her work in Hollywood. It shows.
MacMahon lived a long life and worked – on stage, in film, television – almost up to the very end. She was blacklisted in the 1950s for the usual idiotic reasons. She and her husband – a successful architect – had the audacity to travel around the world. No good can come of that. MacMahon’s involvement in Actors Equity, the stage actors union, was also seen as suspect. Also suspect was her support of Democratic political candidates. And here we are again. She wasn’t called before the HUAC, and so nothing formal ever happened – but the mere suggestion of “Communism”, her name even showing up on a couple of watch-lists, was enough for Hollywood to shy away from casting her. She was a New Yorker, she kept working in theatre, her career never stopped. But still: that blacklist has so much to answer for.
Aline MacMahon was the real deal. As she said, “No tricks.”
“I pass emotions through a filter not generally used by actresses. I find the ground to meet my characters and am able to move from one feel to another. It is real stuff — no tricks, simply expressed.” — Aline MacMahon
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