Brooklyn-born Helen Twelvetrees had the oval features and tragic eyes of a Renaissance madonna. It was a face that seemed made for melodrama, and for a time, Twelvetrees’s resonant voice and stage-trained talent brought her success in movies such as Millie (1931) and Bad Company (1931). The film that launched her stardom, after a shaky start in movies, is Her Man, the 1930 barroom melodrama given vivid life by director Tay Garnett’s nimble, astonishing camerawork. Twelvetrees plays Frankie, a waterfront waif, to Ricardo Cortez’s vicious Johnny; Philips Holmes is Dan, who wants to rescue Frankie. Restored by MoMA in 2016 to great acclaim, the film has greatly added to appreciation for Twelvetrees—her Frankie is both hardened and childlike, tough and downtrodden. More on Wikipedia
Watch Her Man (1930)
