For Your Consideration: Esther Howard

Esther Howard

(1892-1965)

Let's look at another classic movie performance sadly overlooked at award time.

It is 1947, and former Broadway musical star turned Hollywood comedienne and staple of film noir, Esther Howard shines in a thrilling crime drama from director Robert Wise.

The film is Born to Kill, based on the novel by which it is sometimes known, Deadlier Than the Male by James Gunn. A story of murder and of loyalty. Loyalty of sister for sister, of friend for friend, of lover for lover, of detective for client, and justice for the victim. Loyalties that are, and those that should be.

The story begins with the murder of a divorcee (Isabel Jewell) by a violent boyfriend (Lawrence Tierney). Another divorcee (Claire Trevor) becomes obsessed with this new man who has come into her life despite her feeling that he may be involved in the murder. Life gets complicated when Tierney while continuing the affair, marries Trevor's rich sister (Audrey Long). The best advice and concern of his hapless cohort (Elisha Cook Jr.) is misplaced in this emotional set-up.

While caught up in life in San Francisco, back in Reno the first murder has not been forgotten. Boarding house proprietor Mrs. Kraft (Esther Howard) will not forget the murder of her friend and neighbour. She hires a private detective (Walter Slezak) to investigate. When this shady character starts holding out on his client, Mrs. Kraft takes matters into her own hands with thrilling consequences.

At first a garrulous busy-body, then a good-hearted friend, Mrs. Kraft is a role that provides ample opportunity for Ms. Howard to create a memorable and award-worthy character. A determined and loyal friend who shows bravery in the face of terror and defeat in the face of overwhelming brutality. Nowadays, she'd be hitting the chat show circuit and posting clips on YouTube in a bid for a nomination. Awards help to attract notice to these outstanding movie moments, but in place of a plaque, take the word of an old-time movie buff.

Read more about Esther Howard.

Esther Howard

Elmira Sessions, Joel McCrea and Esther Howard in Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Miz Zeffie knows how to hold her man!

Greetings classic movie fans and welcome to this online celebration of one of the silver screen's character actress greats, Esther Howard. Born April 4, 1892 in Helena, Montana (the stamping ground of Myrna Loy and Gary Cooper), I have little more to relate on Esther's early years. It is for certain that by the age of 25 Esther had taken her comic timing, expressive eyes and soprano voice far from Montana to the Great White Way.

For a dozen years from 1917, she appeared in as many Broadway shows - comedies, musical revues and featured roles in hits such as Sunny (Jerome Kern) and The New Moon (Sigmund Romberg). During this time she married Arthur Albertson, a Georgia-born leading man in silent films (1914 - 1917) and stage performer who committed suicide upon the closing of a show in 1926.

Esther Howard and Skeets Gallagher in Merrily We Go To Hell (1932)

Esther left NYC for Hollywood in 1930 and hit the ground a-running. She has 28 movies to her credit before one of my earliest sighting in 1935's Stars Over Broadway where she plays an eager radio talent show contestant. Many of her roles are of the uncredited variety: tenement resident in Wyler's Dead End (1937), streetwalker in Van Dyke's Marie Antoinette (1938), lunch counter lady in Ulmer's Detour (1945) up to inmate in Cromwell's Caged (1950). Columbia used her talent for comedy in 17 films with Scotland's own Andy Clyde over a 20 year period beginning in 1935. Most of these shorts were directed by Jules "Three Stooges" White.

Every once in awhile Esther would hit the jackpot. A variety of good roles in really good films showcasing her extraordinary ability. She was part of Preston Sturges' famed stock company and appeared in seven of his pictures. Esther is unforgettable as Miz Zeffie, so admiring of Joel McCrea's torso in Sullivan's Travels (1941), Mrs. Weenie King in The Palm Beach Story (1942), Madame La Jolla in The Great McGinty (1940, and the mayor's wife in Hail the Conquering Hero, 1944. Perhaps no one else could have played those parts so well.

Esther Howard and Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet (1944) brought only one of the classic noir roles for which Esther Howard is remembered by noir junkies. Here's how Jessie Florian is described by Philip Marlow: "She was a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who'd take a drink, if she had to knock you down to get the bottle". Quite a build-up and Esther Howard doesn't let the audience down.

Gordon Douglas directed Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946) which gives Esther a delightful turn as another denizen of the underworld, Filfthy Flora. Another noir ripe for rediscovery by the public at large is Robert Wise's Born to Kill (1947). Esther's role as the loyal and resourceful Mrs. Kraft determined to bring a friend's killer to justice can only be described as sheer noir perfection. Her last role of major note was as the mother of Kirk Douglas and Arthur Kennedy in Mark Robson's Champion (1949) although she can be seen in movies throughout the 50s as a variety of landladies and bystanders with pithy comments.

Esther Howard passed away from a heart attack on March 8, 1965, at the age of 74. Any one of those roles, Jessie Florian or Mrs. Kraft was certainly worthy of a nomination for those awards the Hollywood folks are so keen on handing out and a nomination would have gone a long way to keeping the name of Esther Howard at the forefront of Tinsel Town's great character actors. As it is, the lady with the big eyes and bigger talent left a body of work that is a treasure for classic movie fans.