Anna Lee, why did Ford waste her talents

[stuart.uk]

Anna Lee once told someone that she maybe should have stayed in Britain and carried on with her career there. She was in a Jessie Matthews film and i think did the original King Solomon's Mines.

in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley she was every bit as outstanding as co-star Maureen O'Hara. however, while Maureen became rightly a major star, Ford seemed content to put Anna in small roles. i don't understand why he did that because she gave another great performance for him in Fort Apache. i haven't seen the film for ages, but i would imagine Gideon's Day is another example of this, though i wonder if the only reason she got the part was because she was British and she was handy.

Yet in movies like The Horse Soldiers and Sargeant Rutlidge her talents were totally wasted in walk on roles. in the early 60s she had the smallest of roles in The Prize, but in that brief moment she still shined like a beacon. she still looked good enough at that point to play leading lady to the likes of Duke Wayne

I don't know if the novel of How Green Was My Valley went on from the movie, but i'd like to think Bronwyn would marry Huw after he'd reached his late teens, after all she wasn't that much older than him. it for me would explain the begining of the film with him packing his bags to leave the valley. Bronwyn at near 70 had died and his reason for staying had gone

[MikeBSG]

I think Anna Lee has the odd distinction of being the only actress to play women who were the nemesis of Boris Karloff twice. The first time was in "The Man Who Lived Again," (British title, "The Man Who Changed His Mind) and the second time was in the Val lewton "Bedlam." In both roles, Lee is a very articulate and independent-minded woman.

[Ann Harding]

I find Anna Lee rather uninteresting as an actress, I am sorry to say. I have spotted her in many Ford productions in the supporting cast where she was OK, but that's all.
Funnily, her Hollywood career started with a terrible turkey (and flop!) called My Life With Caroline (1941). This is probably Ronald Colman's worst ever picture. Anna Lee is dreadfully miscast in this would-be screwball comedy....But, somehow, John Ford saw the rushes of the film at RKO at the time and offered her a part in How Green Was My Valley. She wondered for years what on earth Ford could have seen in those rushes???

[Lzcutter]

I hope "General Hospital" was very, very good to her.

[Ann Harding]

I just remembered a few other occasions where I saw Anna Lee. First, she is Mrs Miles Fairley in The Ghost and Mrs Muir where I completely failed to remember her....and second, she was in Douglas Sirk's little seen Summer Storm (1944) where she plays a Russian lady. Again, she is quite overshadowed by Linda Darnell in this excellent Sirk adaptation of Tchekov.
William K. Everson mentions Anna Lee in one of his books. It's for a British production called Return to Yesterday (1940) by Robert Stevenson. There is an interesting review here.

[movieman1957]

She is on 2/21/2008 at 1:30pm in "Commandos Strike At Dawn." A markedlu un-Ford title.