The Hollywood career of Mildred Linton (1909-2003) is a cause for both anger and celebration. It was ended suddenly by the wickedness of the House Un-American Activities Committee and its stool pigeons. But it was carried out on her own terms by a person of great integrity.
Morley dropped out of UCLA to begin acting on the stage. This led to a job offer from MGM director Clarence Brown, and then a contract with the studio. She played a variety of roles, in films good and bad, working on eight pictures in 1931 alone, one of which was the understanding fiancée/wife in The Cuban Love Song. In a very different type of role, she was a big hit as the slinky and opportunistic Poppy in Scarface (1932).
Socially and politically progressive, Morley sought out, as best she could as a contract player, roles that interested her, such as Pendie in Gabriel Over the White House (1933), and Mary in King Vidor’s Our Daily Bread (1934). She also refused parts she considered to be offensive.
Morley was not cut out to be chattel at a studio and, declining the amorous inclinations of Louis B Mayer, she broke her contract with MGM and never signed another. It would be fair to say that the quality of her roles suffered.
She spent some time away from Hollywood, working with the progressive Tobacco Workers’ Union in North Carolina. After returning to film work, she became one of the few progressive activists in the Screen Actors Guild. This, more than anything else, made her an obvious target for HUAC.
At a hearing in 1952, Morley invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to confirm or deny that she had been a member of the Communist Party. Her career was then over. She never made another film, and even struggled to find stage work in the East. In 1954, much to her own amazement it would seem, she found herself the American Labor Party’ candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York.
Karen Morley lived to an advanced age, maintained her principles and, to the last, considered Elia Kazan a fink.
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