Has there been an odder career arc than Stuart's? You all know her as Old Kate Winslet in "Titanic" (1997), but the actress had a long run in 1930s Hollywood as an attractive, underutilized blonde until she got bored with the dud roles Universal and Fox kept giving her, burned her glossies, and walked away to become a painter until, at 87, James Cameron coaxed her back into the limelight. The Times obit hints at a woman who was sharper, funkier, more political, and a lot more interesting than anything we saw onscreen. Wikipedia adds more details. The Life website has a neat slideshow of vintage Stuart.
It's also worth noting that in 1932 and 1933 she was a favorite of James Whale, the magnificently eccentric director of Universal horror movies and subject of the novel "Father of Frankenstein" (and its subsequent film version, "Gods and Monsters"). Whale put Stuart in "The Invisible Man" (as Claude Rains' fiancee), bumped her off early in "The Kiss Before the Mirror" (which I'm still kicking myself for missing when it played the HFA last year), and the completely gonzo "The Old Dark House," a tremendous horror movie/parody of horror movies that, among other things, influenced Charles Addams, who based the character of Lurch on Morgan, the mute psycho butler played by Boris Karloff in the film.
That's Morgan's arm above, about to lower the boom on Stuart; a far creepier moment comes earlier in the film, when Stuart's character, a society bubblehead, gets thoroughly freaked out by Eva Moore reminding her that she'll get old and die someday. Here's the scene:
I'm reminded of three things watching this clip: 1) That Hollywood movies could get awfully hot before the censorious Production Code was enforced starting in 1933, 2) that Whale was an unparalleled master of bizarro visual style, and 3) that Stuart was right on the money when her "Titanic" character said, "Wasn't I a dish"? That and more, and would that the movies had better figured out what to do with her. RIP, Gloria.
(P.S. Yes, "The Old Dark House" is available on DVD, and, yes, you should watch it this Halloween and commit the dialogue ("Have a potato?") to memory. Stuart would have wanted it that way.
