Pat Paterson
Acting
Biography
Pat Paterson (10 April 1910 – 24 August 1978) was an English film actress. Although she made more than 20 films, she is best known as the wife of actor Charles Boyer. The couple's only child, Michael, died by self-inflicted gunshot at the age of 21. In 1928, although aged only 18 (the legal age of adulthood in the UK at that time was 21) she persuaded her parents to allow her to leave for Hollywood. She arrived in 1929 and was signed by Fox Studios as a contract player and immediately began to obtain film roles. She was renamed Patricia (almost immediately shortened to Pat) Paterson, as the Pat-Paterson sound had an ear-catching alliterative rhythm. From 1930-34 she appeared in many studio pictures, in roles of increasing prominence. In the 1935 20th Century Fox film Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt, starring Warner Oland as Chan, she played the female lead, Carol Arnold. This was intended by the studio to serve as her break-out role for leading parts. In early 1934, as production on Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt was wrapping, Maurice Chevalier persuaded his lifelong best friend, fellow French actor Charles Boyer, to attend a Fox Studios post-New Year dinner party at which Pat Paterson was a guest. In interviews over the years, Boyer declared their meeting to have been a case of love at first sight. They married within four weeks of the party, on St. Valentine's Day, 14 February 1934, in Yuma, Arizona. Boyer was quoted in the American news media as claiming his wife would be relinquishing her career, as he felt married women should not work but devote their time and attention to bringing up their children. However, Paterson continued to work. Indeed, arguably her greatest commercial successes came in the five years immediately following her marriage to Boyer. She continued to appear in at least one film per year until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when she, her husband and Maurice Chevalier, as Europeans, devoted themselves to supporting the war effort of Britain and France. It was the war which effectively brought an end to her film career. On 9 December 1943, two years after her husband Charles became an American citizen, she gave birth to their only child, Michael Charles Boyer, in Los Angeles, California.
Known For
A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.
Idiot's Delight
A profligate, polo-playing playboy (Henry Fonda) is married to a beautiful but superficial heiress (Mary Brian). They divorce, and the wife gets all the money. But the humbled (and impoverished) Fonda finds true love in the arms of Pat Paterson, who cares nothing for material things.
Spendthrift
Three smart film-flammers help a homeless little girl to love and happiness by making monkeys out of Hollywood's big movie moguls. A love story to make life worth living, bristling with roaring laughter and rhythmic with singable, lovable song hits. Made by the producers of "Sunny Side Up" — and surpassing it in everything.
Bottoms Up
A crew of young military-school cadets are enjoying their first weekend in Paris. Frank Harrington, a girl-shy cadet, wins the lottery which "They" have organized, an Frank wins the right to woo the star of the Folies Bergere, Gaby Aimee, with her garter serving as proof of conquest. Meanwhile Frank has found the one girl-of-his-heart, Patty, and this serves to complicate matters.
The Lottery Lover
Newly arrived in the nineteenth century court of Emperor Francis 1st of Austria Countess Valerie happens to overhear a young pianist and advises him to play with more feeling, for he is playing a piece by Franz Schubert, her favorite composer. Unknown to Valerie, the man is Schubert, and he playfully keeps his identity a secret. Valerie visits Franz the next day, and he teaches her to play the violin part of a new song he has written, and she hopes for romance though he still longs for his lost love Caroline. But as a week passes, he forgets Caroline and returns Valerie's affections. When Franz is evicted, there is much tumult, but he is finally called to court where his music is celebrated, and Valerie and he are reunited.
Love Time
This short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The film celebrated here is Marie Antoinette (1938), which had its premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre. We see the street leading to the theatre transformed to suggest a garden that might be seen in a French palace. This includes the placement of trees and other foliage, as well as large statues along the route. Grandstands are set up so fans can see their favorite stars as they arrive for the premiere. Finally, the proverbial "galaxy of stars" arrives in their limousines. Fanny Brice and Pete Smith make remarks at the microphone set up on the carpet outside the theatre.
Hollywood Goes to Town
While investigating the theft of antiquities from an ancient tomb excavation , Charlie discovers that the body of the expedition's leader concealed inside the mummy's wrappings.
Charlie Chan in Egypt
The first film adaptation, and most faithful, of Noel Coward's 1929 operetta Bitter Sweet. This tells the story of Sarah Linden's romance, the tale begins with Sarah, now older, reminiscing about her first love. As a young girl Sarah falls in love with Carl, a musician, and runs off with him to Vienna. They are happily wed and Carl earns a living conducting a small orchestra. Enter a certain Captain who sets his eye on Sarah and proceeds to shower her with his attentions, much to her dismay.
Bitter Sweet
A young man impersonates a doctor.
The Medicine Man
A London taxicab driver cashes in on a big sweepstakes ticket and becomes the prey of a confidence-gang that sells him a nag of a cavalry horse on the claim that it is a brother to a current Derby winner.
Call It Luck
A novelist imagines the murders of his fellow tenants...
Murder on the Second Floor
Aristocrat Lord Dawlish is told by his girlfriend's father that he must find a job if he wishes to continue seeing her. He finds employment as a dancing partner at a dance club and prospers in his new role, despite facing a jealous rival.
Partners Please
A shady financier tries to acquire a new chemical
The Right to Live
The story of how 52nd Street became New York City's "Nightclub Row" in the 1930s.
52nd Street
'Romance of the open road and the circus. A tramp poses as baronet's lost son but relinquishes his sweetheart to a younger man.' (British Film Institute)
The Great Gay Road
A steward inherits the estate of an earl. To repel the advances of an unwanted fiancee, he pretends that he has regressed to childhood behaviors.
Lord Babs
Michel, a young sailor, returns home to Marseilles to find that his former lover, Francine, now works in the local brothel. In a jealous rage, he picks a fight with her and an aggressive client, Julot, leading to tragedy for all three.
Night Shadows
'Man borrows service flat to impress girl's parents.' (British Film Catalogue)
Here's George
A newsboy enters a boxing championship where he is matched with a sick friend.