Christine Photo

Christine Photo-Ads, P.7

page last updated: 10/6/2003

In this ad cut for THE GENTLEMAN FROM TEXAS (1946) we see Christine (as "Flo Vickert") and Johnny Mack Brown (as "Johnny Macklin"). Note that the ad lists the name of (not "Christine McIntyre") actress Claudia Drake who would be considered the actual female lead in this film. Chris may not have had the biggest woman's role (unusual for her in a JMB feature), but her character does play a very pivotal part in the plot. By the way, for you western fans out there, this movie does contain a really great fistfight at the climax between Johnny Mack and not-pictured villain Tristram Coffin:
(Courtesy of Les Adams)

This is a publicity photo featuring Christine and Curly Howard in the 1945 short THREE PESTS IN A MESS. It is too bad that Christine didn't get to work with Curly more -- even though she is only involved in an early subplot as a con-girl, she strikes up a lively and playful onscreen relationship with Curly, every bit as unique as the interplay she developed with Shemp Howard in many more films:

FRENCH FRIED FROLIC (1949) is a very entertaining Columbia short -- and also interesting for one reason: it is the only screen-pairing of Tim Ryan and Wally Brown. Tim, a writer and performer for many years, had once been married to actress Irene Ryan (though she and Tim had been divorced for over a decade when she took the role of "Granny" on "The Beverly Hillbillies," it was from him, obviously, that she got her stage name). Wally Brown, a much under-appreciated comic actor, bounced all over Hollywood during the 1940's & '50's. In the early '40's he was partnered with comedic actor Alan Carney in about a dozen films. Later, for RKO, he made a string of enjoyable shorts with Jack Kirkwood [one of these shorts -- FROM ROGUES TO RICHES (1951) co-starred Christine McIntyre, her first two-reeler for RKO since her screen debut in 1937's SWING FEVER]. Wally had a standard device in nearly all his films, a certain moment of "explanation" in the midst of a dialogue that would come out as a halting, "double-talky" unfinished sentence speech. A very funny example of the device is found in FRENCH FRIED FROLIC. In this film, Wally and Tim play married insurance salesmen, down on their luck, who literally get "snatched" into the apartment of two French women (Nanette Bordeaux and Christine) who are desperate for two men to impersonate their husbands in order to get a dowry from their rich uncle (Emil Sitka) who is about to arrive. The real fun begins when everyone's actual wives and husbands all show up. In the photo below, L to R, we see Christine (as "Paulette"), Nanette (as "Fifi"), Wally and Tim (playing "themselves"), and (as "Uncle Pierre") Emil:
(Courtesy of Saxon Sitka)

This one-sheet for 1945's THE MAYOR'S HUSBAND, a Hugh Herbert short, features -- L to R in the foreground -- Christine (as a "gun moll"), Hugh (as the "Husband" of the title), and actress Isabel Withers (as "The Mayor"). The photographer in the upper right is actor Robert B. Williams (not to be confused with at least one other Columbia Studios actor, according to Les Adams, also named "Robert Williams"). In this little story, directed by Harry Edwards, Hugh is married to a lady mayor, and mobsters use the services of Chris to blackmail (who else?) the mayor's husband:

Below is a one-sheet for the Hugh Herbert short TRAPPED BY A BLONDE (1949) -- which would end up being the final "short with the word Blonde in the title" that Christine would make for Columbia. In this plot, Hugh and Matt McHugh (not pictured), playing Hugh's brother-in-law, decide to take a camping trip. Hugh, wouldn't you know it, then becomes entangled with the wife of the local sheriff (played by Chris) and wackiness ensues:

Here are three familiar faces -- and three not-so-familiar faces -- from JITTER BUGHOUSE (1948). From L to R, Emil Sitka (as the eccentric "Mr. Lark"), Christine (as "Myrtle" Lark's private nurse), and Joe DeRita (as Myrtle's boyfriend "Joe") dance to the music of [this may not be the correct order... I will seek to sort them out in the near future] Joe Mayer, Art Terry, and Frankie Carr -- the members of the trio "The Nov-Elites" (a group that is, in this short, lead by Joe) playing themselves:

(Courtesy of Saxon Sitka)

Here are those three familiar faces again... Christine playing the guitar, Emil Sitka, and Joe DeRita, evidentally playing a wall barometer, in another publicity shot for 1948's JITTER BUGHOUSE:
(Courtesy of Saxon Sitka)

All Original Content On This Site
© 2000-2001-2002-2003-2004-2005 by William R. Telfer