Joyce Compton News & Notes

Here's a screen shot of Joyce Compton dancing with a young Anthony Quinn in the gritty Warner Brothers melodrama City for Conquest . Slickly directed by Anatole Litvak, the film is a fun if somewhat hokey and overly ambitious outing. James Cagney stars as Danny Kenny, a pugnacious New Yorker who becomes a championship boxer to help fund the career of his composer brother (Arthur Kennedy). He's also stuck on childhood friend Ann Sheridan, but the teary-eyed Ann doesn't realize the depth of his feelings until after she's taken off to form a ballroom dancing act with the manipulative Quinn. The excellent supporting cast includes sturdy WB faves such as Frank McHugh, Donald Crisp and George Tobias, as well as Elia Kazan as a stereotypically Jewish gangster named Googi. City for Conquest is one of those films I saw a long time ago and totally enjoyed, despite its shortcomings. The film has its feet planted in several different genres - gangster pic, musical, boxing thriller...

Whether in a starring role or a non-speaking bit part, there was always something in Joyce Compton's movies that's worth looking into. I'm going to use this opportunity to go into each of her films which are currently available commercially - starting with the earliest, 1932's spicy Pre-Code Unholy Love . This film is a rather leaden, silly melodrama of infidelity within the country club set, based on Flaubert's Madame Bovary . Its main appeal is Joyce herself, sexy and appealing (and young!) in a rare dramatic role - and a sizable one to boot. Although she is third billed behind silent-era actors H. B. Warner and Lila Lee, Compton has the most screen time of the cast as a flirty gardener’s daughter who slinks her way into high society. It’s a fun role and she has a field day with it, even if at this early point in her career she doesn’t quite have the acting chops to effectively pull it off. Soon after this independent production wrapped, Joyce signed on with Mack ...

Publicity portrait of Joyce in a full length lacy gown, circa 1933.

An interestingly composed publicity photo of Joyce during her days as a Fox studio contractee, circa 1929. Love the beret!

I have a couple of stills to share from Miss Compton's pre-Code melodrama Three Girls Lost (1931). Here's Joyce with co-stars Loretta Young and Joan Marsh (below) and by herself looking cute as a button (bottom).

Here are two screen grabs of Joyce with actors Scott Forbes and Lawrence Dobkin in the Western TV series The Adventures of Jim Bowie . Joyce appeared as Madeline Renaud, a New Orleans countess with a missing husband and diamond necklace, in the season two episode "Pirate On Horseback," which aired on January 17th, 1958. This small bit was one of a handful of parts that an older and more matronly looking Joyce took on when she returned to acting in 1957-61. It's fascinating to see her in this period, as charming as ever. The complete run of The Adventures of Jim Bowie is available on DVD from Infinity Entertainment.

Here are two screen grabs from Joyce Compton's brief appearance in an episode of TV's The Abbott and Costello Show . In it, Joyce plays a flirty Southern gal applying for a drivers license, having only about 10-15 seconds of screen time. It is definitely a bit part, and given the episode's date (1953), the role was likely the last acting job she took before taking time off to devote to her nursing career. Later on in the decade, she returned to acting before retiring for good in the early '60s.