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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 287489" data-attributes="member: 7">Most friends and biographers agree that Mae found KLONDIKE ANNIE to be her greatest on-screen achievement. The film had originated as a play Mae had written in 1921 called FRISCO KATE, but the property when unproduced on the screen for close to 15 years. In the film Mae plays a kept woman who murders her keeper. While traveling overseas by ship, she swaps identities with a deceased missionary to avoid arrest. She then embarks on the mission to keep the missionary's goals afloat, although she ultimately decides to turn herself into the police in the end. KLONDIKE ANNIE ran into serious issues with the Hays Office. It's treatment of religion and hypocrisy were strictly prohibited by the Production Code, and many edits were required before a seal of approval from the office was granted. There was an entire sequence where The Frisco Doll (Mae's character as a "kept woman") dresses the dead body of Sister Annie (the missionary she meets on the ship) up as a prostitute. Such an act was deemed unseemly and it was originally edited out of the final theatrical print of the film. Another scene cut was the one where The Frisco Doll is seen murdering her keeper. William Randolph Hearst, a powerful newspaper owner, boycotted the film. Hearst had never been a fan of West, vowing to never print her name in his newspapers. Hearst was allegedly annoyed with West over her unflattering remarks made towards his mistress, comedy actress Marion Davies. Hearst's complaints about KLONDIKE ANNIE were that Mae's sexy image was misplaced in a religious setting. West was said to have replied: "I may have invited censorship into Hollywood, but I also saved the industry and Paramount." KLONDIKE ANNIE generated substantial controversy, even after eight minutes of the film were cut. The state of Georgia went so far to ban the film altogether. Critical reviews overall were mixed and box office sales were lukewarm. Graham Greene, a critic for THE SPECTATOR, gave the film a rather favorable review, calling it Mae's best movie since her star-making vehicle SHE DONE HIM WRONG three years earlier. Anyone seen this film?[ATTACH=full]29488[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]29490[/ATTACH]Apparently the edits required to get KLONDIKE ANNIE released saddened Mae. As one close friend later recalled, "Mae never again tried to do serious acting in her movies. She just stayed Mae West." </blockquote>

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