Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysToronto Int'l Film FestivalIMDb TIFF Portrait StudioHispanic Heritage MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Klondike Annie

  • 1936
  • Approved
  • 1h 18m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
914
YOUR RATING
Mae West in Klondike Annie (1936)
ComedyWestern

Carlton Rose, a girl known as "the Frisco Doll" escapes to Alaska after accidentally killing her guard.Carlton Rose, a girl known as "the Frisco Doll" escapes to Alaska after accidentally killing her guard.Carlton Rose, a girl known as "the Frisco Doll" escapes to Alaska after accidentally killing her guard.

  • Director
    • Raoul Walsh
  • Writers
    • Mae West
    • Marion Morgan
    • George B. Dowell
  • Stars
    • Mae West
    • Victor McLaglen
    • Phillip Reed
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.4/10
    914
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writers
      • Mae West
      • Marion Morgan
      • George B. Dowell
    • Stars
      • Mae West
      • Victor McLaglen
      • Phillip Reed
    • 18User reviews
    • 21Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos12

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 6
    View Poster

    Top cast78

    Edit
    Mae West
    Mae West
    • The Frisco Doll…
    Victor McLaglen
    Victor McLaglen
    • Bull Brackett
    Phillip Reed
    Phillip Reed
    • Insp. Jack Forrest
    Helen Jerome Eddy
    Helen Jerome Eddy
    • Sister Annie Alden
    Harry Beresford
    Harry Beresford
    • Brother Bowser
    Harold Huber
    Harold Huber
    • Chan Lo
    Lucile Gleason
    Lucile Gleason
    • Big Tess
    • (as Lucille Webster Gleason)
    Conway Tearle
    Conway Tearle
    • Vance Palmer
    Esther Howard
    Esther Howard
    • Fanny Radler
    Soo Yong
    Soo Yong
    • Fah Wong
    John Rogers
    • Buddie
    Ted Oliver
    • Grigsby
    Lawrence Grant
    Lawrence Grant
    • Sir Gilbert
    Gene Austin
    Gene Austin
    • Organist
    Vladimar Bykoff
    • Marinoff
    Abdullah Abbas
    • Miner
    • (uncredited)
    Philip Ahn
    Philip Ahn
    • Wing
    • (uncredited)
    Eddie Allen
    Eddie Allen
    • Miner
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Raoul Walsh
    • Writers
      • Mae West
      • Marion Morgan
      • George B. Dowell
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews18

    6.4914
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    6AlsExGal

    Did any actor's career suffer from the production code as Mae West's did?...

    ...well, maybe Warren Williams' career perhaps, but that's another story.

    Set in 1890's San Francisco, West is hamstrung by the two year old production code, and it shows, especially in the watered down dialogue and lack of double entendres. The films' highlight is about fifteen minutes into the movie as West sings "I'm an Occidental Woman in an Oriental Mood For Love". The Code censored the overtly sexual lines, but they missed enough that the first 35 minutes is pleasant. It's when West starts trying to pass as a missionary(?!) that the film becomes actively painful.

    West looks like she's gagging on the mealy mouthed dialogue set in Nomes' missionary center. The film misses numerous opportunities for fun. West gets screen credit for the script, but from the sanctimonious tone of the scripts' second half, I'd say she got "help" whether it was wanted or not.

    West is truly the whole show. The Code censored her words, but they couldn't censor her eye-rolling gagging air of supreme confidence, or her way of making an innocuous line an innuendo.

    Not as good as I'd hoped or as bad as I'd feared, it is worth the watch, just realize the film peaks early.
    5planktonrules

    Mae as a missionary?!

    In the earlier days of Mae West's career, she made a huge name for herself on Broadway. Her shows were very popular...and were perhaps made MORE popular after she was arrested for lewdness for this act! Hollywood during the early 1930s jumped at the opportunity to bring West out west....because in this Pre-Code era, pretty much anything went in films...and West's bawdy humor was perfect. However, bowing to public pressure in mid-1934, a much tougher Production Code was put into effect--and banned all sorts of illicit content. In other words, the new Code pretty much eliminated most of West's appeal! And in her films from 1934 and later, her humor was essentially neutered...and this explains why she really never made that many films. The double entendres and risque plots simply were unfilmable in this Code era...and the few films she did make after this time were pretty dull by comparison.

    In the case of "Klondike Annie", Mae cannot be the old Mae at all. She is still seen by men, inexplicably, as a sex symbol...but she's now a sex symbol without that sharp tongue that made her so funny. And, in the case of "Klondike Annie", the film was so neutered that it had little edge at all. Imagine....Mae playing a missionary, of sorts, in rough, tough gold rush era Alaska!

    When the story begins, Rose (West) is a performer who is essentially being held prisoner by her evil boss. In desperation, she kills him and runs--hitching a ride on a ship heading to Alaska. But, because it was a Code film, you never see the killing (it was removed from the finished print) and this made the story a bit confusing.

    After a missionary on the cargo boat dies on the way to her job in Alaska, Rose poses as Annie in order to avoid the police....and the captain helps her. After all, like most men in these films, he's smitten with her and the plan is for her to disappear from the mission sooner or later...though it ends up being much later than she anticipated.

    While I was never a big fan of Mae West, I must admit that her post-Code pictures were mostly a sad lot. This one just seemed all wrong for her and her persona...especially when the stuff she's preaching as a missionary comes to actually change her into a good woman! It's just hard to imagine this sort of thing...and the film suffers from this and is simply too 'nice' for West.

    By the way, late in the film, a Chinese man tosses an ax at Mae...and you can clearly see it's actually on a string!
    Kalaman

    Raoul Walsh Directs Mae West

    My only reason of watching this rather trifling Mae West vehicle is that the director is Raoul Walsh. I've never been a big Mae West fan, though I thoroughly liked "She Done Him Wrong" and "I'm No Angel." I had some hopes for "Klondike Annie," but it lamentably turned out one of her dullest efforts. Mae's suggestive one-liners are surprisingly exhausting; her characterization of "the Frisco Doll" is rather fake and unremarkable. Walsh's direction is curiously flat and there's very little of his trademark exuberance to wither the contrived silliness of Mae's script (adapted from her own play "The Frisco Kate").

    I saw it back to back with another Mae West movie called "Every Day's a Holiday"(1937). Though Walsh is a vastly superior director than Edward Sutherland, I much prefer that one because it's breezier, funnier, and more enjoyable.

    The only good or likable things in "Klondike Annie" are Mae's romantic liaison with the rugged Victor Mclaglen as the rough, grumbling captain of the ship, and the moment when Mae impersonates the Salvation Army missionary. The rest is forgettable
    6SnoopyStyle

    Mae West continues

    Rose Carlton (Mae West) is known as the San Francisco Doll. She performs at Chan Lo's gambling house in San Francisco, but it's a gilded cage. She escapes to Alaska. Along the way, she befriends Sister Annie Alden. When Annie dies, Rose takes on Annie's identity to hide from her murder charge. Rose decides to continue Annie's goal of saving a failing mission.

    Mae West continues to work around the code and maintain her persona. It is difficult. In this movie, she has a saintly streak. The stakes could be raised higher. The officer could start harder and heighten the intensity. There could be more assassination attempts. This has some Mae West humor, but it could have been a bigger thriller.
    7elo-equipamentos

    Mae West the Goddess Aphodite of the thirties !!!

    Despite I wasn't from those golden era, in fact my background starts on the seventies, as a die hard cinephile when I'd hear about the fabulous Mae West I have to confess that l've stayed really impressed when l realize such greatness, what a woman!!! Then I began to study his career, she was the first Goddess on the thirties, bolded and sexy impregnating on collective imaginary of the men, in this movie she around 44 years, she running away from Frisco in a cargo ship of the rough Captain Bull Brackett (Victor Maclaglen), along the way she meets with a Christian Sister Annie Alden who intent to help a church at Nome, sadly she dies before, Rose (West) having wanted by the police changes places with Annie, at the ground she has to play an opposite character henceforth, well-craft plot, a perfect vehicle to Mae West, after her came up, several Goddess, nevertheless Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe stay closest as sexy symbols, my wife always wonder why l love all them so much, I guess she is jealous!!!

    Resume:

    First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

    More like this

    Go West Young Man
    6.2
    Go West Young Man
    Belle of the Nineties
    6.3
    Belle of the Nineties
    Every Day's a Holiday
    6.1
    Every Day's a Holiday
    My Little Chickadee
    6.8
    My Little Chickadee
    I'm No Angel
    6.9
    I'm No Angel
    Night After Night
    6.7
    Night After Night
    The Heat's On
    5.1
    The Heat's On
    Goin' to Town
    6.4
    Goin' to Town
    She Done Him Wrong
    6.3
    She Done Him Wrong
    Cornered
    6.6
    Cornered
    Riffraff
    6.8
    Riffraff
    The Flim-Flam Man
    6.8
    The Flim-Flam Man

    Related interests

    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    John Wayne and Harry Carey Jr. in The Searchers (1956)
    Western

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Eight minutes were deleted from the finished print: the first depicted the killing of the evil Chan Lo (Harold Huber) and the second showed Rose switching places with Annie (Helen Jerome Eddy), putting makeup on her face. The Legion of Decency refused to allow the film to be released with this second scene uncut, due to Sister Annie's association with the Salvation Army.
    • Goofs
      (at around 13 mins) The Java Maid's log shows she cleared San Francisco on June 18, 1890 (possibly 1891 or 1898). About 20 minutes later, the log notes "Passenger from Vancouver reported sick" on Monday, July 9 (no year indicated). The only year in the 1890s that July 9 fell on a Monday was 1894; the year indicated in the log for June 18 definitely did not end with a "4".
    • Quotes

      Rose Carlton: When caught between two evils, I generally like to take the one I never tried.

    • Connections
      Featured in Sex, Censorship and the Silver Screen: The Temptations of Eve (1996)
    • Soundtracks
      My Medicine Man
      (uncredited)

      Written by Sam Coslow

      Performed by Mae West

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 21, 1936 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • Cantonese
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Frisco Kate
    • Filming locations
      • General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Paramount Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 18m(78 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.