Horror Actressing: Una O'Connor in "The Invisible Man" (1933)
Monday, February 24, 2020 at 9:30AM by Jason Adams
What better time than now, what with the latest iteration of The Invisible Man hitting movie theaters this week, to celebrate one of the cinema's greatest character actresses -- I speak of ye Irish spitfire Una O'Connor, who was once described as having "the body of a scarecrow, the contemptuous stare of a house detective, and the voice of an air-raid siren." Said with affection, no doubt.
She certainly brought all of those awesome qualities to bear on James Whale's 1933 adaptation of The Invisible Man, which had her playing the mistress of the pub that the villain-scientist Claude Rains rents an upstairs room from...
Having only been in film for four years at that point (she had a long career on the stage) O'Connor had already settled indelibly into her "type," which was the comic relief maid, or nurse, or nursemaid even. She'd done the latter in London for Hitchcock in 1930 with Murder! and she continued the grand tradition across the pond for Hollywood.
O'Connor went on to have a very long career playing variations on these roles -- she made a fine funny sidekick to Olivia DeHavilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938, and 20 years after that brought some much needed humor to the courtroom of Billy Wilder's Witness For the Prosecution -- but it's her two films in the Universal Monsters canon along with director James Whale (who knew a camp icon when he saw one) that have solidified her beloved place in horror fans's hearts.
Besides the shrieking barmaid in The Invisible Man she played, well, a shrieking townsperson in The Bride of Frankenstein just two years later -- alongside the great Ernest Thesiger and Elsa Lanchester (oh to have gotten to hang out on the set of the Bride) O'Connor instinctively got the precise bridge between fright and comedy that Whale was gunning for. A laugh melds into a shriek and vice versa -- there's a reason these movies are still talked about nigh on one hundred years later. They're just an absolute joy to watch, and characters like Una, with her air-raid siren of a self, are a big part of it.
Reader Comments (14)
what a face this woman had. And how lucky are we that we have at least one James Whale biopic out there.
LOVE this scream queen!
Nat -- I wanted to bring up Gods & Monsters when I talked about the Bride of Frankenstein set but I don't think they had anybody playing Una (just Thesiger and Lanchester as I recall) so it didn't really fit. But those were my favorite scenes in that blessed, blessed movie.
Una was the best.
Delighted to see this well-deserved tip of the hat to the great Una. The supporting Oscars weren't initiated till the year after "Bride". But what a memorable race it would have been with two of the great screen eccentrics (O'Connor and Edna May Oliver (for Great Expecations) in the hunt. Of course, the supporting trophy was well-established by '57 and I've always thought the Academy missed the boat by not giving it to Una for her absolutely priceless Janet McKenzie in "Witness for the Prosecution".
She's divine! Just rewatched Witness for the Prosecution this weekend (which I hadn't realized was her final film until I was looking though the cast credits!) where she's reunited with Elsa Lanchester and you get Marlene Freaking Dietrich too and she's a sketch. No matter the quality of the film or the size of her part she always made an big impact.
Sorry. Seem to have missed that first t in Expectations.
My only excuse: "I 'm a lone lorne cretur and everything goes contrary with me." (Una O'Connor as Mrs. Gummidge in "Great Expectations").
Ken - Don't you mean David Copperfield?
Yes, of course you're right. Thanks Ken S. What a ball of confusion I whipped up.
As an aside, Una O'Connor lovers are likely to be fans of mature Golden Age character actresses in general. In which case they should check out the 1947 Edwardian crime melodrama "Ivy" with Joan Fontaine as a scheming fashionplate. The real attraction, though, is the absolutely unmatched assemblage of older actresses gathered in support. Lucile Watson, Sara Allgood, Rosalind Ivan, Isobel Elsom, Mary Forbes, Norma Varden, Una herself - even queen of the dress extras Bess Flowers.All in one picture - what a parade! My hat's off to whoever the casting director was here. A perfect storm of treasurable faces.
Oh that scream was great. I saw the film last year and thought it was awesome.
Love our Una. Memorable in Cluny Brown where her performance consists almost solely of coughing and throat clearing.
She's very good in The informer (1935) too , a small role, but very memorable.
I liked her in "Ivy" (1947).
Couldn't resist one last ride on the Una O'Connor train. Oscar's supporting actress award debuted in 1936. If only they'd launched it a year earlier what a magnificent inaugural field we might have had.
I'd have honored:
ALICE BRADY "Gold-diggers of 1935"
GLENDA FARRELL "Gold-diggers of 1935"
HATTIE McDANIEL "Alice Adams"
UNA O'CONNOR "The Bride of Frankenstein"
EDNA MAY OLIVER "David Copperfield"
Every one of them memorable (and hilarious) that year