Lee Patrick makes competence worth watching. We value the quick wit of her Effie Perine in The Maltese Falcon, but she could also play the dithery woman without losing her own sense of comic timing.
Fi1m perspective
Lee Patrick's Effie Perine has work to do in The Maltese Falcon (1941), and the pleasure is in her readiness for it. As Sam Spade's loyal, quick-witted secretary, she gives John Huston's detective thriller someone whose practical value needs no explaining. We felt relieved by Effie's dependability, because Humphrey Bogart makes so many of the surrounding exchanges feel risky. Patrick makes someone doing her job properly worth paying attention to.
That is the performance to start with, although we would not pretend the film is faultless. Huston's plotting can feel cramped, and some of the dialogue is stiff. Patrick's quickness helps keep us listening, and Effie's usefulness gives her a place in the story beyond supplying another complication. It is the clearest place to see why the loyal assistant became one of her recurring types.
Her film work through the 1940s stayed largely in supporting parts, including Now, Voyager (1942) and Maggie Biederhof in Mildred Pierce (1945). The later comedy makes it harder to mistake Effie for the limit of what she could do. On television she played Henrietta Topper in Topper (1953–55); in Auntie Mame (1958), Doris Upson made her a foil for Rosalind Russell. The move from the capable assistant to the dithery woman or society matron gave her timing a different use. She could be funny without always being the sensible one.
Vertigo (1958) offers a caution against judging an actor by the reputation of the films around her. We recommend Hitchcock's film strongly, but Patrick's appearance is brief, and it cannot carry much of an account of her acting. The patience that makes the detective's fascination uncomfortable belongs to the film as a whole. For Patrick herself, The Maltese Falcon offers far more to watch.
She returned as Effie in the spoof sequel The Black Bird (1975). It was her final screen appearance, revisiting the character that had been her breakthrough. That gives the career a neat ending, though it also risks keeping attention on the same secretary's desk. Begin with The Maltese Falcon, then try Auntie Mame before deciding she was always the person who knew better.
Biography
Lee Patrick (born Lee Salome Patrick) was an American actress. She began her career on the New York stage in 1922 in the musical The Bunch and Judy and appeared in numerous Broadway productions over the following decade, including dramatic roles such as Meg in Little Women (1931). She made her film debut in 1929 and became a prolific character actress in Hollywood from the late 1930s.
Her screen roles included Effie Perine in The Maltese Falcon (1941), Maggie Biederhof in Mildred Pierce (1945), Doris Upson in Auntie Mame (1958), and the Car Owner Mistaken for Madeleine in Vertigo (1958). She also appeared in Pillow Talk (1959) and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964). Patrick reprised the role of Effie in the 1975 comedy The Black Bird.
On television she played Henrietta Topper in the sitcom Topper (1953–1955) and voiced characters in The Alvin Show. She was married to writer Thomas Wood from 1937 until her death in 1982.
