Ann Carter - Increasing Film Roles

Increasing Film Roles

Her first significantly-sized role came at age six, when she appeared in Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) playing a young Norwegian girl whose father, (actor Paul Muni), led a fishing village in resistance to the occupation of the German army during World War II. Much of the filming took place in Mill Bay, Canada which doubled for the Norwegian fjords, during the summer of 1942. Ann and the other cast and crew members stayed at the famous Empress Hotel in Victoria. Carter recalls:

That was during the war and, because of fear of a Japanese attack, there were little boats in the harbor, right in front of the Empress, in case we had to evacuate.

Although it was clearly a wartime propaganda film, it was based on a story by the noted British writer C. S. Forester with a screenplay by the noted American writer Irwin Lewis. The cast included Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Lillian Gish, while Carter recalls that the cast filmed some scenes on the Prince David ship, whose crew of British Commandos "dressed up as Germans" for the purposes of the film. Carter's 'other war movie' The North Star (1943) saw her appear alongside Ann Harding and Anne Baxter acting in "a Russian village... constructed on the Goldwyn lot." Carter recalls that:

My co-star, Farley Granger, and I were offered contracts with Goldwyn after that movie, but they never picked up the option – because, around that time Sam Goldwyn discovered Danny Kaye!

Her most substantial film role came when the seven-year-old Carter played the part of Amy Reed in the classic fantasy The Curse of the Cat People (1944). Val Lewton, the film's producer, was friendly with Stanley Kramer, the nephew of Carter's agent, Earl Kramer. Carter played the lonely and imaginative child who is unable to relate to the prosaic activities of her schoolmates, in a role described by Weaver as making her "practically the star" after only "a few small, sometimes uncredited parts." It was a role she could identify with, being herself "a little bit of a dreamer" who "enjoyed fantasy" and was, like her character, an only child.

Carter found filming The Curse of the Cat People "fascinating... because of the set. It was all shot on a set at RKO" barring a few exterior shots, which was cycled through the seasons by "guys on the catwalks throwing leaves which drifted down" or "throwing gypsum and un-toasted corn flakes out of boxes" (for snow), a novel (and "absolutely beautiful") experience to the young Carter. She recalls of her mother, that:

or every movie, she would first talk about the whole picture, the whole idea, the whole plot, so that I understood, so that I was not just some little parrot reciting lines.

This knowledge of the "whole story" added to "the fact that I was on a set with a lot of other people" meant that Carter was "never afraid" despite the forbidding and intimidating sets (and cast). Carter worked for 32 of the 33 days of filming, under two directors (Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise), but felt "no pressure" over the exacting schedule. Never expecting or aspiring to be a star, she credits her parents with keeping her "normal" and grounded. On the schooling that occurred "now and then on a set," Carter recalls it being "great... because most times it was one-on-one," thinking that "you learn more, one-on-one, whether it's just 15 minutes at a time or whatever it is."

Ann appeared in a number of other movies, a high point being when she played Humphrey Bogart's daughter in the murder thriller The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), which supposedly earned her an award for best juvenile performer, although Carter "doesn't personally recall ever receiving one." Carter cites her scenes with Bogart and co-star Barbara Stanwyck as particular high points during her career, recalling that she and Bogart "got along so well... he was a really nice man; a very warm, nice man." He nicknamed her "Tonsils" when she yawned in his face during a rehearsal, and "he peered into my mouth, down my throat, and... it was "Tonsils" after that."

Despite the good reviews for Curse of the Cat People, Carter lapsed back into smaller and often uncredited roles afterwards, although she says that she "didn't think about it then at all," and assumes that perhaps "the parts just didn't come up." Unbilled in her other two fantasy films, she recalls A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as:

a lot of fun because it was Bing Crosby and William Bendix, and they were un-be-liev-a-ble together... ruined so much film, because we'd start filming and they would start clowning around, and they were hysterical! Of course, the footage was not usable, but it was fun!

Carter also did many Lux Radio Theater programs, from the age of eleven, including playing Cary Grant's daughter in the radio adaptation of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. She also "had a disc jockey show on KFWB for a while."