Mae Turner

Attractive Mae Turner was one of the top femme fatales, vamps, and hussies of Black Cinema in the 1930s. She usually played the woman who was the ruin of a man. She was a fine actress who perfected the "woman you love to hate" role and do you wrong and smile a devilish, crooked smile. She was like the Black Claire Trevor and Barbara Stanwyck. What makes Mae an exceptional actress was she made movie audiences believe she was a wicked woman, but she really wasn't. That's good acting when you make watchers believe you are what your portraying. She was also a wonderful, velvet voice singer who crooned to Joe Louis in "Spirit of Youth" and than led him to ruin but redeemed herself. Mae Turner is one of the Queens of Devil-May-Care women of Cinema history. You can love to hate her but enjoy her talents in "Spirit of Youth," "Two Gun Man From Harlem" and, if they're ever found, "Life Goes On" and "Am I Guilty?". Watching her it's apparent she was one of the few trained actresses in Black Cinema, while attending the University of California, she studied acting and took part in local productions all the while she attained a degree and an A.K.A. sorority pin. She played Lady MacBeth in the Federal Theatre's Coast production of the Orson Welles hit which rocked New York. It was no surprise that Million Dollar Productions, (the first black movie company in Hollywood), wanted Mae and she graced the movies with her elegance and class giving movie watchers her best Vamp but conscience heart action that made Million Dollar company movies the best ever put out by Blacks outside of Hollywood. Mae Turner is another unsung talent of Movie history, she is arguably one of the best female actress of Black Cinema, hopefully information on her life and career will surface in the near future.