Heroine of the Month: Charlotte Henry
Charlotte Henry seemed to be someone who as a child actor was going to be a big star. A Broadway actress since she was thirteen in 1928, she had had supporting roles in Huckleberry Finn (1931) and Rebbecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) before being cast as the lead in Paramount’s big screen adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (1933), which unfortunately bombed at the box office despite the star power of W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty. Things were looking up the following year when she played the female lead in the Laurel and Hardy version of Babes in Toyland (1934).
Despite the success of this film Henry dropped down to B productions for the rest of her career. He work during this time included Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) and Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937), The Mandarin Mystery (1937) opposite a mis-cast Eddie Quillan as boyishly exuberant Ellery Queen (!?!?!), and The East Side Kids melodrama Bowery Bliztkrieg (1941). Henry retired from acting after a small role in the Lucille Gleason (as in Mrs Jackie Gleason) vehicle She’s in the Army (1942).
Her one serial was Columbia’s debut effort in the genre, Jungle Menace (1937), which starred real life animal trapper Frank “Bring ‘em Back Alive” Buck as famous animal trapper Frank Hardy helping rubber plantation owners Henry and William Bakewell fight a gang of river pirates trying to take over their lucrative businesses in Southeast Asia.