Corporal Kate

In World War I, Brooklyn manicurists Kate Jones (Vera Reynolds) and Becky Finkelstein (Julia Faye), work up a song-and-dance act that they intend to take overseas to entertain the troops. Through the influence of a friend, the girls are assigned to the French front. Both girls fall in love with Jackson Clarke (Kenneth Thompson), a rich playboy, who is in the American Expeditionary Forces, along with Williams (Harry Allen), his valet. Evelyn (Majel Coleman), a friend of Jackson's, also goes to France as a Red Cross nurse, Jackson falls for Kate and is jealous of Evelyn, but, unknown to any of them, Evelyn loves an American aviator. When the Germans advance, Becky is killed, dying in Jackson's arms. Kate loses her arm in a selfless and heroic action, and Jackson, still greatly in love with her, proposes that they spend the rest of their lives together.

File:Corporal Kate (SAYRE 14351).jpg

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• Vera Reynolds as Kate Jones
• Kenneth Thomson as Jackson Clarke (credited as Kenneth Thompson)
• Julia Faye as Becky Finkelstein
• Majel Coleman as Evelyn Page
• Harry Allen as Williams, Clarke's Valet
• Walter Tennyson as Captain Sir Howard Wellington
• Fred Kelsey as Unsympathetic Sergeant (uncredited)
• Scott Seaton as Colonel (uncredited)
• Harry Semels as Doughboy (uncredited)

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Although not directly an aviation film, Corporal Kate featured a number of stunt pilots, including Frank Clarke and Leo Nomis flying a Standard L 6 and Thomas-Morse aircraft.Farmer 1984, p. 300.

{{#tag:ref|For Cecil B. DeMille, Corporal Kate was, in part, a showcase for Julia Faye, DeMille's longtime "secret" girlfriend.Erickson, Hal. [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v87869 "Review: 'Corporal Kate'."] allmovie.com, 2019. Retrieved: June 30, 2019.|group=N}}

Film reviewer Hal Erickson, in his review of Corporal Kate, noted, the girls "...encounter all manner of merry misadventures. Things get serious, however, when both Kate and Becky fall in love with the same doughboy, Private Jackson (Kenneth Thompson). This romantic triangle is rather bluntly resolved when tragedy strikes on the battlefield." However, while the depiction of the relationship between the two women in a war zone is to be commended, modern viewers may be less comfortable with the many scenes featuring overt sexual harassment by the male lead.{{cite web |url=https://moviessilently.com/2016/05/15/corporal-kate-1926-a-silent-film-review/ |title=Corporal Kate (1926) a Silent Film Review |last=Kramer |first=Fritzi |date=15 May 2016 |publisher=Movies Silently |access-date=25 December 2023}}

Corporal Kate is preserved in the Library of Congress collection and UCLA Film and Television Archive.Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, 1978, p. 35.[http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.2586/default.html "Catalog: 'Corporal Kate'."] The Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog, 2019. Retrieved: June 30, 2019.

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• Catalog of Holdings, The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress. Los Angeles, California: American Film Institute, 1978. {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5315-9}}.
• Farmer, James H. Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation (1st ed.). Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: TAB Books 1984. {{ISBN| 978-0-83062-374-7}}.

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{{commons category|Corporal Kate}}

• {{IMDb title|0016743}}
• [http://www.grapevinevideo.com/corporal-kate.html DVD Grapevine]

{{Paul Sloane}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corporal Kate}}

Category:1926 films

Category:American silent feature films

Category:American aviation films

Category:1926 romantic comedy films

Category:Producers Distributing Corporation films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:Films directed by Paul Sloane

Category:1920s American films

Category:Silent American romantic comedy films

Category:1920s English-language films

Category:English-language romantic comedy films