Elegantly sympathetic in the classic ghost mystery The Uninvited (1940), actress Ruth Hussey also scored as the spunky photographer Elizabeth in 1940’s The Philadelphia Story.

Proving her worth as a performer, Hussey could also bring a little nasty energy to her celluloid projects. Nicely, in Maisie (1939), the first chapter in Ann Sothern’s long running comedy series, Hussey disguises her character’s sinister goals with a rich sense of sophisticated privilege. 

There, as the well-to-do Sybil Ames, she not only carries out a lurid affair behind her doting husband’s back, but she also enacts a plot that finds Robert Young’s kind ranch supervisor on trial for a crime that he didn’t commit. 

Luckily, Sothern’s street smart Maisie figures out the vile plot and comes to the kind gentleman’s rescue just in the nick of time.

Thus, especially for connoisseurs of cinema gold, the most enjoyable aspect of this old school romp is watching Sothern match her rascally earthiness against Hussey’s highbrow vengefulness. 

A better matched duo is rare to find.

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While The Uninvited is definitely Hussey’s best known genre credit, she also joyfully emoted in Mink, a first season episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While this tale from the Master of Suspense is a lighter hearted one, Hussey still works with a fine duality, allowing audiences to question whether she is aware of the criminality behind a piece of recently purchased apparel or not.

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