Malcolm St. Clair

Malcolm St. Clair (May 17, 1897 – June 1, 1952) was an American film director, writer, producer, and actor, known for directing The Goat (1921), Are Parents People? (1925) and The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (1926).

He is the older brother of actor Eric St. Clair.

Malcolm St. Clair was born on May 17, 1897, in Los Angeles, California.

St. Clair worked as a cartoonist for the Los Angeles Express before his first movie job as an extra and gagman at Mack Sennett's Keystone Pictures Studio in 1915.

Acting

St. Clair made his acting debut with Walter Wright's comedy His Last Laugh, starring Harry McCoy and Julia Faye. In his debut year, he was seen in five other Keystone films: His Bread and Butter, His Bitter Pill, The Three Slims, A la Cabaret, and Dollars and Sense.

He appeared in several movies, mostly comedies, before switching to direction. His last acting credit was in Sam Wood's Fascinating Youth (1926).

Direction

After serving in the First World War, St. Clair returned to the film business, this time as a director. His first project as a director was the comedy Rip & Stitch: Tailors(1919) with Harry Gribbon and Alice Davenport.

St. Clair worked diligently at his craft, cranking out whatever slapstick short he was assigned, however, Sennett was still not entirely pleased with him as he had the habit of injecting subtle touches in the midst of a farce. Sennett fired him over this infraction on more than one occasion. This may have been a blessing in disguise since St. Clair was better suited to his new position as a member of the Buster Keaton production unit. 

Hie 1925 release Are Parents People? with Betty Bronson, Adolphe Menjou, and Florence Vidor, dealt with the then-taboo subject of divorce. The first reel of the film manages to convey the personalities of the couple in question and explains the reasons for their marital woes — and with a scant number of intertitles; the effect is achieved instead through evocative imagery and careful editing. In his 1926 comedy The Show-Off, he instructed the cast (Ford Sterling, Claire McDowell, Lois Wilson, etc.) to behave in a completely natural manner. This added significantly to the growing trend of realism in the cinema.

St. Clair was adept at directing non-comedic films, as well. One of his notable non-comedic efforts was the Philo Vance mystery The Canary Murder Case (1929), starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, and Lupe Velez, and which won him critical applause. 

During his career, he directed as many as seventeen movies about his favorite sport, boxing. He also produced five moves between 1915 and 1948: Welcome Home (1920), The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (1926), The Show-Off (1926), Knockout Reilly (1927), Montana Moon (1930).

St. Clair's career went on a decline with the advent of talkies. His notable talkies were Hollywood Cavalcade (1939, silent film sequences), Young as You Feel (1940), The Man in the Trunk (1942), Over My Dead Body (1942).

His last film was Fighting Back (1948), which starred Paul Langton, Jean Rogers, and Gary Gray. After this, he retired with the closure of 20th Century Fox's B Unit. In 1950, he wanted to direct Buster Keaton in a television series, but ill health prevented him from directing again.

St. Clair was known to be a very social person. So much so that it cost him his first marriage. He was married to Cordelia Andrews from July 1927 until the divorce in 1934. His wife could not cope with the constant stream of friends being brought into the house, resulting in the divorce. 

He was then married to Margaret Murray Holt from February 6, 1937, until his death on June 1, 1952. Holt was as social as he and the couple became known for their lively parties.

St. Clair died on June 1, 1952, at age 55 and was interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California.

• The Camera Cure (1917)
• His Baby Doll (1917)
• The Little Widow (1919)
• Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919) Actor
• The Goat (1921)
• The Blacksmith (1922)
• Christmas (1922)
• The Lighthouse by the Sea (1924)
• On Thin Ice (1925)
• A Woman of the World (1925)
• Are Parents People? (1925)
• After Business Hours (1925)
• The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (1926)
• The Show-Off (1926)
• A Social Celebrity (1926)
• Good and Naughty (1926)
• Knockout Reilly (1927)
• Breakfast at Sunrise (1927)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928)
• The Fleet's In (1928)
• The Canary Murder Case (1929)
• Side Street (1929)
• Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930)
• The Boudoir Diplomat (1930)
• Montana Moon (1930)
• Olsen's Big Moment (1933)
• Goldie Gets Along (1933)
• Crack-Up (1936)
• Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
• Quick Millions (1939)
• Young As You Feel (1940)
• The Bashful Bachelor (1942)
• Jitterbugs (1943)
• The Dancing Masters (1943)
• Two Weeks to Live (1943)
• The Big Noise (1944)
• Swing Out the Blues (1944)
• The Bullfighters (1945)