Christine Larson

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Redheaded Christine Larson

Christine Larsen aka Christine Larson (April 15, 1918, Durand, Wisconsin - February 13, 1978, Los Angeles, California) was a U.S. actor. An onscreen femme fatale, Larson was one in real life as well when she dallied with the married Ronald Reagan. It has been widely reported she was with Reagan in bed when Nancy was giving birth to Patti. Larson left films in 1954.

Discovered while working for Western Costume, the main purveyor of off-the-rack costumes for Hollywood films, red-headed Christine Larson not only appeared in scores of B-Westerns but also contributed lyrics to "Poor Tarnished Butterfly," which she performed in the Whip Wilson oater Crashing Thru. She acts well in the Gene Autry film Valley of Fire as a crooked gambling hall hostess.

A better film she appeared in was the film noir thriller The Well, which explores racial tensions in a small town. The film avoids expected stereotypes of the time. Most of the black characters are shown as decent, intelligent, and well-spoken (aside from the thuggish rioters, who are not among the main characters). This movie was filmed on location in Marysville and Yuba City, California in 1950. The towns were supposed to portray a town in the deep south such as Mississippi. The students in the class room scenes were kids from the Marysville Elementary School. Dimitri Tiomkin's music is an added bonus.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] The Well

In a racially mixed American town, a 5-year-old black girl falls unnoticed into a hidden, forgotten well on her way to school. Having nothing better to go on, the police follow up a report that the child was seen with a white stranger, and rumors run wild. Before hapless, innocent Claude Packard (Harry Morgan) is even found, popular hysteria has him tried and convicted. But Packard's troubles pale by comparison as ever more inflated rumors uncap the well of racial tensions and mob violence. And young Carolyn Crawford, forgotten by most, is still missing ...