Leila Bennett on AllMovie

Mainly a bit player, Leila Bennett did deliver at least one memorable, if today controversial, performance -- that of the slovenly black maid whose homemade liquor puts Charles Farrell in the hospital in the 1932 comedy-drama The First Year. She had performed the role in blackface both on Broadway in 1920 and in the 1926 London production. A former member of the Harry Blaney Stock Company, Bennett had endured 53 weeks in the jury box in the long-running Broadway hit Lightning prior to making her screen debut in 1932. By 1936, she had become an extra and is barely visible as a member of the crowd in Fritz Lang's Fury.