Operation Manicurist

One of the great enduring mysteries of cinema is: What is the identity of the actress playing the manicurist in the stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera?

She has a speaking role- and even appears on deck in another scene. But she's not mentioned in the credits, and efforts to find her through newspapers, trade publications, and other means have been fruitless. But since she appears to be under contract to MGM, she just might appear in other MGM films being made at that time. The hope is that the mystery can be solved if she can be identified in a credited role in another MGM film.

Below are the MGM films released between May 15, 1935 and May 15, 1936. Exactly six months before and six months after A Night at the Opera. Feel free to click on the upper right of the spreadsheet to open the list in Google Sheets. Then claim a title and mark it as completed after you watch.

Feel free to either watch it straight or just fast-forward until a manicurist shaped character comes on.

If you spot a likely candidate note the time and it can be investigated.

MGM Releases May 1935- May 1936

There are precious few clues as to the identity of the actress. One might be that, as work was beginning of the film, two blurbs appeared in the trade papers. They mention some members of the cast, including a mystery actress: Rosa Costello.

A final potential clue is that there was a woman named Rose Costello living in Los Angeles at the time and recorded on the 1930 and 1940 Federal census. She would have been about 27 when the film was made. And she worked in a beauty shop and at the cosmetics department of a department store.

1930

1940

This Rose Costello eventually married California politician George H. McLain and went through a messy divorce in 1961. Could this be our manicurist 26 years later?