In 1943, Lake began filming “The Hour Before The Dawn” (via TCM). Directed by Frank Tuttle, IMDb writes that she plays Dora Bruckmann, a secret Nazi agent that’s married to an Englishman. Needless to say, fans and critics condemned the subject matter, especially after all of Lake’s war efforts. When the film was released in 1944, it bombed at the box office (per Diabolique Magazine). Lake was blamed for the film’s failure and critics panned her poorly done German accent. To make matters worse, “The Hour Before The Dawn” had resulted in a personal tragedy for the star.
According to the Independent, Lake, who was pregnant at the time, tripped over a cable while filming. Hollywood’s Golden Age reports that her son (her second child with husband John S. Detlie) was born prematurely and died shortly after. By the time “The Hour Before the Dawn” had been released, Lake and Detlie had divorced. She began to drink heavily and slowly descended into mental illness. Although she was given a role in the 1945 film “Bring on the Girls” and in 1946’s “The Blue Dahlia,” Lake’s career continued to falter.
