Needing to make money for the first time in her life, Drake became a dancer and stage actress and found that film paid even better.

[4] In 1933, she explained: "I met an actor in London – Gordon Wallace, who was in Eva Le Gallienne's repertory company for a while – and he asked me to form a dance team with him.

"[5] She returned to the United States in 1934[6] and was offered a contract by Paramount, which changed her name to Frances Drake (after the studio initially wanted her new name to be Marianne Morel[3] to avoid confusion with the then-popular star Frances Dee).

She was often typecast in "damsel in distress" roles and appeared in proto-horror and proto-sci-fi films opposite stars like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre.

[2] One film reference book summed up Drake's career as follows: "She played leads in many Hollywood productions of the '30s, often as the terrified heroine of horror and mystery tales.