After years in theatre stock companies, including an 87-week stint in Lincoln, Nebraska, she got a part on Broadway in
Up Pops the Devil (1930). She received glowing critical reviews for
Blessed Event (1932) as well. Jewell's film debut came in
Blessed Event (1932) and was followed by supporting roles in other pre-Code classics like
Jean Harlow's
Bombshell (1933) and
Design for Living (1933) from
Ernst Lubitsch. She had been brought to Hollywood by Warner Brothers for the film version of
Up Pops the Devil (1931). Jewell gained other supporting roles, appearing in a variety of films in the early 1930s. She played stereotypical gangsters' women in such films as
Manhattan Melodrama (1934) and
Marked Woman (1937). She was well-received playing against type as
the seamstress sentenced to death on the guillotine with
Sydney Carton (
Ronald Colman) in
A Tale of Two Cities (1935). She later co-starred with Colman in
Lost Horizon as Gloria, the terminally-ill prostitute. Her most significant role was Sally Bates in
She Had to Choose. Other films included
Gone with the Wind (1939) (in the role of "that white trash, Emmy Slattery"),
Northwest Passage (1940),
High Sierra (1941), and in two psychological horror films from producer
Val Lewton,
The Leopard Man (1943) and
The Seventh Victim (1943). Jewel had a memorable supporting role as Laury Palmer in the film noir
Born to Kill (1947), but by the end of the 1940s, her roles had reduced in significance to the degree that her performances often were uncredited, e.g.
The Snake Pit. She performed in radio dramas in the 1950s, including
This Is Your FBI. In the 1950s and 60s, Jewell took occasional roles on television. In February 1965, she played Madame Ahr, a member of a bank-robbing circus troupe, in an episode of
Gunsmoke entitled "Circus Trick." In 1972, Jewell appeared opposite
Edie Sedgwick in the film
Ciao! Manhattan. Her final film was the
B movie Sweet Kill (1973) starring
Tab Hunter, the directorial debut of
Curtis Hanson. == Personal life ==