Jewell's film debut came in "Blessed Event" (1932). She had been brought to Hollywood by Warner Brothers for the film version of "Up Pops the Devil." 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). Her most significant role was Sally Bates in "She Had to Choose". Jewell's films included "Gone with the Wind" (1939) (in the role of "that white trash, Emmy Slattery"), "Northwest Passage" (1940), "High Sierra" (1941), and the low-budget "The Leopard Man" (1943).