Kay Francis SOTM

[Dewey1960]

John--
Try ALLOTMENT WIVES, which airs next Friday (9/26). It's a genuinely odd and striking B picture from Monogram. Given your appreciation for B's, you just might like it. (See the posting on it in the Film Noir forum if you haven't already).

[moira finnie]

I'll join that fan club. Even when he was at his most hissssssable, there was just something about the guy. I saw him as the romantic lead in an old movie recently, can't remember anything besides my shock. Any ideas at all what the movie is?

Re:Victor Jory

Knitty, could it possibly be a movie Jory made called The Devil's in Love (1933) with Loretta Young in which he was the romantic lead? It was directed by William Dieterle and featured a really good, unghoulish Bela Lugosi in the part of a military lawyer. Jory played a member of the French Foreign Legion with (gasp!) a secret. There's also a nice bit of scenery chewing by J. Carrol Naish as an Arab. Allegedly, Loretta hated this movie and didn't care for Mr. Jory (go figure). This is one of those off kilter early Fox movies that pops up in the wee small hours of the early morning on FMC from time to time.

Victor Jory is very soulful in this, and he is the beloved of several babes who pine for his rich, honeyed voice to call their name.

Btw, if you have a chance sometime, you might enjoy his serials, some of which are superior. The Shadow is one of his better ones.

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JohnM,
You may not care for any of Kay Francis' movies, but if you enjoy the raffish charm of B movies, Mandalay (1934), and Confession (1937) which air next Thursday are a great deal of fun--as long as you don't take them too seriously.
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One thing that I had to chuckle about in Transgression (1931) the other night was in the scene when Kay's happily decadent friend accompanies her to the beauty salon in Paris where the French do their best to erase all trace of the English Country matron from her appearance. When addressing the issue of Kay's phenomenal eyebrows, she is asked if she wants them to rise up at the end or down. Her pal advises her that last year all the fashionable Parisians had their brows plucked to look "penetrating", but this year it is all the rage to look "plaintive" or "pleading" (I can't remember which). Either way, Kay Francis' character, who opted for the "plaintive" look, had the longest brows I've ever seen.

[knitwit45]

Thanks, Moira, but that's not the one. It sounds like fun, tho. Seems like in the movie I saw, he was kind and loving and the heroine dealt him fits. (what else is new in the movies?)

Thanks tho
Nancy

ps. I expect your dues in the mail any day....

[Birdy]

To Myrna - I did record Cynara, but am not sure about copying it. Let me know if you don't have any luck but I'm not your best bet on that due to my gremlin status and lack of time. You might check in on the DVD trading thread.

Re: Cynara - Did anyone catch Robert Ryan's bit part in it? I missed him.

Re: The Feminine Touch - That was a fun watch. Rosalind Russell's character seemed to have the best lines:
When Rubber-Legs was driving her home she mentioned his missing football practice. He said, "Oh, heck, I don't need no practice." as he put his arm around her. She replied, "Oh, heck, neither do I!"

I mis-recorded all of yesterday's movies except Playgirl which looks to be very fun. I may be checking in with the trading thread myself.

I'm looking forward to next week's line-up while trying to finish watching last week's. What a month! And Carol and the RKO anniv. next month. Aren't we lucky?
B

[jdb1]

I have trouble taking One Way Passage seriously, because I keep thinking of the Carol Burnett Show parody, which was really funny. The best part was Vicki Lawrence, using her Ouspenskaya accent, saying that Carol was suffering from a terrible, fatal disease called "the movie disease." After that, everyone in my family loved to point out just how prevelant that disease is in Hollywood movies.

Carol Burnett made it difficult for me to take a lot of old movies seriously (but I'm not complaining).

[knitwit45]

nothing, but nothing will ever top Carol Burnett coming down the stairs in the window drapery, rod still intact. Poor old Harvey Korman just lost it, and I don't think he recovered for the duration of the skit. I just found this link, and I was wrong about Korman, but the skit still holds up!

[jdb1]

You know, I kept thinking I had seen the film, but knew I hadn't. Even when Bob said that it was later remade, I knew I hadn't seen that film either. Now I know why it was familiar, The Carol Burnett Show! Her movie spoofs were the greatest

You are not alone in that. I mentioned a while back that I was so sure I had already seen Joan Crawford's Torch Song, when what I really was remembering was the Burnett skit, with the 5-inch platform shoes, the helmet hair and "the walk."

Remember Burnett's "Born To Be Rotten?" It was way better than Joan Fontaine's Born To Be Bad.

[molo]

I like One Way Passage but Kay may be the weakest link in this film. Aline MacMahon, McHugh, Hymer and Powell round out a wonderful cast but the script doesn't give Kay much to work with except be brave and tragic. In that sense I think she does fine.

As for those Carol Burnett film parodies, I would love to get them on DVD. I could only find clips of them available though.

[jdb1]

Most, if not all, of the Burnett seasons are on DVD. I don't know if they are available in retail stores, though. I got several of them a few years ago -- from Guthy-Renker, the TV salespitch people -- but I think they are now generally available now from Amazon.com, Videomediaonline.com, and others.

[molo]

Thanks for that information jdb1!

I'm going to look into getting them.

[moira finnie]

Mandalay (1934), which came at the very end of the pre-code era, managed to incorporate as many scandalous elements into one movie as possible, (though there may be others, I'm sure!). Kay Francis, especially in her "Spot White" mode, was so much fun, it hurt to watch her.

Never having seen the entire movie before, but only bits and pieces, I was delighted to find that it was a very fast meditation on:
a.) The imperfections of the world, and, in particular, of the male of the species, at least in this steamy movie.

Sorry, boys, but with exemplars such as the following, the male sex is not looking too appealing in this flick: Ricardo Cortez the ultimate ignoble crumbum and worst boyfriend of the century, Warner Oland as an ersatz Asian, a white slaver and "nightclub" impresario/pimp who cuffs around poor Kay, Lyle Talbot as a soused doctor who at least is kind to Kay, even if hooking up with her probably leads her to her doom with him in the black fever country. There was always something fatally weak about Talbot's characters, (even the supposedly sympathetic ones) and Reginald Owen as a British officer who revealed his internal rot to Kay one New Year's Eve. Of course, if Kay hadn't met him when he momentarily "forgot himself", she'd never have gotten out of Rangoon. And probably wouldn't have had such an extensive crisp white wardrobe to don in every other scene.

b.) The only sympathetic people in the world, according to this picture, may be highly experienced women who see the world as divided between men, (all of whom are crummy, drunk or useless to some degree), and women who have figured things out and are out to get a "little fun" or a "little of their own back". These babes are played by Ruth Donnelly as a fairly perceptive midwestern hausfrau who somehow wound up on a riverboat scow plying up a stagnant river in Burma with her dullard hubby. Boy, that was some vacation. I think I would've asked the ball and chain to take me to the Howe Caverns instead. The other "helpful" female is Rafaela Ottiano as a well-used, slightly desiccated hostess at Oland's nightspot who gives Kay lots of sage, if unsolicited cynical advice and accepts Kay's replacing her with remarkable equanimity, (then again she probably needs the rest).

c.) Kay Francis is probably one of the few actresses who make murder seem like the best and most admirable choice for her character. Love the expression on her face as she left the boat, head held high, Lyle at her elbow, and nothing on her conscience. This ending was almost as good as that wink and shhh she gave the camera at the end of Jewel Robbery. Btw, if you have Time Warner digital cable you may have access to Jewel Robbery on the TCM On Demand channel for free this month. It's worth going out of your way to see.

d.) Nothing brought out the mischief in Robert Osborne this month like the fun that he seemed to be having when introducing and ending these delightful Kay Francis movies. It was also great that he mentioned our friend of the SSO, Scott O'Brien's book twice this month. RO really seemed to be having much more fun than usual, didn't he?