Kay Francis: Charismatic 1930s Star

Kay Francis.

Kay Francis movies on TCM: One of the brightest and most underrated Hollywood stars of the 1930s

Kay Francis is the star of the day (April 9) on Turner Classic Movies, which is presenting 10 of her films.

One of the biggest Hollywood names of the decade, Kay Francis is only rarely mentioned today. There’s no Kay Francis appreciation society or cult following. For most film critics and historians, she might as well have never existed.

Yet Francis was one of the best film performers of her generation – and one who, despite the overall artificiality of plots and characters, exuded genuine warmth. In fact, no matter how mediocre her material – and a large chunk (perhaps the vast majority) of her movies were unworthy of her talent – she never “coasted” (like, at RKO, the otherwise capable Constance Bennett). Apart from tricks of the trade that one can spot here and there (and that a good editor or director should have gotten rid of), she was an honest performer who, like Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, and Bette Davis, invariably gave her all.

Besides, Francis, sporting raven-black hair and light (blue/green?) eyes, was one of the best-looking – and most impressively garbed – performers of the era. Like Gloria Swanson in the 1920s, Francis was known as a “clotheshorse,” parading around the screen – in glee or in tears – while donning sumptuous and outlandish dresses, jewelry, and hats.

The best Kay Francis star vehicles being presented on TCM are two 1932 releases, both co-starring William Powell: William Dieterle’s Jewel Robbery and Tay Garnett’s One Way Passage.

Jewel Robbery is an entertaining sophisticated comedy that clearly emulates what Ernst Lubitsch was doing at Paramount – e.g., Trouble in Paradise, another 1932 release coincidentally starring Kay Francis.

The comedy-melodrama mix One Way Passage is a broodier precursor to Leo McCarey’s Love Affair and An Affair to Remember. Francis and Powell star as two strangers who meet and fall in love while on board an ocean liner; however, like Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, and Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant, they both have other commitments. In Francis/Powell’s particular case, not of the romantic kind: One is facing death, the other the justice system.

Both Francis and Powell are at their very best in this unfairly neglected Academy Award winner (in the Best Story category, for Robert Lord), which also features a surprisingly effective Frank McHugh and the always excellent Aline MacMahon.

Kay Francis movies: TCM schedule (EDT)

6:00 AM I LOVED A WOMAN (1933)
Director: Alfred E. Green.
Cast: Edward G. Robinson. Kay Francis. Genevieve Tobin.
B&W. 91 min.

8:00 AM I FOUND STELLA PARISH (1935)
Director: Mervyn LeRoy.
Cast: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Paul Lukas, Sybil Jason.
B&W. 85 min.

9:30 AM SECRETS OF AN ACTRESS (1938)
Director: William Keighley.
Cast: Kay Francis. George Brent. Ian Hunter.
B&W. 70 min.

11:00 AM DIVORCE (1945)
Director: William Nigh.
Cast: Kay Francis. Bruce Cabot. Helen Mack.
B&W. 70 min.

12:15 PM GUILTY HANDS (1931)
Director: W.S. Van Dyke.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore. Kay Francis. Madge Evans. William Bakewell.
B&W. 69 min.

1:30 PM MANDALAY (1934)
Director: Michael Curtiz.
Cast: Kay Francis. Ricardo Cortez. Warner Oland. Lyle Talbot.
B&W. 65 min.

2:45 PM THE HOUSE ON 56TH STREET (1933)
Director: Robert Florey.
Cast: Kay Francis. Ricardo Cortez. Gene Raymond. Margaret Lindsay.
B&W. 68 min.

4:00 PM CONFESSION (1937)
Director: Joe May.
Cast: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Basil Rathbone, Jane Bryan, Donald Crisp.
B&W. 87 min.

5:30 PM JEWEL ROBBERY (1932)
Director: William Dieterle.
Cast: William Powell. Kay Francis. Helen Vinson.
B&W. 68 min.

6:45 PM ONE WAY PASSAGE (1932)
Director: Tay Garnett.
Cast: William Powell. Kay Francis. Aline MacMahon. Frank McHugh.
B&W. 68 min.

Endnotes

Kay Francis movie schedule via the TCM website.