Kay Francis Movies
Born Katherine Gibbs, Kay Francis was a sophisticated brunette star with a lisp, deep voice, and stylish wardrobe. The daughter of actress Katherine Clinton, she began acting onstage in 1925 after schooling and a couple of jobs; she went on to summer stock and Broadway then in 1929 signed a Hollywood contract. Francis began accepting virtually every role offered her, going for quantity rather than quality in her screen work. Soon she became one of Hollywood's most glamorous and highly-paid stars of the '30s, usually playing stylish, serious-faced heroines in romantic melodramas and occasional comedies. Near the end of the '30s, her position at Warners was gradually taken over by Bette Davis, and in the '40s she appeared mostly in "B"-movies. After co-producing and starring in three films in 1945-46, she spent four years touring with stock companies and then retired from show business. One of her four husbands was actor Kenneth MacKenna. ~ All Movie Guide- 1936
Kay Francis, Warner Bros.' resident "wronged woman," was the star of Give Me Your Heart. Francis plays a socialite whose illicit romance with married Patric Knowles results in a baby. When the father, a titled Englishman of means, declares that the child would be better off in his care, Ms. Francis suffers luxuriously in a series of fashionable evening gowns. She finds lasting happiness in the arms of attorney George Brent. Give Me Your Heart was based on Joyce Carey's stage play Sweet Aloes, and bore that title when released in Great Britain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, George Brent, (more)
- 1936
Briefly breaking away from her high-gloss modern soap operas, Kay Francis stars as Florence Nightingale in this reverent Warner Bros. biopic. The screenplay concentrates on Nightingale's humanitarian activities during the Crimean War of 1854-55. Defiant in the face of military bureaucracy and the male hierarchy, she organizes a volunteer group of nurses to tend to the military wounded, and also works tirelessly to update and improve the primitive, almost barbaric medical conditions of the Victorian Era. Of the supporting characters, only Ian Hunter as Fuller evinces any sort of humanity; the rest, especially Montague Love, are grim-visaged stereotypes. Critics were unkind to Kay Francis' performance in White Angel, with the New York Times speaking for many by suggesting that Francis was too overwhelmed by the historical importance of her character to deliver a believable performance. By today's standards, however, Francis is most effective despite her miscasting, delivering her difficult speeches with quiet and assured eloquence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1935
In this bedroom farce, an ex-wife overhears her former hubby's new wife and her lover planning a tryst for the weekend while the husband is away on a business trip. Hoping that the husband will catch them in the act, the ex creates an elaborate scheme whereby the lovers' plans are foiled and they must spend the weekend at her house. She then arranges for her former husband to drop by so he can see for himself the kind of hussy he married. Unfortunately the whole plot goes terribly awry when two fugitive jewel thieves wind up stranded at the ex-wife's house too. Things get really mixed up when the ex-wife discovers that she is in love with the second-wife's lover. Meanwhile second wifey recovers the jewels from the thieves just as her hubby returns. He gets there just as his ex-wife and the lover are married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, George Brent, (more)
- 1935
Kay Francis stars as Stella Parish, a London stage favorite who suddenly disappears without a trace. British news correspondent Keith Lockridge (Ian Hunter) girdles the globe in search of Stella, who has left her beloved daughter Gloria (Sybil Jason) in the care of an aunt (Jessie Ralph). Finally locating his quarry, Lockridge learns that Stella dropped from view to hide the fact that she once served a jail sentence as an accessory to murder. He promises to kill the story for Gloria's sake, but his dispatch is inadvertently published away, forcing Stella into a tawdry career as a "freak" stage attraction (not unlike Evelyn Nesbit Shaw). After hitting rock-bottom in a burlesque show, Stella is rescued by her old director Stephan Norman (Paul Lukas), who invites her to revive the show she was starring in at the time of her disappearance. Little does she know that this comeback has been arranged by Lockridge, who hopes to atone for betraying her trust. All roads lead to a tear-stained reunion between Stella and her daughter, a denouement as inevitable as death and taxes. For years, it was believed that Errol Flynn played an unbilled bit in I Found Stella Parish, but a researcher in the late 1960s discovered that the Flynn look-alike was actually Francis X. Bushman Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1935
In this romance, a social worker employed by Traveler's Aid finally is able to show her love to a construction foreman responsible for building the Golden Gate Bridge. She has loved him for nine years and is delighted that they can finally be together. Unfortunately, both of them are so busy that it is difficult to be together. Fortunately, they do eventually connect. The film contains actual footage of the construction of the great San Francisco Bridge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, George Brent, (more)
- 1935
In this drama, an amateur pilot is driven to living life in the fast lane after he pilots that plane that crashed and killed his parents and his sister. He goes on to marry. He and his new wife live in terrible conditions until he suddenly inherits $8,000 which he uses to buy a plane and start up a commuter service. Unfortunately, he finds himself again in debt. His disgusted wife leaves, but when he is hurt in a car crash, she eventually returns. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, George Brent, (more)
- 1934
British Agent starred the Hungarian/British actor Leslie Howard in the title role, was directed by full-fledged Hungarian Michael Curtiz, and costarred American leading lady Kay Francis as a Russian spy. Based on the memoirs of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had been the unofficial British emissary to the Russian Revolutionary government in 1917, British Agent spends more time on its romantic subplot than in recreating the birth of Bolshevism. Leslie Howard's purpose in this film is to dissuade the Bolsheviks from signing a separate treaty with the World War I German regime. It is obvious to modern-day viewers that Howard is merely looking after Britain's interests and has no concern for the Russians; this was par for the course in a 1930s film, but does not play well with less jingoistic audiences of the 1990s. The most interesting aspect of British Agent is the performance of saturnine Irving Pichel as a young Josef Stalin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1934
The official cast list of Warner Bros. Mandalay states that Kay Francis plays a character named Tanya. For most of the film, however, the heroine -- if she can be called that -- goes by the name of Spot White (or "Spot Cash," as she's cynically designated by one of the lesser characters). Betrayed by her smuggler lover Tony Evans (Ricardo Cortez), Tanya/Spot White becomes one of white slaver Nick's (Warner Oland) stable of girls in old Rangoon. She eventually escapes this sordid lifestyle, and is later instrumental in the redemption of dissolute doctor Gregory Burton (Lyle Talbot). Falling in love with Burton, Spot White resorts to drastic measure to purge the ubiquitous Tony Evans from her life. Most sources list Shirley Temple in the cast as "Betty," but her role has apparently been excised from the currently available prints of Mandalay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1934
The second of three Kay Francis films in which the star was cast as a dedicated lady physician, Doctor Monica was adapted from a Polish play by Marja Morozowicz Szezepkowska. Francis plays obstetrician Dr. Monica, whose husband John (Warren William) cheats on her with young Mary (Jean Muir). When Mary becomes pregnant, the selfless Monica befriends her, provides her with advice, and delivers the baby. The good doctor even offers to give up John so that the child will have a father. But after giving birth, Mary calmly tells John to go back to Monica -- even though there's every indication that he'll never give up his philandering ways! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Warren William, (more)
Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests in a multitude of languages (a la Joel Grey in Cabaret) introduces a steady stream of top variety acts. The star attraction of the Wonder Bar floor show is the Latin dance team of Inez (Dolores Del Rio) and Harry (Ricardo Cortez). Al worships Inez from afar, but she is hopelessly in love with Harry, a no-good louse who is carrying on with Liane (Kay Francis), the wife of prominent banker Renaud (Henry Kolker). Meanwhile, German military officer Captain Von Ferring (Robert H. Barrat), who has lost his fortune to bad investments, enjoys one last fling at the Wonder Bar before committing suicide. The two main subplots converge when Inez stabs Harry out of pique, whereupon the ever-loyal Al deposits Harry's body in Von Ferring's car, knowing full well that Von Ferring intends to drive himself off a steep hill to his death. Never letting Inez find out that she killed Harry, Al stands stoically aside as she finds true happiness with composer Tommy (Dick Powell). Lest this all sound heavily somberly serious, it should be noted that Wonder Bar is chock full of laughs, from both Jolson (who runs through quite a repertoire of tried-and-true routines) and the drunken antics of "tired business men" Hugh Herbert and Hobart Cavanaugh. The musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley range from sedate to incredible, with the bizarrely racist 10-minute "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (truly a jaw-dropping experience) falling into the latter category. The film's most outrageous moment, however, is an uninhibited chunk of homosexual humor on the dance floor ("Boys will be boys!", crows Jolson) which just barely squeaked past the Hollywood censors! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1933
In this melodrama, a female physician encounters professional and personal turmoil when she finds herself having an affair with an alcoholic peer. He impregnates her and she travels to Paris to have the baby in private. As she is returning to the States, the baby dies from infantile paralysis. This does not prevent her from saving the lives of two other children aboard the same ocean liner. When she returns, she discovers that her lover has divorced his wife and wants to marry her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1933
This melodrama chronicles three decades in the life of the New York located title house beginning at the turn of the century when a chorine falls in love with a wealthy young man. He loves her too and this inspires the lass to leave her sugar daddy, marry and move into the beautiful home that is located very close to Park Avenue. The pair are deliciously happy and even more so when a daughter is born. Unfortunately, unhappiness comes in the form of the jilted lover who returns and threatens to kill himself unless the former dancer comes back to him. Concerned, she visits his apartment to dissuade him from suicide. A struggle ensues with his gun and he dies leaving her to spend twenty years in jail for the alleged crime. Fortunately, her husband's belief in her innocence and his devotion never wavers. Unfortunately, he ends up killed on the front lines during WW I. It is 1925 when the hapless heroine is finally released from prison. She finds herself confused by the many dramatic changes that have turned refined New York into the wild Big Apple of the 1920s. She is also upset that her late husband's family refuses to let her see her grown daughter. They pay her a large sum to stay a stranger. On a subsequent ocean cruise she joins forces with a card sharp and becomes a wealthy con artist. They decide to work in a speakeasy on 56th Street. Surprise, it turns out to be her old home and in it is still the beautiful Florentine medallion that once symbolized the undying love between the woman and her husband. Still she opens the house for its disreputable business. One night her daughter, a compulsive gambler, who of course, doesn't recognize her own mother, shows up and loses a lot of money. She and the card sharp get in a terrible row and the young girl shoots him. Her mother then tries to take the rap but the speakeasy owner doesn't buy it and tells her he'll cover for her on the provision that she remain in the house forever. She accepts the dubious proposition and the story ends. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1933
A conflict between the Serbs and the Hungarians provides the framework of this drama that centers on a love triangle between a Serbian mayor and his closest friend, a Hungarian officer. The story begins as the Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo. The trouble between them begins when the officer begins an affair with the mayor's wife, but in the end, the husband gives up his own life to save them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Nils Asther, (more)
- 1933
In this melodrama, the wife of a wealthy man abruptly leaves him and sets sail for Cuba leaving him to hire a gumshoe to find out why. The girl left because she was being blackmailed for $50,000 by her former ex-husband who claims that they were never legally divorced. Before heading to Cuba for a hasty divorce, the distraught wife tells all to her sister-in-law. Meanwhile the detective is aboard the same ship as the wife and as he gets to know her cannot help but fall in love with her. The detective doesn't realize that her ex-husband is also on board, but she does and is happy about it because she wants to see if she can get her ex (not a US citizen) barred from reentry. Back at home, the sister-in-law tells her increasingly suspicious brother the truth about the situation and he immediately flies to Cuba to get there just in time for the exciting conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, George Brent, (more)
- 1933
In this drama, the owner of a Chicago meat-packing company falls in love with a beautiful opera singer. Unfortunately, his selfish, social climbing wife refuses to divorce him. He continues the affair on the sly. As his lover's career begins to ascend, so does his business when he becomes the leader of a meat packing trust that sends cured beef to the troops fighting in Cuba. Later, the newly elected president, Theodore Roosevelt indicts him, but then the charges are dropped. By this time, the opera singer has become a star. Her lover too tries to find success, but instead, his business ends up going bankrupt. He then leaves for Greece. When his lover finds out, she too drops everything and follows him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1932
In her first film under contract to Warner Bros., Kay Francis plays Lois Ames, a magazine editor whose husband Fred (Kenneth Thomson) is too busy with his polo friends to pay her much attention. But when her secretary (Charlotte Merriam) suddenly leaves, Lois hires handsome Tom Sheridan (David Manners), who has arrived to demonstrate a new rowing machine. Sharing work brings boss and employee closer together and they soon fall in love. Tom's dumbbell fiancée, Ruth (Una Merkel), does not take this development very well and threatens to tell Fred. But the latter is discovered making love to the uppity Ann Le Maire (Claire Dodd) and Lois is able to obtain a divorce. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, David Manners, (more)
- 1932
In this complicated drama, a husband begins an affair. His new mistress has a handsome brother who ends up falling for the husband's daughter. Mayhem ensues until the husband's wife learns of the affair and decides to free him by getting a divorce. This frees the husband to marry the mistress and his daughter to marry her brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Alan Dinehart, (more)
- 1932
A pair of grifters, one of whom is impersonating a doctor, assist a sick woman while riding a train. After the woman dies, the female con-artist assumes her identity so that she can collect a large amount of money. Trouble ensues when the woman begins to bond with the dead lady's blind son. She decides not to take the cash. This arouses her attorney's suspicions. Later, when the lad learns the truth, he has a fatal coronary. The woman and the lawyer get married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, William "Stage" Boyd, (more)
- 1932
This imitation-Lubitsch romantic comedy stars William Powell as an elegant jewel thief plying his trade in Vienna. Powell's latest victim is bored baroness Kay Francis, who is much taken by the gentleman crook's handsomeness and poise. Since Francis is casting about for a new lover and newer thrills, Powell meets her qualifications, criminal or no. But the lady's husband (Henry Kolker) is not so easily charmed, and he sets about to bring Powell to justice. Jewel Robbery was based on a play by Ladislas Fodor, previously filmed in an Austrian version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1932
Disparate twin brothers, a phony will, and a beautiful woman provide the main ingredients for this romantic comedy. The trouble begins when the evil twin cheats the good one out of his rightful inheritance by faking their father's will. Not realizing that he has been duped, the impoverished brother goes to his twin for help. A bitter argument ensues and the evil twin suffers a fatal heart attack. The good brother then assumes his dead twin's identity and finds himself facing comic mayhem that results in romance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1932
William Powell plays a condemned murderer who is being transported from Hong Kong to San Quentin by way of a luxury liner. Also on board is the lovely Kay Francis, who is suffering from a fatal heart condition. The sympathetic detective (Warren Hymer) escorting Powell allows the prisoner to roam the decks without handcuffs, an opportunity Powell exploits by arranging an escape with two of his old cronies (Frank McHugh and Aline MacMahon). But when he meets Francis, Powell falls in love. Francis is equally smitten, and the two conduct an exquisite shipboard affair, neither telling the other of their impending doom. Powell makes his escape, but is halted in mid-flight when Francis has a heart attack. He rushes Francis back on board ship to her doctor, knowing full well that this will mean his recapture. As they bid goodbye, Powell and Francis promise to meet again one year later in Agua Caliente--a rendezvous that neither will survive to keep. A year passes. At a bar in Agua Caliente, two cocktail glasses suddenly shatter, as if having been joined in a toast by unseen hands. One Way Passage was remade in 1940 as 'Til We Meet Again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Kay Francis, (more)
Ernst Lubitsch used Laszlo Aladar's play The Honest Finder as a springboard for one of his most delightful early-'30s Paramount confections. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins play Gaston and Lily, a pair of Parisian thieves, both disguised as nobility, who decide to rob lovely perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis); Gaston gets a job as Mariette's confidential secretary, while Lily installs herself as the woman's typist. Love rears its head, forcing Gaston to choose between marriage to Mariette and a fast getaway with Lily. Filled with marvelous throwaway gags and sophisticated innuendo, Trouble in Paradise was described by one critic as "as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen in the movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1932
King Vidor directed this screen adaptation of the novel An Imperfect Lover by Robert Gore-Brown, which had also made the transition to the stage. Jim Warlock (Ronald Colman) is a successful British lawyer who has always displayed a solid and conservative nature in his business associations, his professional ethics, and his personal life. He has enjoyed a happy if unexciting marriage with his wife Clemency (Kay Francis) for seven years, but when she leaves town for several days, Jim meets Doris (Phyllis Barry), a young sales clerk. To his surprise, Jim finds himself infatuated with Doris, and what begins as an innocent flirtation quickly escalates into a passionate affair. Eventually, when Jim tries to break off the relationship, Doris becomes distraught and kills herself. The death leads to a criminal investigation which makes Jim the leading figure in a national scandal, but he accepts all responsibility and refuses to say anything that would cast Doris in a negative light. The publicity forces him to leave the country and puts the future of his marriage in serious question. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1931
24 Hours is all it takes for tippling married man Jim Towner (Clive Brook) to go from social respectability to convict stripes. Upset that his wife Fanny (Kay Francis) has been unfaithful, the wealthy Jim weaves drunkenly from one nightclub to another. He falls for a cabaret performer (Miriam Hopkins) and begins an affair. The girl is killed by her gangster boyfriend (Regis Toomey), but Jim is arrested for the crime. Released from prison, the chastened Jim returns to his wife, who has vowed to remain loyal to her husband. 24 Hours was based on a novel by Louis Bromfield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1931
The titular hands belong to Lionel Barrymore, who plays a prominent defense attorney. To save his daughter (Madge Evans) from a cad (Alan Mobray), Barrymore murders the man and arranges to make the deed look like suicide. The victim's mistress (Kay Francis) suspects foul play, but the lawyer has done his cover-up job too well. Barrymore very nearly pulls off his ruse--until the corpse itself has the "last word." The central gimmick of Guilty Hands, in which Barrymore establishes an alibi by positioning a revolving cardboard silhouette to create a continually moving shadow, was later appropriated for comic purposes in the Astaire-Rogers musical Gay Divorcee (34). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Barrymore, Kay Francis, (more)
