By 1938, fast-fading glamour gal Kay Francis was running out the generous contract Warner Bros had long regretted writing in her Pre-Code prime. And if many of her B-pics are lively things (see CONFESSION/’37), that’s hardly the case here. Thrown together & rushed thru, Kay's a small town stagestruck dreamer, the leading player at her local community theater, who sneaks off from dutiful husband John Litel & infant girl for nighttime ‘lessons’ with a famous actor stopping in town. Backing away from unwanted advances just as Litel makes a surprise appearance, a slug on the jaw leaves one dead actor, one life sentence, and Kay on a theatrical road to redemption. And that’s just the two-reel prologue! Then , vaudeville, burlesque, B’way, London’s West End, tru-love with playwright Ian Hunter, all done to raise lawyer fees and honor wifely duties. (Yet what a relief to learn that hubby’s developed a heart condition after 8 years in prison.) Look close at a traveling shot during a walk thru town where cinematographer James Wong Howe chooses an unusually modern telephoto lens. That’s about it for visual interest, pacing or stage craft under Busby Berkeley’s laissez-faire megging. Drag performer Charles Busch, who kids these films with knowledgeable affection, could have played this script exactly as it stands and received bigger laughs than he got in his satirical pastiche DIE, MOMMY, DIE/’03.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: For the record, Minna Gombell is fun as a vaudevillian gal pal who spends eight years on the cusp of turning forty while Kay's child grows up to become Sybil Jason. Meant to be adorable, the kid’s a real movie-brat horror.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: As mentioned above, CONFESSION, probably the best pic UFA’s Joe May made after moving from Berlin to Hollywood. It too features Ian Hunter as a bland lover, and has Basil Rathbone, excellent as Kay’s devilish seducer.
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