Stolen Holiday (1937)

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Warren Duff (story) and
Virginia Kellogg (story) ...

Release Date:

6 February 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Nicole Picot is working as a model in a Paris dress salon when she is picked by Stefan Orloff to help...

Plot Keywords:

Fraud | Model | Mob Violence | Suicide | Investment

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Kay Francis	...	Nicole 'Nicky' Picot
Claude Rains	...	Stefan Orloff
Ian Hunter	...	Anthony 'Tony' Wayne
Alison Skipworth	...	Suzanne, Nicole's Assistant and Friend
Alexander D'Arcy	...	Leon Anatole, Orloff's Assistant
Betty Lawford	...	Helen Tuttle
Walter Kingsford	...	Francis Chalon, Publisher
Charles Halton	...	LeGrande (Credits) / Marcel Legrand, Mayor of Courney (on Sign)
Frank Reicher	...	Charles Rainer, Credit Municipal
Frank Conroy	...	Dupont, Crooked Policeman
Egon Brecher	...	Bergery (Credits) / Deputy Duvalais (In Film)
Robert Strange	...	Prefect of Police
Kathleen Howard	...	Madame Delphine
Wedgwood Nowell	...	M. Borel, Swiss Printer (as Wedgewood Nowell)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2503)

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The movie is loosely based on the French bond scandal involving Serge Alexandre Stavisky. After the fraud was discovered he either committed suicide or was murdered by the French police.

Movie Connections:

Version of Stavisky... (1974)

Soundtrack:

Wedding March

A model becomes involved with a swindler

Kay Francis stars in "Stolen Holiday," a 1937 film that also stars Claude Rains, Ian Hunter and Alison Skipworth. Francis plays Nicole Picot, a beautiful Parisian model who is hired by Orloff (Claude Rains) to be his escort for an important dinner with a financier. The dinner is a great success, Orloff makes a lot of money and sets Nicole up in her own design house. Though there is not a romantic involvement, they are very close friends, and she is very loyal to him.

Unbeknownst to her, Orloff is involved in some unsavory business practices, and things begin to unravel when he and Nicole take a vacation together. Since Orloff isn't around, and at the encouragement of her assistant (Alison Skipworth), Nicole is escorted around town by Anthony Wayne (Ian Hunter). The two fall in love. However, Orloff believes that an elaborate society wedding will make the police less likely to bother him, so Nicole agrees to marry him.

The cast and the fashions really help this story. Francis looks beautiful in some great fashions. She often played strong, independent women - even as a young woman, as she is here, she has the air of a leading lady and not an ingénue. Despite her famous speech impediment, her speaking voice is one of her most interesting traits - low and melodic. Rains could play anything. Here he's an elegant Russian swindler who has set his business up with his own self-preservation in mind, and he's very believable. Alison Skipworth, as Nicole's friend and assistant, brings some humor to the film as a card-reader who is less than enthusiastic about Nicole's association with Orloff.

Good movie, and I'm grateful that here in the states, we're able to see films such as this on TCM.