The Queen of the Follies of 1935 becomes the Black Jack Baroness of 1933 in this not so weepy woman's picture where Kay Francis wears the fashions of four decades. She is a favorite of stage door Johnny's, particularly young Gene Raymond and aging John Halliday, both of whom love her ferociously. Who do you thinks she picks and how do you think her life will be destroyed by this thanks to the suicidal loser? After all, Kay Francis suffered more than any other woman did in the mid 1930's, and even if her tears stained her clothes, she could always cover it up with one of her fabulous wraps.
Sent to prison for manslaughter (wearing a sequined prison gown as she bids farewell), she is released 20 years later (after a sequence where the audience sees newspaper columns of historical events), she finds herself working as a dealer in a speakeasy located, you guessed it, in the home she lived in happily years before. Ricardo Cortez plays the gambler she meets on a European cruise she takes after getting out of prison, and Margaret Lindsay is her grown daughter whom Francis discovers has a gambling problem. No rest for the wicked as Francis must come to Lindsay's rescue without revealing who she really is.
It is ironic that in her gay turn of the century outfits, Ms. Francis greatly resembles Liza Minnelli who in "Cabaret" declared "I feel just like Kay Francis!". Look at Minnelli in period costumes in "A Matter of Time" to see what I mean. Not considered one of the best actresses of the golden age, Francis was highly underrated and newer audiences have come to adore her thanks to constant showings of her dozens of films on TCM. She is more subtle than many of the same era's stars, lady like without being saint like and always the epitome of style.
The opening sequence is extremely memorable for a look at the days of early Broadway where the Floradora like chorus performs "While Strolling Through the Park", an era where many chorus girls were sometimes as popular (or notorious) as the headliners.
Sent to prison for manslaughter (wearing a sequined prison gown as she bids farewell), she is released 20 years later (after a sequence where the audience sees newspaper columns of historical events), she finds herself working as a dealer in a speakeasy located, you guessed it, in the home she lived in happily years before. Ricardo Cortez plays the gambler she meets on a European cruise she takes after getting out of prison, and Margaret Lindsay is her grown daughter whom Francis discovers has a gambling problem. No rest for the wicked as Francis must come to Lindsay's rescue without revealing who she really is.
It is ironic that in her gay turn of the century outfits, Ms. Francis greatly resembles Liza Minnelli who in "Cabaret" declared "I feel just like Kay Francis!". Look at Minnelli in period costumes in "A Matter of Time" to see what I mean. Not considered one of the best actresses of the golden age, Francis was highly underrated and newer audiences have come to adore her thanks to constant showings of her dozens of films on TCM. She is more subtle than many of the same era's stars, lady like without being saint like and always the epitome of style.
The opening sequence is extremely memorable for a look at the days of early Broadway where the Floradora like chorus performs "While Strolling Through the Park", an era where many chorus girls were sometimes as popular (or notorious) as the headliners.