The general mediocrity of this amiably sexist movie leads me to muse on the enigma of Kay Francis, a skilled, intelligent actress who, following 'Trouble In Paradise", could be spotted in a decent film about as often as good sushi on a menu in Billings Montana. Why was that? Could it be that Ms. Francis, whose best roles were as sexy, sassy gals defying conventional society and morality, was, like her sexy, sassy contemporaries Mae West and Joan Blondell, simply not able to make the transition from pre to post code? Perhaps. But my guess is that the answer, like so many things in Hollywood, lies in the director's chair rather than the Hays Office. Simply put, Ms. Francis, for whatever reason (there are hints of prima donna-ism in her personality so maybe she was hard to work with), was not able to hitch herself to a great director the way Dietrich did with Von Sternberg, Wayne did with Ford, or Hepburn did with Cukor. Instead, following her brilliant stint with Lubitsch, Ms. Francis worked with a veritable cargo ship full of directorial dullards, journeymen, and hacks whose names I won't bore you with but none of whom could hold even Mervin Le Roy's view finder. Like this film, for example.
In other words, most of TCM's Kay Francis SOTM this Jan. Is excruciatingly dull.
