At the height of her stardom in the 1930's, tall, slender, raven-haired Kay Francis was one of the most popular actresses in film. She epitomized glamorous, sexy, screen beauty. Her films emphasized sophistication, sex appeal, and fabulous clothes. Francis became associated with frequent wardrobe changes into fashionable clothes which she wore with style and distinction.
Francis was a relatively tall woman with a willowy figure and a regal bearing. She had a minor lisp in her throaty voice that made it difficult to pronounce the “r” sound. Her scripts reduced the inclusion of words featuring an “r” sound.
At Paramount and Warner Bros she paired with talented and equally sophisticated William Powell in several films that perfectly presented her youthful beauty and charm. In the mid thirties, under the restrictions of the code, romantic melodrama replaced sexy sophistication in her films. By the 1940's, her popularity had declined. Francis' film career ended in 1946 when she was only 41 years old.
Early Career: Broadway
The acting career of Katherine Francis began in the theater. In November 1925, barely 20 years old, she appeared in Hamlet (starring Basil Sidney) in the non-speaking role of the Queen within the Player's Play. Hamlet was followed by a contemporary drama, Crime in which the youthful cast included future film actors Chester Morris, Douglas Montgomery, and Sylvia Sidney. In September 1928, Francis appeared in Elmer the Great starring Walter Huston.
Early Career: Hollywood
In 1929 talking pictures were rapidly replacing silent films; the movie studios were rapidly signing actors who had experience with dialogue. In May 1929, Katherine Francis signed a contract with Paramount. She was among the more than 200 stage actors who signed contracts with the film studios. In her first film, Gentlemen of the Press , playgirl Francis attracts newspaper editor Walter Huston and his son-in-law, Norman Foster. Gentlemen of the Press is the only time that “Katherine” Francis appears in a film's credits. In her second film, The Cocoanuts , “Kay“ Francis was the object of desire to the four Marx Brothers.
Francis had a busy year in 1930. Behind the Make-up was her first film with William Powell also in the cast, both actors were secondary players to star Hal Skelly. Street of Chance (1930) is the first film in which Francis and Powell co-star. An un-glamorized Francis plays professional gambler Powell's wife. For the Defense starring Powell as a high powered lawyer and Francis as a professional dancer was a surprise hit. Powell and Francis made a splendidly smooth combination. In Passion Flower , Francis's distinctive personality and worldly charms nearly steal Charles Bickford from his wife and children. This film is notable for the series of fine fashions worn by Francis. She was Ronald Colman's lover in Raffles and supported Jack Oakie and Jeanette MacDonald in the ridiculous Let's Go Native .
Stardom at Paramount
The year 1931 saw Francis rise to stardom. She began the year co-starring with Clive Brook in the entertaining and slightly naughty Twenty Four Hours . She co-starred with Brook and George Bancroft in Scandal Sheet in which Bancroft seeks revenge after Francis leaves him for Brook. Francis' innate sophistication is prominently displayed in several films made at the end of 1931. Transgression is a mildly entertaining film about a woman, her lover and her husband. Girls About Town stars Francis in an appropriate role as a slinky lady of the evening, attracting men with her beauty and sophistication.
In 1932, Francis made her finest film at Paramount. Trouble in Paradise , a masterpiece of sophisticated comedy, was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starred Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshal. Under Lubitch's masterful direction, the plot's rich dialogue, delicate eroticism, and visual wit showcase the best in the actors. In superb makeup, hair style, and costumes, Francis was never more beautiful. Despite its high quality, the film lost money. A cast of second rank stars and a complex “adult" plot did not attract the public which preferred films with bigger stars and the lusty quality of Red Dust or the sentimental romance of Smilin' Through .
Stardom at Warner Bros., Pre-Code Films
Warner Bros. Pictures was determined to add established stars to their contractee list. With a promised raise in salary, Warners hired William Powell, Ruth Chatterton and Kay Francis away from Paramount.
Francis's first starring role for Warner's Bros was in Man Wanted (1932). The plot is a reverse of the typical male executive seeking a woman secretary oriented film. Francis plays a high power businesswoman who is looking for a male assistant.
In Street of Women (1932), Francis, the mistress of married businessman Alan Dinehart, is Dinehart's psychological support and muse. His wife will not give him a divorce. This romantic melodrama provided her with a strong role.
Jewel Robbery (1932) is a sparkling romantic comedy co-starring William Powell. Francis plays a rich, married countess trapped in a jewelry store being robbed by genial, sophisticated Powell and his gang. The countess and the robber hit if off at once. Before Powell escapes with the jewels, he and Francis agree to meet in Nice. In an ending that was only possible pre-code, Francis does not tell her husband about the assignation. The film ends on a close-up of Francis who puts her finger over her lips to indicate that the audience must keep her secret.
One Way Passage (1932), her final film with Powell, is a movingly scripted masterpiece of romantic melodrama, about the shipboard romance of doomed lovers. They agree to meet on New Years Eve in a favored bar in Agua Caliente, each knowing that they both wlll be dead by that day. The film ends on a note of fulfillment. On New Year's Eve, the bartender is surprised to hear the clink of glasses, he turns to find only the broken pieces. The film was a great popular success.
Her films at the end of the pre-Code era were often histrionic soap operas. Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933) involves misplaced love and possible abortion, I Love a Woman (1933) finds her the mistress of married businessman Edward G. Robinson. Francis has a supporting role, billed below the title, to top-lined Robinson.
Directed by Michael Curtiz, Mandalay (1934) is a torrid melodrama of a woman who is sold into prostitution by her lover. As White Spot, she is a favorite of the men who visit the decadent nightclub. After her escape from prostitution, she meets her lover again and gains her revenge by poisoning him and pushing his body into the river. She redeems herself by following disgraced doctor Lyle Talbot, also seeking redemption for past misdeeds, into the interior of Burma where the two of them will devote their lives to aiding the native population. Francis's histrionics in this torrid melodrama were well received by her fans.
Wonder Bar (1934) is a sort of musical Grand Hotel (1934) set in a nightclub. Similar to Grand Hotel, the film has multiple stories and multiple stars, including Al Jolson, Dolores Del Rio, Dick Powell, and Francis. The plot follows the activities of the staff and customers of the eponymously named club. Francis plays a married woman in love with dancer Ricardo Cortez. Dolores Del Rio, his dance partner, also loves Cortez. Al Jolson and Dick Powell love Del Rio. The plot sorts out and resolves these romantic entanglements. A few musical numbers are included. The film was quite popular at the box office.
As Dr. Monica (1934), Francis plays a woman who is unable to have a child, although she desperately wants one. She is attending Mary, her unmarried pregnant friend, who will not name the father of the child. Monica learns that her husband has been cheating on her and, unbeknownst to him, is the father. Monica is about to give him up to Mary and the child, but Mary commits suicide. Monica gets to keep both husband and child. This film was released in July 1934, just as the Production Code was coming into enforcement. Adultery and unmarried pregnancy were topics frowned upon under the Production Code, and Warner's soon pulled the film from distribution.
Francis' final film of 1934, British Agent, was a historical spy melodrama set in revolutionary Russia. Leslie Howard plays the British agent. Francis is an agent of the Bolsheviks. Of course, the spies fall in love and struggle to reconcile their different ideologies. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film has lots of supporting actors, including William Gargan, Phillip Reed, Cesar Romero, and J. Carole Naish. Francis gives an appealing performance as the confused revolutionary. Howard, as usual, is charmingly sympathetic.
Stardom at Warner Bros., Post-Code Films
In 1927, several studio heads agreed to the stipulations of a Motion Picture Production Code, which was a set of self-censorship guidelines that spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content in motion pictures. The studios were motivated to avoid direct government intrusion in filmmaking . The code was adopted in 1930.
In 1934, political and social pressure increased demands to remove sexy, innuendo filled material from films. The Production Code Administration (PCA) was formed by an amendment to the code. All films produced after July 1, 1934 had to have a PCA certificate of approval before general release. The enforcement of the revised code resulted in a major change in the plots and dialogue of movies.
The plot of Mandalay in which Francis plays a prostitute who gets away with poisoning her lover was totally forbidden by the code. The film would not have obtained a certificate and was withdrawn from distribution.
In 1935 and 1936, Warner Bros' cinematic identity was changing.The studio was moving away from stories about the working class, gangsters and sexual intrigues, and producing a greater number of literary themed, historical, and biographical films. The studio starred Kay Francis in White Sister, a biographical film about the life of Florence Nightingale.
Kay Francis had been making films which included elements such as adultery, extra-marital sex and even unpunished murder that were forbidden by the Production code, With enforcement of the code the sharpness and sexiness of her films declined and were replaced with a greater emphasis on maudlin tales of woe.
Francis also had a new leading man. William Powell had moved to MGM. The charming, effortless screen presence of Powell was replaced by the stolidness of George Brent who became Francis' most common leading man at Warner Bros. Brent appeared with her in six features. Bland and forgettable, Ian Hunter co-starred in several films. Appearing in one film each were Warner stalwarts Pat O'Brien, Claude Rains and Errol Flynn, all of whom had many strengths but none of them brought out much of the strong screen presence intrinsic to Kay Francis. Her final costar at Warner's was John Litel, a pleasant but weakling actor, raised to near major film status from his usual position in programmers.
In 1935, Francis's first three films under the strictures of the code co-starred George Brent. Living on Velvet was a soapy marriage melodrama directed by Frank Borage. Stranded is a forgettable story about the Traveler's Aid Society.
The Goose and the Gander, an attempt at farce comedy, is poorly plotted and slow moving. Male co-stars Brent and Ralph Forbes are colorless. Genevieve Tobin, playing the other woman is, as usual, delightful. Unwilling divorcee Francis, plotting to get even with ex-hubbie Ralph Forbes and Tobin, the new woman in his life, is distracted from revenge into a romance with Brent. I Found Stella Parish (1935), a strong vehicle for Francis, was successful at the box office. The film is notable for Francis' particularly glamorous wardrobe designed by Orry-Kelly, Warners' foremost costume designer.
Her first film of 1936 was an example at the new mainstays of Warner's production, a biographical medical drama. Warner's stars had excelled in these types of dramas, Paul Muni as Louis Pasteur (The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)) and Edward G. Robinson as Dr. Paul Ehrlich who developed a treatment for syphilis (Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)). Francis' film, The White Angel, stressed the determination and humanity of Florence Nightingale who aided soldiers wounded during the Crimean War. Francis, whose strength was in contemporary drama, did not shine in historic biography. She give a dignified performance, and the film made money. However, it was the only historic biographical drama of Francis' career.
Although Errol Flynn is best known for his swashbucklers, he also made comedies and melodramas. Another Dawn is among his two or three genuine “soap operas”. Francis, on the other hand, was a frequent player in the genre. The film is set in a remote outpost in the Sahara. Francis is married to commanding officer Ian Hunter who is conveniently absent. Lots of talk, some illicit kisses, but not much passion. Francis pairs with Flynn more comfortably than could be expected, but the film is rather tedious. Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed a notable score, but Orry-Kelly did not have much plot space for beautiful gowns.
In mid 1937, Francis signed a new contract at Warner bros. As part of the contract she expected to star in Tovarich, the film version of a popular play. However the part went to Claudette Colbert. Francis considered her contract broken and sued for release from the studio. Before the case proceeded to court, she backed down. The Warner brothers were not forgiving for her attempt to take them to court. They retaliated by lowering the quality of her films and putting her into programmers. The decline in quality of her films damaged her career.
From 1937 through 1939, Francis's films, mostly marital melodramas, are weaker and more pedestrian than previously. Women are Like That (1938) is a weak attempt to examine the battle of the sexes. My Bill is a tiresome drama about a widow with four troublesome children. The melodramatic soap opera par excellence, Comet Over Broadway (1939), concerns a wife determined to become an actress. Cast with Francis were Ian Hunter and John Litel. King of the Underworld had the plus of the presence of Humphrey Bogart in a standard gangster role. In the implausible plot, Bogart has murdered Francis's husband. Francis, a doctor, treats a wounded Bogart and hopes to prove his guilt of the murder.
As her contract was ending, Warners offered Francis a picture deal at $500 per week less than her expiring contract. She turned down the offer and left Warner's for free agency.
Free Agency
During her final seven years in film, Francis did not have a studio contract. She had roles in films made by several studios, including RKO, Universal, MGM, and 20th Century Fox. She co-produced her final three films at low budget studio Monogram Pictures Corporation.
In Name Only (1939), the first picture Francis made after separating from Warner Bros, starred Carole Lombard and Cary Grant as lovers separated by Grant's marriage to Francis, who refuses divorce because she wants to retain access to his money. Francis was very good while playing the most unlikeable character of her career.
In her films of the early forties, Francis played Deanna Durbin's mother (It's A Date (1939)), the feminine part of a love triangle involving Randolph Scott and Broderick Crawford (When the Dalton's Rode (1940)), Jo Marsh, the protector of Little Men (1940, her only Western), and an aging gold digger who takes on a youthful apprentice in the breezy comedy Play Girl (1941).
She looks beautiful and charming in the Jack Benny starring comedy, Charley's Aunt (1941) and in the marital comedy The Feminine Touch (1941).
During the war Francis was off screen as she toured extensively entertaining the troops. In 1944 she was one of the Four Jills In a Jeep, a fictionalized version of the experiences of Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis, and Mitzi Mayfair entertaining the troops.
After the war, Francis was not high on cast lists at the major studios. She turned to Monogram, a low budget studio, to make her final three films which she co-produced. Divorce (1945), co-starring Bruce Cabot, is self descriptive. In Allotment Wives (1945), Francis is the leader of a crime syndicate made up of a ring of women who, during the war, marry multiple soldiers to get their pay and life insurance. In Wife Wanted (1945), an innocent Francis is duped into a lonely-hearts club racket.
In the early fifties, Francis made two final appearances in television dramas for the Prudential Family Playhouse and the Lux Video Theater.
Theater
In 1946, after 18 years away from live performance, Francis returned to Broadway for a replacement role in the Pulitzer Prize winning comedy, State of the Union. Until she retired in 1952, Francis concluded her acting career appearing in summer stock.
Personal Life
Katherine Edwina Gibbs was born in Oklahoma City, January 1905. Tall, slender with dark eyes. thick black hair, and a regal bearing, Katherine was a beautiful woman. She had a throaty voice to which a slight speech impediment gave a lisp that interfered with her pronunciation of the 'r' sound. At age 24, she began her career on stage in New York. She entered films in 1929 and moved to Hollywood.. Her film career was a relatively short 16 years (from 1929 to 1945). During these years she lived quietly in Hollywood. Francis loathed interviews and highly valued her privacy. She kept close any information about her private life.
Francis married three times. She married James Dwight Francis in 1922 and adopted his last name. She retained the surname after their divorce in 1925. In the next six years Francis married twice more, William Gaston (October 1925 to September 1927) and Kenneth MacKenna (January 1931 to February 1934). After these three short marriages, she remained single for the remainder of her life.
After her retirement from acting, Francis lived quietly in New York City and summered on Cape Cod. At her death in 1968, she left her estate to “The Seeing Eye, Inc”, a non-profit organization which trains service dogs.
Career Consideration
Tall, slender, black-haired, Kay Francis' allure and glamor were memorable, especially in the striking wardrobe designed for her by Orry-Kelly and other Warner Bros costume designers.
Francis achieved stardom projecting glamour, sensuality, and, when necessary, an air of stoic suffering. Many of her films concern unhappy love affairs. with or without marriage. She frequently played a sophisticated women of the world, a self-sacrificing lover or mother protecting her loved one by covering up a sordid past.
One Way Passage (1932), a romantic story of doomed lovers that won an Academy Award for Best Story, is Kay Francis' definitive film. Co-starring William Powell, Francis' most frequent and compatible scene partner, the film has the power to move any audience.
Further Reading