Last night, Kay dreamed she went to Mandalay again. Not the Mandalay of Daphne DuMaurier's "Rebecca", but an exotic land far away where a beautiful woman in a gold lame' dress becomes the most notorious female in the country. This is a story with three acts. Act One: Kay is living happily with the man she loves (Ricardo Cortez) who ends that quickly by "selling" her services to club owner Warner Oland who basically becomes her "pimp", her a hostess/companion receiving "favors" from his clients. Her get-away won't be easy through Act Two, but she manages it. This is where she appears in the famous gold lame dress, an unfortunate choice for wardrobe which reveals Kay to be rather flat-chested. Kay does get to really act when she utilizes secrets against the local law to get out of Mandalay for good.
Act Three finds Kay shipboard on her way to Mandalay where she meets an alcoholic and suicidal doctor (Lyle Talbot), their romance bringing them both back to life. As she begins to accept her happiness, Cortez pops back up to destroy everything she's been clamoring for. Sound like a Dietrich movie? I certainly thought so as I watched the exotically made up Francis suffer, scheme and seduce her way across Asia. It wasn't a good year for Ricardo Cortez in Kay Francis films-he is disposed of in each of them, a metaphor for career typecasting if ever I saw it. Talbot, who later went on to Ed Wood movies (like "Plan Nine From Outer Space") has an interesting presence. Oland continues his Fu Manchu character with Rafaela Ottiano his Madame DeFarge like mistress who has aged past her prime and advises Kay how to use her new position to her advantage. Ruth Donnelly offers a few amusing lines as a shipboard busybody with Shirley Temple only briefly visible in a walk-on. Some of the plot devices are absolute toddle, but when you've got a fashion parade by the famous clothes horse of the 30's, who's gonna quibble?
Act Three finds Kay shipboard on her way to Mandalay where she meets an alcoholic and suicidal doctor (Lyle Talbot), their romance bringing them both back to life. As she begins to accept her happiness, Cortez pops back up to destroy everything she's been clamoring for. Sound like a Dietrich movie? I certainly thought so as I watched the exotically made up Francis suffer, scheme and seduce her way across Asia. It wasn't a good year for Ricardo Cortez in Kay Francis films-he is disposed of in each of them, a metaphor for career typecasting if ever I saw it. Talbot, who later went on to Ed Wood movies (like "Plan Nine From Outer Space") has an interesting presence. Oland continues his Fu Manchu character with Rafaela Ottiano his Madame DeFarge like mistress who has aged past her prime and advises Kay how to use her new position to her advantage. Ruth Donnelly offers a few amusing lines as a shipboard busybody with Shirley Temple only briefly visible in a walk-on. Some of the plot devices are absolute toddle, but when you've got a fashion parade by the famous clothes horse of the 30's, who's gonna quibble?