The Keyhole

Henry Kolker suspects his young wife, Kay Francis, of having a lover. She is taking ship to Havana. So Kolker hires PI George Brent to shadow her and get the goods on her. What neither of them suspect at this stage is that the real issue is that Kay Francis is still married to her first husband, slimy Monroe Owlsley. Her plan is to get a divorce in Havana. She doesn't expect Owlsley to follow her to put on pressure, nor to fall in love with Brent, and he with her. That's just the inscrutable workings of fate and the Warner Brother script department.

It was originally planned as another team-up between William Powell and Miss Francis. I expect it would have worked better that way. Nonetheless, Brent acquits himself well. So does Allen Jenkins as his assistant. He falls for b-girl and kickback artist Glenda Farrell in a nice little comic subplot. Still, the focus is on the leads, with Miss Francis sporting her usual variety of Orry-Kelly gowns and portrait photography by Barney McGill.

Peeping through THE KEYHOLE we find an unhappy wife who sails to Cuba to shake off a blackmailing former lover, not knowing that her millionaire husband has sent a handsome detective to compromise her...

This elaborately plotted little picture is a very fine example of the kind of film Warner Bros. produced so effortlessly in the 1930's. Frothy, a bit silly & fun, it boasts entertaining performances and good production values. Depression audiences sat through scores of movies just like this, generally well made, but with interchangeable plots & stars.

Kay Francis & George Brent handle the romantic situations very nicely. Sophisticated & charming, they keep their stock characters from ever becoming dull. The humor is supplied by brassy blonde Glenda Farrell as a gold digging shill & dumb-as-dirt detective Allen Jenkins.

Henry Kolker as the suspicious husband, Helen Ware as his elderly, sympathetic sister, and Monroe Owsley as the oily Lothario, all add to the fun in their supporting roles. Especially enjoyable is little Ferdinand Gottschalk, appearing in only one scene as a comically flirtatious old banker.

Movie mavens will recognize sour-faced Clarence Wilson as the head of the detective agency.

THE KEYHOLE has a clear plot hook, strong characters (you love 'em or hate 'em), non-static cinematography and colorful details that keep you entertained from the first frame. A number of Kay Francis movies had a similar plot structure: wealthy, beautiful, fashionable, sophisticated woman with man problems, usually triangular, but in this case quadrangular. Michael Curtiz keeps this one moving at a fast clip. In this particular plot, Francis's nasty ex-husband (Monroe Owsley) is blackmailing her while her jealous, aging current husband (Walter Kolker) hires a dapper private eye (George Brent) to follow her to make sure she's not seeing another man and of course Brent and Francis fall in love. Allen Jenkins (as Brent's dopey sidekick) and Glenda Farrell (as a crooked golddigger) are on hand as comic counterpoint to the lead players. Francis is charming as usual, exhibiting her trademark "look" - the raven hair swept back to show off her natural widow's peak, the unique eyebrow penciling that curves around her melancholy eyes, and the statuesque grace; and of course her character goes through about 15 costume changes in the 69-minutes of running time (a different drop-dead outfit for every segment of the day). The public inevitably tired of her, which is why she is forgotten today; she was more interested in her salary than in the quality of her roles, as she freely admitted. But when she was in her prime, wow, what a prime. Moving with feline grace in backless satin gowns, she is phantasmal and ravishing, yet still earthy, accessible and even vulnerable. You can't look away. So what if she couldn't pronounce her r's?

Kay Francis plays a woman being blackmailed by a former partner (Monroe Owsley). She discovers that he never got the divorce he promised and her new marriage is illegal. Hatching a scheme with her sister-in-law (Helen Ware), she flees to Havana, hoping the cad will follow. He does but so does the detective (George Brent) her husband hires to spy on her. Wild storyline becomes more believable as the film goes on because of the chemistry between Francis and Brent. Good support from Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, and Clarence Wilson. This ranks as one of Kay Francis' best women's pictures of the early 30s--with One Way Passage and Confession.

You just need to see a few seconds of this and you know exactly what you're getting. It's the sort of movie that can only be an early thirties Warner Brothers: wonderfully corny, fast moving fun.

Did the writers sit around a table playing a game of 'who can come up with the daftest story?' In this lovely chunk of 1930s life, a millionaire tests his wife's fidelity by seeing if gigolo, George Brent, whom he's hired to seduce her can tempt her into bed..... and to pointlessly over complicate things, she's also married to someone else as well. Only in pre-code!

It's no classic but it is classic Warner Brothers, encompassing every trope you'd associate with that studio - great stuff! The cast is also the classic ensemble of cold-hearted rich folk, a slightly shady hero, Kay Francis doing the thing she always did, an idiot friend, a saucy gold-digger and a Captain Hook type villain - only the bumbling Irish detective is missing.

If you enjoy those cheap and tacky Warner pre-codes which are nevertheless professionally made (Michael Curtiz was in the chair here) or just watching Kay Francis doing what Kay Francis does, this should float your boat.