Street of Women

Whatever sordid ideas "Street of Women" might bring to mind, this film has nothing to do with any of them. This romantic triangle (or perhaps larger geometric figure) is more daring than it would have been after the Production Code cast its pall over Hollywood because its sympathies are squarely with the adulterous couple over the neglected wife.

In the depths of the Great Depression, audiences loved nothing more than seeing films about millionaires with no greater problems than their bed partners (or, after The Code, their platonic friendships).

The hero here is a financier building skyscrapers; the architect (no doubt to Ayn Rand's dismay) is an otherwise ineffectual sort who moons over a dress designer unaware she's the financier's mistress. The wife's crime is she wants to move about in high society rather than coming up with keen ideas to advance her husband's career as the mistress does. Since everyone has money to burn, nobody gets hurt.

As a soap opera about the sex lives of the very wealthy, what distinguishes this from similar epics? There are some interesting plot twists involving relationships between other family members that affect the two main characters. (I'm trying to avoid spoilers, though you've probably seen some by now.) There's intelligent and sometimes witty dialogue. Best of all, there's the fast pace common to the better pre-code films which, like this one, pack more plot and action into sixty minutes than today's two and a half hour epics.

Don't expect a real wild pre-coder, just a well-done romantic drama, and enjoy if that's your thing.

In "Street of Women," the love of women inspires men to build. These skyscrapers are testaments or monuments to womankind, so says Roland Young to friend and fashion designer Kay Francis. He keep proposing to her, but she keeps declining. Instead, she finds love in married man Alan Dinehart, but when he presses his wife for a divorce, she won't agree to it. By the way, Kay's brother and Alan's daughter, played by Gloria Stuart, are in love and plan to marry, but the usual complications set in. This is a very enjoyable little film, which is grand in production value and storytelling. Kay has never looked better and/or that much in real love! She has good scenes with actor Alan Dinehart that resonate with the viewer; these are real people we care about. But who will make the sacrifice for others' happiness? Who will live happily ever after? Roland Young, known for his "Topper" movies, is the man to solve the problems, as he seems to be the one with his head on his shoulders. "Street of Women" is a unknown entry in the career of Kay Francis that deserves to be shown on TCM more often.

I happen to be a huge fan of Kay Francis...my mother and her sisters felt that Kay was the ideal woman when they were in their teens in the l930's. Kay made her best films from l930 to l939. In this film, she is the intelligent, successful, and gorgeous lover of a married man whose wife is a bejeweled stinker. Alan Dinehart, who I've seen in very few films, is the unhappy husband in love with the beautiful dress designer Kay plays. The wonderful Roland Young wants to marry Kay, but she adores her loving married beau. Young is always great and here plays the suitor who is also in business with her beau, yet doesn't give up proposing to Kay. Alan D. has a pretty daughter who adores her daddy and gives him lots of kisses on the mouth, and who is this darling, Gloria Stuart? None other than the actress from Titanic...who throws her jewels into the ocean at the end of the film...she was so pretty as a young actress. Here she denies her daddy her approval to leave her mother so he can marry Kay. And who does young Gloria fall in love with? Kay's beloved young brother who won't forgive Kay for having a married lover, none other than his own fiancée's father! In the end, it's a noble Roland Young who saves the day, and younger brother marries his love, Gloria Stuart,(their wedding scene is a heart breaker!), and Kay and Alan are united at the end. I adore Kay Francis films because of her famous sense of style..her dark hair contrasting with her very white skin, and her huge, light colored eyes are devastating. Women went to her films just to see her hairstyles and her wardrobe; she was also a very very good actress, very believable. She had an amazing figure and the oh-so-fashionable clothes hung on her tall figure so well. God bless her and TCM for these gems.

Kay Francis (Natalie) would make two films with Roland Young (Link Gibson) in the 1930s, and Director Archie Mayo. They also paired her with Alan Dinehart (Larry Baldwin) twice, also for two pre-code movies. And it was produced by Hal Wallis, who did all the Elvis movies! Also look for Louise Beavers, who would have a starring role in Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert two years later. In Street of Women, Natalie is a successful designer, whose brother Clarke (Allen Vincent) is coming to visit, but he's not as young and innocent as she thinks he is. Vincent was only in films for ten years, and appears to have stopped acting around 1939. Natalie has been seeing Larry, who is still married to someone else. This has several elements that will be used in "The Women" in 1939 - there's a showdown in a dress shop, between the wife and "the other woman". Natalie must figure out how to work things out without losing her family and friends, and she's got to do it all in 59 minutes. No wasted words in this shortie from Warner Brothers. Gloria Stuart, still alive as of October 2008, (plays Doris Baldwin) holds the record as the oldest actress to be nominated for an Oscar for the 1997 version of "Titanic", AND was a founding member of the S.A.G. acc to IMDb. The minister in this film, Edward LeSaint, had been acting and directing since 1912, and worked right up to his death in 1940. Interesting group of actors.

Did you know that Alan Dinehart has a voice like William Holden's? Quite possibly, you never knew who the man was before you considered watching this film, as in my experience. I have not investigated his career to determine how many films he was entrusted to 'carry,' but in Street of Women, he is quite capable of filling the role of romantic leading man opposite a most lovely, refined Kay Francis. His voice is just one aspect of his pleasing presence.

The film's title implies a connotation of the risque sort, which is not at all depicted here. In truth, when they are tested, most of the characters of this film live by an imposing code of honor which hardly allows them to pursue pleasure with recklessness. Despite some of the typical dramatic obstacles of a romantic feature: the unyielding wife who makes you root for the other woman (!); a daughter who is unforgiving because she is a bit untried in the realities of life; Street of Women provides an ample showcase for Francis to exude her gentility and warmth and gives you the opportunity to discover the attractively reedy-sounding Dinehart. And rather than the 'scoundrel' role he seems often to have been assigned, here Roland Young is allowed to play understanding matchmaker. Recommended escapism.