Mandalay

Mandalay (1934)

There are a few great reasons to see this movie. For one, it's an early Michael Curtiz film (he's the guy who did "Casablanca" and "Mildred Pierce"). Another, it stars the great Kay Francis, who is what we expect from her-charming, intense, subtle, significant. And finally, this is a pre-Code film (barely) with that little edge that makes it fresh. The plot is a bit jarring at first--the leading character played by Francis is Tanya (or Spot White, later) and she is trapped into being a nightclub hostess (and prostitute?). Francis is great at being both the victim and the ultimate in femme fatale (or a woman of power, at least). She's great. The cast around her is strong, too, and the scenes keep changing and evolving, so you have to stay awake to keep up. There is some really fabulous cinematography here, by the great but unheralded Tony Gaudio. One scene uses a mirror in the center of the frame to show one scene while the background shows another, giving us a fast impression of her nightclub. In smaller ways, the camera moves and approaches the key moments with elegance. Other scenes have just a great sense of light and drama (the short part with the turning paddlewheel of the boat at night is great). Everything begins in Rangoon. The scene shifts eventually to Mandalay, which is an inland city in Burma (Myanmar now). It requires a nice boat ride through the jungle, with all sorts of characters along. There are issues of servitude, alcoholism, virtue (as seen by Westerners visiting Asia), and maybe (in a strained way) love. It's a lot of drama and I like it, held in place finally by Francis. And check out the last five seconds. This is truly a pre-code film, and if justice is served in the end, it isn't what the Hays Code would ever have allowed. Sweet

Kay Francis stars with Ricardo Cortez and Lyle Talbot in the 1934 potboiler "Mandalay" directed by Michael Curtiz.

Francis plays Tanya Borodoff, who is madly in love with gunrunner/worm Tony Evans (Cortez) in Rangoon. While at a club owned by Nick (Warner Oland), Tony is ordered by Nick to get a boat and pick up some guns for the black market. And he wants Tanya to stay behind and work for him in his club. Tony agrees, dumps poor Tanya, and takes off.

Tanya doesn't want to work for Nick, but she's advised by a coworker to use the men in the club to her own advantage. Tanya does so, gets in trouble, and is about to be deported when she blackmails the police captain.

She gets 10,000 rupees from him, changes her name, and takes off for Mandalay by boat. On the boat, she meets a drunken doctor (Lyle Talbot)...and Tony!

Well, as usual, Kay's got the spectacular outfits. She also sings "When Tomorrow Comes" -- several times. She looks great. Francis always projected class and sophistication, making her an odd choice for a gunrunner's girlfriend who has to work as a prostitute.

Nevertheless, her dignified performance carries the film. Cortez is appropriately slimy, and Talbot is quite young here and charming. I remember him from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. What a career he had.

Evidently Shirley Temple was supposed to be in this film, but her scenes were deleted.

Precode film, melodramatic - for Kay Francis fans, and, thanks to Turner Classic Movies, there are many again.

Mandalay is the kind of exotic pre-code potboiler that is fun to watch even though none of it can be taken seriously. Perhaps that's the reason it is so entertaining, in a predictable sort of way.

Much of it is set in Rangoon, with lovely Kay Francis head-over-heals in love with heel Ricardo Cortez. Since it is Cortez, and he specialized in playing smooth cads, it isn't long before Francis is heart broken and soon working as a courtesan in a dive run by Warner Oland, always impressively menacing as a villain.

Francis' character becomes something of a local legend called Spot White, and soon she makes enough cash from men to be on her way out of the dive and in a boat on her way to Mandalay. There she meets nice but alcoholic doctor Lyle Talbot, not long before that rat Cortez shows up again. We'll leave it there for the story line.

Michael Curtiz directs it all at a fast pace, Francis gets to fashion some lovely gowns and wide brimmed hats (which her female fans demanded of her) and Cortez, as always, is a convincing louse. The film runs not much past an hour, which helps, and has a true pre-code ending which will not be revealed here. If the film had come out just a year later the ending would have been different, that's for sure.

A decent time waster, with some effectively atmospheric Oriental sets, and rather nicely photographed. Francis fans will have a good time, I feel. For others, a pre-coder that turns a bit soapy in the final half but worth sticking out, if only for that ending.

...for 'Francis, Kay' (qv) while she is stuck in Rangoon, Burma. After being dumped by her crud of a boyfriend Kay resorts to a few unsavory deeds in order to survive, but ends up hating herself as result. While it's hard to condone the crimes she commits, specifically the "hostess" part, the victims of her other dark deeds, well, deserve what they get. That goes for police officials as well as cruds.

The lovely Miss Francis gives another fine performance in Mandalay. I've managed to catch a handful of her movies recently and she has yet to disappoint.

On a side note, I found it interesting that Turner Classic Movies gave Mandalay a "G" rating. Hmmm, prostitution, murder, blackmail, gunrunning, etc... I wonder what their definition of "PG" is!

If you feel a bit dozy watching Mandalay, you're probably reproducing the state in which the screenwriters produced this lackluster script. Samples: "I was a coward. I ran away. But I couldn't run away from myself." "None of that matters to me. (pause) As long as I have you."

The dialogue, however, hasn't been through the mill as often as Kay Francis. Once more, she suffers! She is betrayed! She lives a life of shame! But, boy, does she clean up, with an arm that looks like a jewelry display for diamond bracelets and a wardrobe heavy on the sequins, satin, and chiffon--with a little embroidered organdie number for when she is Redeemed. I don't know how she did it, but Kay always had more sophisticated evening gowns than anyone, even Joan Crawford. There is also a number that out-Dietrich's Dietrich, when she sweeps into the police commissioner's office in a skin- tight gown, a hat the size of a cartwheel, and a fan half as big as she is!

This and some incidental players and pleasures (Ruth Donnelly, Hermann Bing, Rafaele Ottianao) make Mandalay agreeable enough. But what dumb dialogue--when someone knocks on Kay's door and calls her with a name by which she is known only to one person, she not only asks who it is but is shocked to see him when she opens the door! Never mind, just go with the flow, like Kay.