One Way Passage

This is likely the most underrated great romance picture of all time! The stars--William Powell and Kay Francis--are superb. The supporting players--Aline MacMahon, Franck McHugh, and Pat O'Brien--have never been better. The music score is a classic; the story a perfect gem. From the opening shot at a Far East bar, complete with a marvelous singing trio, to the final, heartbreaking moment, this film is the perfect 1930s concoction of great stars and a ridiculously silly plot made totally believable and palatable. Kay Francis was one of the top stars of the decade, and this is one of her best films; William Powell, also underrated, has never been more suave. Both deserved Oscar nominations for this great fiolm, as did MacMahon and McHugh for support (not a category for another few years). Kay Francis did everything during her reign as a top Warners star. It's amazing how she was able to go from fragile heroine to hard-edged woman and then throw in a comedy. A truly versatile and wonderful star rescued by TCM from obscurity. Sadly, neither Powell nor Francis would ever win an Oscar----Julia Roberts indeed!

What's wrong with this film?.......nothing. It has all the ingredients that make this type of film so wonderful......actors, set design, pathos, romance and it's pre-code to boot.

William Powell, one of my favorites, is paired with the soigne Kay Francis. They are two doomed lovers, each ignorant of the other's "condition". Powell is headed for the hangman and Francis has some unidentified terminal illness(which apparently doesn't affect her looks). Francis who could wear a burlap bag and look glamorous is lovely here and Powell is at his suave best. Along for the ride are Warren Hymer as the cop taking Powell to his fate, Aline McMahon as the con who is conning Hymer, and Frank McHugh as the dipsy crook. All are in fine form.

What ensues on shipboard is romance at its weepiest......a love that is fated to end when the ship docks. But the promise is made to meet on New Year's Eve in Mexico, thus leading to that ending that causes the audience to bring out the hankies.

Often movies made in the early 30s are a bit corny but not so here. The film seems rather modern and the dialogue, although there are a lot of "darlings and dearests" is fairly contemporary. If you don't like weepers, better pass on this one....BUT if you are a sucker for a tragic love story with an almost ethereal feel to it, this is the one for you. Be sure to bring the Kleenex.

This is an update of an earlier comment. One Way Passage is likely the most underrated romance picture of all time! The stars--William Powell and Kay Francis--are superb. The supporting players--Aline MacMahon, Frank McHugh, and Warren Hymer--have never been better. The music score is a classic; the story a perfect gem. Francis is dying from a rare malady; Powell is going home to face execution. They meet and fall in love.

From the opening shot at a Far East bar, complete with a marvelous singing trio (Jane Jones is one of the singers), to the final, heartbreaking moment, this film is the perfect 1930s concoction of great stars and a ridiculously silly plot made totally believable and palatable. Kay Francis was one of the top stars of the decade, and this is one of her best films; William Powell, always underrated, has never been more suave. Both deserved Oscar nominations for this great film, as did MacMahon and McHugh for support (not a category for another few years).

Kay Francis did everything during her reign as a top star. It's amazing how she was able to go from fragile heroine to hard-edged woman and then throw in a comedy. A truly versatile and wonderful star rescued by TCM from obscurity. William Powell would hit his stride a few years after this film in The Thin Man. He started out in silent films as a villain (When Knighthood Was in Flower in 1922) but talkies turned him into the epitome of the debonair gent.

Two great stars, but neither Powell nor Francis would ever win an Oscar.

In between his time with Paramount and MGM, William Powell did a two year stint at Warner Brothers where I don't think Jack and his brothers ever quite knew what to do with him. His films there, vary in quality, but the best of them is this doomed romance with Kay Francis, One Way Passage. The title itself tells how poignant this film will be.

Powell is a fugitive who is tracked down and brought aboard ship in handcuffs by San Francisco Detective Warren Hymer. Powell escaped while being transported to San Quentin to be hung for murder. At the same time good time party girl Kay Francis is traveling home essentially to die. Unsaid at the time because the audience knew what the effects of bootleg liquor were on some people from the Roaring Twenties. Her organs are generally failing and she's coming home to die.

These two people are as poignant a pair of lovers as has ever been brought to the screen. Neither knows about the other and the aura of heartbreak just permeates One Way Passage. It's a cosmic joke played on them, both finding in each other a reason to live and both knowing it can't be.

Warren Hymer plays it a great deal straighter than he normally does. He's not the brightest cop in the world, but he's a far from the dim witted hooligans he usually is cast. Aline McMahon and Frank McHugh are a pair of confidence workers who both team up to help the doomed Powell and Francis. McHugh repeated his own role in the remake of One Way Passage from 1940, Till We Meet Again.

The most cynical heart will melt in seeing One Way Passage.

The more I see of William Powell, the more impressed I am with him. Because he did a lot of light parts and is mostly known these days for the Thin Man movies, his reputation has suffered. He is a remarkably subtle actor, more so than many others in the early 30's, a transitional period as talkies wiped out silents and acting styles were in flux. His Thin Man movies, though fun, don't do him justice. I think his best acting is in earlier films like this one and MANHATTAN MELODRAMA.

William Powell plays a captured crook heading for execution at San Quentin. Kay Francis is a dying woman he meets in a bar in Hong Kong; they wind up together on a ship for San Francisco. The plot centers around their shipboard romance and how they try to keep their respective "terminal" conditions secret from each other. For a 1932 movie, it's quite modern in feel--lots of nice (but not grandiose) stylistic touches, like some sweeping camera movements, especially the ones along a bar that open and close the movie. Considering there is only one plotline, the supporting cast really gets a chance to shine; Aline McMahon plays somewhat against type as a con artist traveling as a duchess, and Frank McHugh is another crook who pulls con jobs while acting perpetually drunk. They team up to help Powell outsmart the cop who has him under lock and key (Warren Hymer). The character of the cop is interesting--he eventually is seen in a fairly favorable light, despite his antagonism toward Powell. I'm not a big Kay Francis fan, but she's adequate here.