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Super melodramatic sudser with Kay suffering and suffering and suffering and the audience suspending disbelief. If you can do that you'll enjoy this exercise in excess.

Kay is as usual dressed in high fashion throughout. A kaleidescope of 30's fashion, which was what the public expected from a Kay Francis vehicle at the time and it's easy to see why. Due to her height, slenderness and perfect posture she's able to carry off even the most exaggerated clothes. However the clothes only take the film so far and the story that it's pegged on is the usual preposterousness that was also a regular component her films. Supported by a good cast, although Ian Hunter is rather stiff as the male lead, Kay plays one ridiculous situation after another with complete conviction. This was one of her biggest hits.

Lots of people seem to have negative things to say about this old film, but you have to remember when you watch it that Kay Francis was the consummate precode actress. When the production code began to be enforced in 1934, Warner Brothers had to struggle to find the right vehicles for Kay that would also not violate the code. Although this is not the best work she did before Jack Warner threw her and her career under the bus in 1937, it is a solid little film.

Kay plays successful American stage actress Stella Parish living in England. Stella lives a quiet life with her daughter, and refuses to be interviewed by the press or have any photo taken of her that is not a publicity still with her in full makeup for whatever role she is playing. One night, after a performance, someone who recognizes her from "her old days" waits for her in her dressing room and attempts to blackmail her. Stella reacts by fleeing England in the dead of night, daughter in tow. Reporter Keith Lockridge (Ian Hunter) is on her trail looking for the story of his career. He finds that story - where Stella is now and who she really is as far as her past is concerned - but he also finds romance. Of course the whole time Keith is befriending Stella she has no idea he is a reporter. After he has already turned in his story to his editor, Stella comes to him, confesses that she considers him a trusted friend and more, and then tells him the story behind the facts he has put in his headline, all the time thinking he knows nothing of her past. Justifiably feeling like a heel, Keith tries to squash the story he has sent back to London, but it is too late - the story is already in the papers being sold on the streets. What did Stella do in her past to cause her to flee, and how will this pan out for everyone involved? Watch and find out.

This is worth watching for the reason that most Kay Francis films are worth seeing - nobody suffers for her past sins and more-so the sins of others that have done her wrong like Kay Francis, and nobody looks that good while doing so. As for Ian Hunter, I really liked Kay best opposite William Powell and George Brent, and I thought Mr. Hunter was just a bit too bland to be paired with the glamorous Kay in most cases. This is one of the exceptions as he really plays the part of the reporter quite well. He doesn't play a Lee Tracy style journalist here. Instead he plays a classy man with a not so classy job who has to reconcile this with a pesky conscience that's finally beginning to bother him.

What is bad about the film? For one thing, I've never been a huge Sybil Jason fan, and in this part as Stella's daughter she's just over the top sticky sweet. Also, the production values are thrown together. Someone has already mentioned the business of English cars with the steering on the left hand side as well as the odd play Kay is starring in that is supposed to be about ... Caligula??? I'd recommend this to anyone who likes Kay Francis and old films from the 30's, but do be advised there are more than a few holes in the plot and the art design.

I Found Stella Parish masterfully engages the viewer. It is very stylized hokum, but yet it is sincere and rather poignant. Kay Francis plays an actress with a secret past that involves having given birth to a child out of wedlock. Taking a break from her stage career, she decides to focus on her role as a mother and travels incognito with her daughter, played by Sybil Jason. It's a nice bit of casting, and their performances nicely complement each other.

Three years later, Warners would reunite Francis and Jason on screen in Comet Over Broadway. Once again, they are mother and daughter, and once again Miss Francis is an actress.

Stella Parish (Kay Francis) is a famous stage star in England. Her private life is private. As she reaches new heights, a mystery man from her past threatens it all. She escapes to America with her daughter Gloria and close personal friend Nana (Jessie Ralph). Eager reporter Keith Lockridge (Ian Hunter) smells a story and follows them.

I really like the mystery man with him not showing his face. I would like for the mystery figure to show up once in awhile. In comparison, Keith is less compelling. The exposition is a bit too long, but she does have to tell the whole story. I would have liked this story more as a mystery thriller and less as a melodrama.

A chance for Kay Francis to drop her r's, wear a stunning Orry-Kelly wardrobe, and emote in several styles, this melodrama, effectively directed by Mervyn LeRoy, has her as an American who's become the First Lady of the West End, rather like Talullah Bankhead. She also has a daughter--Sybil Jason, whom several posters have panned, and I think she's good--and a Deep Dark Secret, which, when a silhouetted Barton MacLane threatens to expose it, sends her packing after a triumphant opening night (in a play about Caligula, and it looks like a dog) and running off to New York in unconvincing old-lady disguise. She's trailed by Ian Hunter, a reporter determined to uncover her history, and as he's exposing her unsavory past to the public, he's also falling in love with her. The implausibilities just keep mounting: Once in New York, Stella abandons her disguise, yet NO ONE recognizes her though she's the toast of the London theater, and her fall to cheap burlesque makes no sense, nor does the happy-ending resolution, with Hunter performing a good deed (aided by her producer, a dapper Paul Lukas) that makes everything right. It's mighty entertaining, though, and Kay, sometimes just a clothes horse, does some actual acting.

A potboiling soap opera with Kay Francis decked out in all the most exaggerated finery of the day.

Emotions abound throughout as logic and reason are cast to the wind. This is what they were aiming toward and what the audience wanted. They expected Kay Francis to suffer and emote and play on the heartstrings of some innocent man.

Her actions in this film are so illogical that they can only be seen as the conveyance to situations where Francis can suffer and emote even more.

They pulled it off fairly well.

This is a badly dated melodrama about an actress whose dark past is revealed by a conniving reporter. Kay Francis is luminous, but she can't play trash.

When Stella gets tough and starts on her downward trend, Kay, with her patrician beauty and educated accent, can't do it. A very talky movie, supposedly set in England, but the atmosphere and language aren't very British.

Apparently the play she appears in has something to do with Caligula - trust me, it's no starmaking play or performance. It was fun to see that the play actually had an orchestra, a reminder of the old days when "straight plays" were really huge events.

that drags in places. But Kay Francis is always worth watching. She plays an actress with a surprising past that catches up with her. Ian Hunter, Paul Lukas, and Jessie Ralph are all ok, but Sybil Jason is yukky as the kid. The play that Kay is a smash in a a total dog, but it hardly matters. Film could also have shown her burlesque tour in a seedier light. But this Warners programmer kills 84 minutes pleasantly.

Considering Mervyn Leroy directed this film, it has to rank as a disappointment. Kay Francis sleepwalks her way through a ridiculous plot about an actress whose career is threatened by blackmail. Casey Robinson's hastily written screenplay was probably an afterthought while he worked on Captain Blood, but there's no excuse for a film set (partly) in Britain to include constant references to people's 'apartments' and feature cars with left hand drives! Ludicrous Cockney accents we can overlook, but these details distracted me throughout the film. Everything about Stella Parish looks like a rush job, and Ms. Francis seems particularly anxious to call it a day. Not a complete disaster, but edging close to it.

Kay Francis is at the height of her screen career and in the title role of I Found Stella Parrish. She's a celebrated actress over in the United Kingdom who right after opening in a play to rave reviews suddenly vanishes.

Reporter Ian Hunter goes on the trail. Her producer Paul Lukas has billed her as a'woman of mystery so there's no real background. But with that voice, she's an American. Ian crosses the pond and on the same ship.

It's the usual story he falls for her, but the story comes first. After that it's who does she get in the end?

Also in the picture is a menacing Barton MacLane who is the source of her troubles. They had some history back in the day that Hunter painstakingly digs out. He's only on briefly, but he is scary.

Francis has some good scenes with her daughter Sybil Jason who's origins remain discreet as per The Code.

Francis runs a whole gamut of emotions in this film. One of her best performances.

For KAY FRANCIS admirers, I suppose this one is one of their favorite vehicles. She gets a stunning wardrobe and close-ups to die for. But unfortunately, even Mervyn LeRoy's direction and Orry-Kelly's wardrobe and Casey Robinson's script can't bring reality to the mawkish story.

She's a stage actress with a gilded reputation, but she's hiding her past transgressions in order to protect her child (SYBIL JASON). Improbably, IAN HUNTER is a reporter who's so anxious to get the inside scoop on where she has fled to, that he goes to extreme lengths to discover her whereabouts. Naturally, they fall in love and he has to confess that he's the journalist who spilled her story to the press.

At this point, the plot forgets about reality and sinks into soap suds until the bitter end. It's typical slush for Miss Francis, who suffers and suffers until that magical moment when everything is coming up roses for the last reel.

Forget about it.

Good for you. You can keep her. Like too many of Kay Francis' post "Paradise" pics the best part of it is pulling the plug which for me occurred twenty minutes in when I suddenly realized that I did not give a rodent's posterior about the title character's past (or present, for that matter), nor could I abide another minute of relentlessly adorable Sybil Jason.

PS...Ian Hunter is a Cary Grant for troglodytes.

Kay Francis had started out a couple years back when the talkies were just starting. Here, she's Stella, a British stage star who runs off to Amurrica to escape her past in this Warner Brothers film. Her daughter is child-star Sybill Jason, a precocious eight year old. and her mother, played by the amazing Jessie Ralph. check her out in Bank Dick, and so many other great films. what a presence. Co-stars Ian Hunter as the newspaper guy chasing after Stella to find out what's going on. What IS the big secret ?? Pretty good story. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. From a story by John Saunders. Had won an oscar for Dawn Patrol. and wrote the 1927 version of "Wings". and was married to Fay Wray. who could ask for more? apparently that wasn't enough. offed himself at age 44.

Kay Francis is a leading actress in the West End with a mysterious past, a cute daughter in Sybil Jason, and a loving producer in Paul Lukas. But the whiff of scandal sends her fleeing back to the United States, with reporter Ian Hunter (in the first of his nine appearances with Miss Francis) in pursuit, seeking the answer to the mystery.

It's a real woman's weeper for Miss Francis as she bounces from the heights of the stage down to burlesque and back again. Miss Francis is luminous in her close-ups, with the usual eighty-five costume changes. It's piffle, but everyone tries their hardest under the direction of Mervyn Leroy, and the results show on the screen. With Jessie Ralph, Barton MacLane, and Francis X. Bushman Jr (in a tiny role which is sometimes attributed to Erroll Flynn).