Presa do Destino

Kay Francis stars in the melodrama "The House on 56th Street," also starring Gene Raymond, John Halliday, Ricardo Cortez, Margaret Lindsay, and Frank McHugh.

What a soaper. Francis plays a chorus girl, Peggy, who is being wooed by two men -- Monty van Tyle (Raymond) and the older Lyndon Fisk (Halliday). She marries van Tyle. They move into a beautiful house on Park Avenue and E. 56th Street in New York City. They have a daughter, named Eleanor, after Monty's mother.

So far, so good. Then Lyndon contacts her, begging to see her, as he's not a well man. Reluctantly she does visit. She rejects his advances, and he reaches for a gun to kill himself. They fight over the gun; it goes off, and Peggy goes to prison for 20 years.

While in prison, Monty dies in action during World War I. When she is released, she learns her mother-in-law left her a decent amount of money and assumed she was not going to contact her daughter. Peggy promises she is out of her daughter's life.

Peggy has an amazing makeover and goes on a cruise, looking for a fresh start. Her father was a gambler, and on the shop she meets Bill Blaine (Cortez), another card shark. She knows he's cheating and takes him to the cleaners. They fall in love and go to work in a speakeasy, running the gambling concession. The speakeasy happens to be located at the House on 56th Street.

Peggy hasn't come full circle yet; but she's about to.

Kay Francis is fabulous, giving a strong portrayal of a woman who has suffered a great deal, yet carries on. And as usual, her clothes are gorgeous. In fact, when Monty comes to see her in jail before they ship her off to the prison, she's in black with sequins.

I have to admit I'm fascinated by the type of woman Kay Francis played in the '30s - strong, independent, smart, and vulnerable. She was perfect for these roles, which later would be played by people like Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis.

Every cliché, every stock character and every conceivable plot twist are knitted into this gloriously daft, frenetically fast early thirties ultra, ultra-soapy melodramatic melodrama.

If you found yourself in 1933 and was asked to make something which you knew audiences would flock to, you'd make this. It's got everything 1933 wanted. Rose-tinted nostalgia for the gilded age, romance, tragedy, estranged daughters, murder, prison ...and Kay Francis. In many ways it is just a box ticking exercise, there's absolutely nothing special about this. There's too much happening in too short a time for you to become emotionally engaged but nevertheless it's enjoyable enough.

Unlike something like NIGHT COURT, made a year earlier which makes you get up and rant at the screen with the injustice it portrays, this doesn't quite hit you where it's meant to. Although fortunately nothing like the awful STELLA DALLAS which ushered in the sentimental fluff of the forties, there are ominous clouds of that type of mush visible on the horizon in this. It's not helped by Robert Florey's bland direct-by-numbers approach, weird incongruous close ups and sloppy editing.

But still, where else are you going to get so much squeezed into just over an hour than in a classic Warner pre-code?

Stage performer Kay Francis leaves wealthy lover John Halliday to marry society man Gene Raymond. Visiting Halliday after an operation, he says he should have married her, pulls out a gun, and tries to kill himself. Miss Francis tries to stop him, but fails, and is found guilty of his murder. Twenty years go by before she is released and gets a makeover. She meets gambler Ricardo Cortez and they fall in love, but returning to New York, they get jobs at the gambling house, where her daughter Margaret Lindsay, who thinks her dead, shows up. And then the story gets complicated.

Miss Francis gets a lot of costume changes and a couple of hair-dye jobs, of course, from stage tights through high fashion, and does very well in her performance as usual. After her heyday, she got an undeserved reputation as a clothes horse and nothing more. Cortez, still trying to hang onto leading roles after sound revealed an accent unsuitable for his silent, Valentino-like roles, does also does very well. Director Robert Florey might have made this about the changing face of New York, and perhaps that story wound up on the cutting-room floor. With Frank McHugh, William 'Stage' Boyd, and Hardie Albright.

Kay Francis is as silky and dazzling as ever, but the plot to this film is a mess. It flits along melodramatically in its 68 minute run time, and we see Kay in three roles (chorus girl, socialite, and card sharp) as well as with three leading men (Gene Raymond, John Halliday, and Ricardo Cortez). There are several plot points which strain credibility, but there are also a few fine moments here and there. Had the film not tried to do as many things and had a little more depth, it would have been better, so if you're a Kay Francis it's worth a watch, but probably not otherwise. Oh, and gotta love that ending, which while unbelievable and silly, was only possible pre-Code.

I interpret this not as a full length feature but as a one hour front end of double feature (which would be preceded by a cartoon and a newsreel). In other words, you could call it a B movie. Seen that way, it is almost perfect. It is short and uncomplicated but manages to engage you and deliver a twist at the end.

It starts out looking like it will be another Kay Francis light romantic comedy along with the usual accompanying fashion show. Certain, she parades quite a collection of hats in the opening 20 minutes or so. Then the melodrama and angst kicks in and it becomes clear that this is no comedy.

It is not profound and opens no new paths in movie making. It sets out to entertain and deliver on expectations but manages to give something extra. You come away satisfied that you have seen a good movie but not so tired and engaged that you can't watch the back half of the double feature.

Kay Francis delivers what you would expect from her. In 1933, people went to see her movies expecting certain things and they get them plus some additional and effectively portrayed moods and emotion as a bonus. However, I must say that she is not as stunning and glamorous as she was in many of her other movies but that could be appropriate and deliberate here. The rest of the cast is up to their tasks. There isn't enough material for any of them to actually shine. The movie moves quickly and covers more than one time period.

Overall, a very successful B movie.