La femme traquée

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.