1935, Stella Parish vamp noir at its best! Movie archived
I found out this actress, the top star of the 1930s, was the namesake of my mom....
She made about 4 movies a year for about 15 years....? More like 6 movies a year? (sometimes seven!)
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls076667960/
She was making over $100,000 a year in the 1930s - big big money. But then her Warner Studio Boss turned against her - and deliberately tanked her career.
She WANTED to be forgotten. She also left her diaries of her affairs - five husbands and many more boyfriends (and at least one girlfriend encounter)...and apparently four abortions hidden in Mexico...breast cancer (probably from smoking), with an escalating drug-alcohol abuse hermitage...
Her big flop was in 1936 and she was relegated to B-role movies after that....but she was William Powell's biggest co-star of the 1930s. Films back then were direct from the theatre and vice versa - and so the actors were listed as "players"!! Kay Francis started out in theater just as her mom was a theatre actress and Kay Francis went back to theater also...
Theatre houses got turned into film houses - as this film points out.
At 5 foot 9 inches with big sultry lips, big seductress eyes, long legs, and a husky deep voice, Kay Francis, outfitted in the most dramatic fashion, captured the confident, quick-witted, career-bound progressive female, juggling raising a family with success.
It's too bad the progressive 1930s Art Deco scene regressed back into fascism - or the two were interwoven with progressives promoting Mussolini, sanitation and eugenics, etc.
https://www.screenchic.com/post/five-films-to-celebrate-the-onscreen-style-of-kay-francis
In 1966, Francis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy, but the cancer had already spread. She died in 1968, aged 63.
In the 1930s, Kay Francis was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, with legions of fans, and her image adorning more magazine covers than anyone but Shirley Temple. Few film historians remember her mediocre films today, but her scandalous diary became legendary.
femme fatale, vamp
Femme fatale is a French term that literally translates to “fatal female” or “lethal woman.” Before this name came into main usage, the term “vamp” was used for similar characters seen in earlier films of the 1910s and '20s.
Pre-Code films [before 1934] are now remembered for pushing the limits of the state censors. Pre-Code films explored the reality of sex and violence in contemporary culture that both shocked and titillated Great Depression audiences. Some films made serious social statements and others exploited sensational subjects.
Upon graduation at 16, Kay did some fashion modeling for New York magazines before working as an assistant for Juliana Cutting, one of the most elite party planners for the crème de la crème in Manhattan.
In January 1922, 17-year-old Kay met James Dwight Francis, a wealthy womanizer and heavy drinker. Kay had three abortions before they finally married in December. Her in-laws sent her on a European vacation in March 1925 to get a no-fault divorce. After months of partying, she returned to New York in September with her sights on acting.
She started her Broadway acting career just as Hollywood began recruiting Broadway actors to work in the talkies.
https://auxiliarymemory.com/2015/03/28/the-resurrection-of-kay-francis/
Kay Francis’ real life was more Pre-Code than her Pre-Code films. She was a predatory divorcee years before Norma Shearer made them famous. She was involved in three way love affairs long before making Trouble in Paradise. Kay Francis had a huge sexual appetite, consuming men and women in far greater numbers than all her film lovers combined. All her reel-life roles as cutting edge women were merely cleaned up versions of her real-life experiences. Pre-Code Hollywood films explored the lives of women with bad reputations, not as sinners, but as daring explorers on the social frontiers. Kay Francis grew up living those lives, first traveling with her mother a stage actress, and then later on her own, in New York and Europe. By the time she went to Hollywood in 1929, she had lived most of the roles she played in the 1930s.
https://archive.org/download/01-kay-francis
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaxpujmz7Q07nOEdLplME0V-yY8m_McIF
Vewy, Vewy Clever! Trouble in Paradise 1932
I forgot to mention Kay Francis pronounced her rs as ws - and so she was jokingly called the Wavishing Kay Fwancis
https://mythicalmonkey.blogspot.com/2010/06/wavishing-kay-fwancis.html
She hasn’t been able to pronounce well the letters that positioned at the beginning and middle of the word, whereas those consonants placed at the end of the word, he can pronounce well. For words that contain two consonant letters, the pronunciation becomes unclear and especially pronounced with a fast tempo, will make it more difficult for the listener to understand it.
http://repository.uin-malang.ac.id/6643/
You also believe that I let the Wobber go free!
Jewel Robbery 1932
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