The Keyhole

Was there any pre-Code actress more cooly glamorous than Kay Francis? The story that has her a married woman trying to resist the charms of a private detective (the less than amazing George Brent) who's trying to entrap her is pretty average fare, but it's livened up a bit by a con artist (Glenda Farrell) taking advantage of his assistant (Allen Jenkins), getting drunk on champagne cocktails among other things. In fact, this is one where I might have been more interested in the subplot of the supporting players.

The main story is set in motion because Francis's character is being blackmailed and she feels she can't tell her husband the truth, so he suspects her of having an affair. Without going into all the details, it's a pretty contrived scenario that leads her to Cuba. Aside from Francis's wardrobe and a glimpse of an airplane (the seating section for which was amusing to me) there aren't really a lot of interesting period details, and don't come here expecting any pre-Code naughtiness. Rather predictably, the detective and the woman begin developing feelings for one another in the moonlight, which I'm not sure I was really rooting for. The ultimate fate of the sinister blackmailer (the well-cast Monroe Owsley) was a nice touch though.

Peeping through THE KEYHOLE we find an unhappy wife who sails to Cuba to shake off a blackmailing former lover, not knowing that her millionaire husband has sent a handsome detective to compromise her...

This elaborately plotted little picture is a very fine example of the kind of film Warner Bros. produced so effortlessly in the 1930's. Frothy, a bit silly & fun, it boasts entertaining performances and good production values. Depression audiences sat through scores of movies just like this, generally well made, but with interchangeable plots & stars.

Kay Francis & George Brent handle the romantic situations very nicely. Sophisticated & charming, they keep their stock characters from ever becoming dull. The humor is supplied by brassy blonde Glenda Farrell as a gold digging shill & dumb-as-dirt detective Allen Jenkins.

Henry Kolker as the suspicious husband, Helen Ware as his elderly, sympathetic sister, and Monroe Owsley as the oily Lothario, all add to the fun in their supporting roles. Especially enjoyable is little Ferdinand Gottschalk, appearing in only one scene as a comically flirtatious old banker.

Movie mavens will recognize sour-faced Clarence Wilson as the head of the detective agency.

Kay Francis plays a woman being blackmailed by a former partner (Monroe Owsley). She discovers that he never got the divorce he promised and her new marriage is illegal. Hatching a scheme with her sister-in-law (Helen Ware), she flees to Havana, hoping the cad will follow. He does but so does the detective (George Brent) her husband hires to spy on her. Wild storyline becomes more believable as the film goes on because of the chemistry between Francis and Brent. Good support from Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, and Clarence Wilson. This ranks as one of Kay Francis' best women's pictures of the early 30s--with One Way Passage and Confession.

"The Key Hole" is one of those "If you've seen one, you've seen them all" type films, though it's certainly not bad. Francis plays Ann Brooks, married to a wealthy man (Henry Kolker).

Ann was married before, to Maurice (Monroe Owsley) who never got the divorce he promised her and is now blackmailing her because of it. She works out a scheme with her sister-in-law Portia (Helen Ware) to lure him out of the country, and then Portia would use her influence to have his visa taken away.

As part of the plan, Ann heads for Havana by ship, with Maurice following. Her suspicious husband has hired a detective, Neil Davis (George Brent) to try and seduce her, and along with Brent comes his spy, Hank Wales (Allen Jenkins). Wales meets Dot (Glenda Farrell), and these two provide the film's humor.

Well, you can guess what happens.

Kay Francis wears many fabulous gowns. I used to think the kind of lifestyle her character lived was just in the movies until I saw a 1930s Vogue magazine. What a formal time that was, with people dressing to the nines for lunch and to do any kind of traveling.

Almost all the ads in Vogue were for trips on ocean liners. We've come a long way, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Anyway, the film is predictable, but Francis is good, as are Jenkins and Farrell. Brent is very smooth and charming.

Kay Francis made these films by the truckload, and I have to admit I watch them when they appear on TCM. She really epitomizes that early '30s era for me - an era that has not one vestige of it visible today.

Anne Brooks (Kay Francis) is married to a wealthy financier about twenty years older than herself. She was previously a dancer, and at a very young age married her dancing partner, Maurice LeBrun (Monroe Owsley). She found out he was a slime ball, and so when he asked for a divorce she was all for it. But he never got that divorce, and now he's blackmailing her over the fact that her marriage to Schuyler Brooks is not legal.

Ann goes to her sister-in-law, Portia, who comes up with a plan. Ann will lure Maurice out of the country by going on a ship voyage. Then Portia will use her connections in the federal government to get Maurice's visa revoked on grounds that he is an undesirable alien so that he cannot get back into the country. Then Ann can go get the marriage to Maurice annulled quietly.

But Schuyler, not knowing any of this, has separate plans of his own. All of Anne's skulking about, going to see Maurice secretly to try and stall him and keep him quiet have Schuyler believing Anne may be having an affair. He hires PI Neil Davis (George Brent) to follow Anne on her voyage and find out if she is the cheating kind. So far this sounds rather mundane, except that Neil has a natural skepticism towards women and their fidelity, and if he can't FIND infidelity, he sleeps with the women himself so that the husband has something in the way of evidence to take to court. But during the long time he is getting to know Anne, he begins to fall for her and determines that she is actually a good woman. Complications ensue.

The - I guess you'd call it courtship - between Anne and Neil takes a large part of the middle of the film, and it is rather slow going compared to the fast moving beginning and ending. Plus it doesn't show any of those Curtiz flourishes. It does show the great chemistry between Brent and Francis, and their later scripts were much better paced and suited to them.

Allen Jenkins, as a PI himself, actually helped this film, and he definitely livened up the rather slow middle as he struggles to be Neil's valet as a cover story for him being onboard the ship with him. But he also catches the eye of Dot (Glenda Farrell) who is a rich young woman on the ship. What does she want with Jenkins? Watch and find out.

There's a great bit of business towards the beginning where Jenkins goes to a hotel and warns a bunch of "Mr. Smiths" that there is about to be a raid. All of the Mr. Smiths leave their hotel rooms and head for the elevator at the same time.