Mandalay

Mandalay (1934)

There are a few great reasons to see this movie. For one, it's an early Michael Curtiz film (he's the guy who did "Casablanca" and "Mildred Pierce"). Another, it stars the great Kay Francis, who is what we expect from her-charming, intense, subtle, significant. And finally, this is a pre-Code film (barely) with that little edge that makes it fresh. The plot is a bit jarring at first--the leading character played by Francis is Tanya (or Spot White, later) and she is trapped into being a nightclub hostess (and prostitute?). Francis is great at being both the victim and the ultimate in femme fatale (or a woman of power, at least). She's great. The cast around her is strong, too, and the scenes keep changing and evolving, so you have to stay awake to keep up. There is some really fabulous cinematography here, by the great but unheralded Tony Gaudio. One scene uses a mirror in the center of the frame to show one scene while the background shows another, giving us a fast impression of her nightclub. In smaller ways, the camera moves and approaches the key moments with elegance. Other scenes have just a great sense of light and drama (the short part with the turning paddlewheel of the boat at night is great). Everything begins in Rangoon. The scene shifts eventually to Mandalay, which is an inland city in Burma (Myanmar now). It requires a nice boat ride through the jungle, with all sorts of characters along. There are issues of servitude, alcoholism, virtue (as seen by Westerners visiting Asia), and maybe (in a strained way) love. It's a lot of drama and I like it, held in place finally by Francis. And check out the last five seconds. This is truly a pre-code film, and if justice is served in the end, it isn't what the Hays Code would ever have allowed. Sweet

Poor Ricardo Cortez. While undoubtedly a fine fellow in real life, in his reel life of the early '30s, he was almost always a cad, and, more often than not, he paid big time for it. He was very good at being a cad, as demonstrated in "Mandalay." The movie, set in a back lot Rangoon, is snappily directed by Michael Curtiz, who always brought his Hungarian verve to a film (Mildred Pierce, Casablanca, The Sea Hawk, among many). Some of the night club scenes are reminiscent of Josef von Sternberg's exoticisms.

Kay Francis can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned (and I look forward to reading the new bio "I Can't Wait to be Forgotten"). Those big dark eyes and that velvety voice! And as a character in the film comments, she "certainly can wear clothes."

In Rangoon, gunrunner Tony Evans (Ricardo Cortez) gets a bad deal from scheming nightclub owner Nick (Warner Oland). Nick is more eager to have Tony's performing girlfriend Tanya Borodoff (Kay Francis). He tricks her to believe that Tony had abandoned her. With the stage name of Spot White, she has to work the men of the club to survive.

This has an unknown Shirley Temple in a minor role. More than anything, this is Kay Francis doing woman's work and I love the darker ending. There is no need for a happy ending in this one.

...for 'Francis, Kay' (qv) while she is stuck in Rangoon, Burma. After being dumped by her crud of a boyfriend Kay resorts to a few unsavory deeds in order to survive, but ends up hating herself as result. While it's hard to condone the crimes she commits, specifically the "hostess" part, the victims of her other dark deeds, well, deserve what they get. That goes for police officials as well as cruds.

The lovely Miss Francis gives another fine performance in Mandalay. I've managed to catch a handful of her movies recently and she has yet to disappoint.

On a side note, I found it interesting that Turner Classic Movies gave Mandalay a "G" rating. Hmmm, prostitution, murder, blackmail, gunrunning, etc... I wonder what their definition of "PG" is!

Mandalay is the kind of exotic pre-code potboiler that is fun to watch even though none of it can be taken seriously. Perhaps that's the reason it is so entertaining, in a predictable sort of way.

Much of it is set in Rangoon, with lovely Kay Francis head-over-heals in love with heel Ricardo Cortez. Since it is Cortez, and he specialized in playing smooth cads, it isn't long before Francis is heart broken and soon working as a courtesan in a dive run by Warner Oland, always impressively menacing as a villain.

Francis' character becomes something of a local legend called Spot White, and soon she makes enough cash from men to be on her way out of the dive and in a boat on her way to Mandalay. There she meets nice but alcoholic doctor Lyle Talbot, not long before that rat Cortez shows up again. We'll leave it there for the story line.

Michael Curtiz directs it all at a fast pace, Francis gets to fashion some lovely gowns and wide brimmed hats (which her female fans demanded of her) and Cortez, as always, is a convincing louse. The film runs not much past an hour, which helps, and has a true pre-code ending which will not be revealed here. If the film had come out just a year later the ending would have been different, that's for sure.

A decent time waster, with some effectively atmospheric Oriental sets, and rather nicely photographed. Francis fans will have a good time, I feel. For others, a pre-coder that turns a bit soapy in the final half but worth sticking out, if only for that ending.