SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

mark.waltz I can't wait to be forgotten, Kay Francis once said, and as it inches closer to the 50th anniversary of her death, she is about as forgotten as another great star who also died the same year: Judy Garland. Only three years later, Liza Minnelli exclaimed in "Cabaret", "I feel just like Kay Francis!" It took decades for her re- discovery, but she has gained a true cult following as her glamorous image was captured by two books and constant showings of her movies on TCM. During the VHS era, only a handful of her films were available. Now through the TCM and Universal archives, they are slowly all coming out, and this soap opera is one of her best.As the Tallulah Bankhead of the fictional London stage, Stella Parrish is an American actress who is highly in demand, winning the love of her manager, Paul Lukas, and gaining the admiration from afar of journalist Ian Hunter. When she is visited by a mysterious man on opening night of what could be her greatest hit, Stella vanishes with her young daughter and companion, hiding in disguise and eventually befriending the suspicious Hunter. When the truth comes out, she becomes a temporary headline freak and makes a drastic decision to protect the young moppet, Sybil Jason.Francis shares the acting honors with vinegary Jessie Ralph, delightful as her tough but loving companion. Lukas and Hunter are decent, and while Jason can be cloying at times, something tells me that she had the women's audiences in tears. In fact, the film opens with Jason singing a cute little ditty imitating animal sounds that either had the audiences in hysterics, cooing over how adorable she was, or cringing over how cute they assumed she thought that she was. The play within the movie is set in Caligula's Rome and was almost concurrent with the unfinished "I Claudius". Unbilled Barton MacLane's voice is heard as the unseen mysterious man but instantly recognized. Certainly, there are some plot defects, but that doesn't seem to matter under Kay's emotional performance and the direction of Mervyn LeRoy. This was a huge smash for Kay, only surpassed just two years later by the emotional brilliance of " Confession". While some audiences might find it hard to believe that Kay could be considered a great star of the stage, that's exactly where she got her training and exactly where she returned to when her film career began to dry up. The conclusion has the emotional power of Vicki Lester's final line in "A Star is Born".

christilynn2000 Sad to see the unacceptable comments about Sybill Jason posted. She was a doll. Look at "I'm a little Big Shot" and watch her magic. Kay insisted that Jason take another part in a movie in which she played her daughter. Her acting is precious and remember folks, she was being coached. I feel that people are unjust in speaking of a child they way they did on the comments. Kay Francis and Ian Hunter are magic. The scene where Gloria (Jason) is crying for her mother to Hunter is so real. Watch it, enjoy it and remember when year it was made. There will never be another Kay Francis. I wish more of her movies were available to purchase. I recorded several and my DVR crashed and lost all of them so I am buying them little by little but some are hard to find and TCM shows them only rarely.

stellaparish Although the screenplay could have used a lot of tightening up, I Found Stella Parish is certainly great Kay Francis. She plays four roles, really: the great stage actress with a secret, the dowdy auntie, the great stage actress ruined after her secret comes out and the great stage actress reborn.Forgive me for this next because Sybil Jason has said lovely things about working with Kay, but child actors are hard to stomach. I don't much mind Baby Leroy with W. C. Fields (in teentsy doses) but - oh please! - why do child actor scenes go on and on and on. They also frequently feature agonizing songs with the adorable tots and totlets while the adults (who you would Much Rather Watch) sit by smiling. Did 1930's moviegoers enjoy this kind of stuff? OOf! Ian Hunter, one of my favorite Kay co-stars, is thoroughly enjoyable although I could have kicked his character around the block a few times before he redeems himself at the end.I've never disliked Paul Lukas in anything and this film is no exception. Too bad that he doesn't "get the girl," here because - honestly - they have a lot more in common than the actress and the reporter.Engaging.

drednm 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.