The Keyhole
A private eye specializing in divorce cases falls for the woman he's been hired to frame.
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- Cast:
- Kay Francis , George Brent , Glenda Farrell , Monroe Owsley , Allen Jenkins , Helen Ware , Henry Kolker
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
Get ready for some Kay Francis melodramatic fun! Kay is married to Henry Kolker, but a past suitor shows up to blackmail her with the fact they're still married. She goes to her much older sister-in-law for her advice. She says that, if Kay can get him out of the country, she can make it so that he can't get back into America. Their plan is that Kay asks for a vacation away from her husband for this purpose, but hubbie is jealous and suspicious. He hires an investigator to follow her and report her movements to him. Similar to Doris Day's "Romance on the High Seas," investigator George Brent then tails Kay and in the process falls for her and she him. Provocatively titled "The Keyhole," this film delivers melodrama with humor and Kay and George have always had great screen chemistry. They made many a film together because of it. Their scenes together are seductive and glamorous fun! Glenda Farrell and Allen Jenkins are part of the dependable supporting cast, and Henry Kolker has a great scene near the end of the film. "The Keyhole" is a great example Pre-Code storytelling! Turn the key and come in - and, lock the door!
"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). She 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.
There are so many elements of the storyline for THE KEYHOLE that were obviously re-worked years later for 1948's "Romance on the High Seas," Doris Day's first starring vehicle directed by Michael Curtiz, who is the director here.This one too is about a suspicious husband who hires a private detective to follow his wife when she sails off to Cuba. Only big difference is that she's escaping the clutches of a former lover who wants to blackmail her. Naturally, it's the perfect set-up for KAY FRANCIS to wear fancy gowns and to carry on an affair with GEORGE BRENT, who is the man her husband hires to keep an eye on her.It's predictable stuff, very formula and with the usual weak comedy support from GLENDA FARRELL and ALLEN JENKINS in an attempt to put some much needed life into the script. It doesn't work.There are very few Curtiz touches in the direction but the photography is fluid and the sets are fairly interesting. Still, it's a minor item when you view it as a typical Kay Francis vehicle in the early '30s.
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.