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Kay Fwancis; Woman in the Case
Topic Started: May 1 2014, 12:28 PM (951 Views)
outerlimit
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Kay Francis was a statuesque actress with a good figure and talent.She was a Warner leading lady in the 30's until a film she starred in about Florence Nightingale flopped,and she lost out to Bette Davis and was dubbed Box Office Poison by the late 30's. (She was to be seen in King of the Underworld where she drugged Bogie and his gang so they could not see.)
She ended up at Monogram and made some good movies there. One of them was Woman in the Case, about a marriage agency racket. She got shot on a staircase at the end in a memorable sequence. Sadly, she is mostly forgotten now and her films are hard to come by (although TCM seems to have alot of them). I cannot find this one anywhere....
Incidentallyl she died at age 63 and left her then substantial estate to an institution for Guide dogs.There are others of the same name, but I do not know if they are her descendants.
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The Batman
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outerlimit
May 1 2014, 12:28 PM
There are others of the same name, but I do not know if they are her descendants.

From what I can find, Kay Francis never had children, with any of her five husbands, and had no living relatives when she passed away.


Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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Frank Hale
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I don't recognize that title, and I think you may actually be referring to "Wife Wanted".

If so, you are in luck because the Warner Archive sells it.

The story I remember about Miss Francis was that when her popularity started declining, WB wanted to get out of her very expensive contract and they put her in "King of the Underworld" to get her to quit. And there was collusion among the studios or something, so she wound up in Poverty Row. I don’t think she was ever "box office poison" in the sense that Hepburn was, though.

Posters at Nitrateville are always going off about her lisp, which, frankly, I never noticed.
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outerlimit
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IMDB lists "Woman in the Case" (1945) as her penultimate film, and it was for Monogram. I guess a lot of Poverty Row films got retitled, but it may not be the same...I never noticed her lisp, either.
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Frank Hale
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OK, I see that "Woman in the Case" is an aka title for "Allotment Wives". Can't help you on that one I'm afraid.

The plot description for "Wife Wanted" in my AFI catalogue seemed to match your description. Here's a link to the online version if you're interested:

http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=25054
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The Batman
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Don't know if this helps you, Outie, but ALLOTMENT WIVES is available for streaming from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11?url=search-alias%3Dmovies-tv&field-keywords=allotment+wives&sprefix=allotment+w%2Cmovies-tv%2C247&rh=n%3A2625373011%2Ck%3Aallotment+wives



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mort bakaprevski
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outerlimit
May 1 2014, 02:56 PM
I never noticed her lisp, either.
It really wasn't a lisp. She just had trouble pronouncing her r's. Referred to in the early days as "the wavishing Kay Fwancis."

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outerlimit
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Thanks Bats but I'm not into streaming.I'll wait till its on dvd.
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The Batman
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Streaming is not my gig, either, Outie. Hopefully a DVD release is in your future.

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JazzGuyy
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Warner Archive has been releasing all the Francis movies they have. From a recent podcast of theirs, more Francis is coming.
TANSTAAFL!
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JazzGuyy
May 2 2014, 10:44 AM
more Francis is coming.

We aren't back to talking about that mule, are we? :P



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JazzGuyy
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No. I meant Miss Kay. There aren't any more mules now that the full set has been released by Universal. Unless you want to count Mr. Ed, which I always considered a retread of Francis the Mule.
TANSTAAFL!
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The Batman
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Just jazzing you, Jazzy.


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JazzGuyy
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I knew you were, Bats.
TANSTAAFL!
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outerlimit
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Thanks Jazzy, however not all her movies were Warners.She co-produced her last 3 for Monogram, for example.
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