The Keyhole (Warner Bros.) (1933)

CURRENT PUBLICITY (Prepared Review) Kay Francis and Geo. Brent Score Big Hitin*The Keyhole’ Tense Drama Mixed With Comedy and Romance, Is Sterling Entertainment With Perfect Cast HE sparkling Irish magnetism that is George Brent’s and the dark-eyed, mysterious, haunting loveliness that is Kay Francis’ shed a fascinating brilliance over the turbulent story of ‘‘The Keyhole,’’ the Warner Bros. production which opened last evening at the........ ee theatre. It is the first time that these two magnetic players have ever appeared together. Judged by their joint picture, Kay Francis and George Brent should be a combination that will appeal to all movie fans and lure the family to the local theatre whenever these two delightful personalities are advertised together. A FrancisBrent picture is bound to be one of the silver linings to any cloud 1933 may draw over the entertainment sky, if the standard set by ‘“The Keyhole’’ is to be accepted as a reliable criterion. INO-more:-Inauspicious start for.3 screen romance could be imagined than the occasion which brings Kay Francis and George Brent together in this unusual story. Brent is a private detective set by Kay’s elderly banker husband to spy upon his lovely wife during a mysterious trip to Havana which she insists in taking alone. No hero has ever been placed in a more unheroic situation than the one in which Brent finds himself, as he dutifully dispatches _ reports to his employer about GEORGE BRENT & woman with Out No. 1 whom he is a ~ > ee _._ «iho Cale | Havana, where most of the picture has its locale, supplies unexpected remedies for more than one of the difficulties that threaten the peace and happiness of Anne Brooks, the role played by Kay Francis. It rids her of the blackmailing menace of an earlier husband who had earefully forgotten to obtain the final decree of divorce he had promised her. Before her romantic sojourn in the Antilles is at an end, she has not only learned to appraise her doubting husband at his true value, but has discovered that true love is more precious than pearl necklaces and Park Avenue penthouse apartments. | Kay Francis Charming | Kay Francis is at her most charming, brilliant, beautiful best as the harassed Anne Brooks. Havana and its semi-tropical glamor affords a perfect setting for her brunette loveliness. The spell the Cuban eapital weaves about her, is transmitted by her to those who are watching the dramatic developments of the story. The unusual role of the private detective, affords George Brent the greatest romantic opportunities of any part he has yet played, and he makes the most of his role. ‘ant comedy seasons “The expertly supplied bys, Panther rn foae ‘seaas wena es Brent's Fellow: Se tere ss who insists upon accompanying him as his valet and secretary, rather than be left at home. Henry Kolker, Helen Ware and Monroe Owsley—the latter in the contemptible role of a blackmailing ead, which he plays with vivid suavity—complete the small but perfectly chosen cast of supporting players. Michael Curtiz, the director, has missed no chance to make “The Keyhole,” pictorially and dramatically, one of the most stimulating and different romantic dramas that has been offered on the screen this year. Scene from “The Keyhole’, New Dramatic Hit at Strand | Opening Day Story Kay Francis’ Latest, ‘The Keyhole’’ Opens Today at the Strand “The Keyhole,” a picture of romanee and gay adventure, unique in plot and glamorous in setting, in which the two popular Warner Bros. stars, Kay Francis and George Brent appear together for the first time, opens at the ................4. Theatre today. There is a swell chosen cast of selected players. Glenda Farrell and Alle. Jenkins form an excellent comedy team, theit psuedo romance acting as a foil to set off and accen KAY FRANCIS tuate the dra Cut No. 2 matic roles of Cut 15e Mat 5e the two eofeatured players, Miss Francis and Brent. The other three players who have important parts are Monroe Owsley, Helen Ware, and Henry Kolker. The screen play by Robert Presnell is based on Alice D. G. Miller’s story “Adventuress,” and is everything that the original title implies. The theme treats of a beautiful young dancer who marries an elderly man of great wealth and social prominence who is extremely jealous of his young wife and engages a private detective to watch her. Dogged by the spy and fleeing from a blackmailer, the heroine be -e¢omes involved in some startling ‘situations thet leat to strange en “tanglements. "The story earries the spectator from the palaces of New York aboard a coastwise liner to Havana. Most of the scenes take place on shipboard and in the Cuban capital. There are many beautiful scenes at sea and in the tropical atmosphere of the southern island. E Miss Francis, the tall, stately fashion plate of the screen, is said to wear some of the most stunning gowns of extreme decolette ever visioned on the screen. The direction is by Michael Curtiz, who directed “The Mystery of the Wax Museum,” “Doctor X” and “Twenty Thousand Years In Sing Sing.” KAY FRANCIS, GEORGE BRENT and MONROE OWSLEY having a “showdown” in “The Keyhole,” the new Warner Bros. picture now showing at the Theatre. Glenda Farrell and Allen Jenkins have the comedy roles in this picture, with Helen Ware and Henry Kolker in support. Cut No.10 Cut 45c Mat i15c Ist day of run Despite His Roles, George Brent Wins Audience Sympathy Few actors are able to play unsympathetic roles and still retain the admiration of their audiences. They may admire his skill in portraying a villainous part, but their hearts do not go out to the player. George Brent seemingly is the exception to that point. He apparently is possessed of a screen personality in which nefarious deeds do not seem to be a part of him in reality. He seems to win the sympathetic understanding of his audience even in roles ordinarily considered anything but heroic. In “The Crash,” in which he plays opposite Ruth Chatterton, he has the role of a man who gains financial secrets from wealthy men by using his wife as a decoy, not a particularly heroic part, and yet he holds the spectator through his personality. In his latest Warner Bros. picture, “The Keyhole,’ now showing BETO OS ara ce eae Theatre, he plays opposite Kay Francis and has the role of a paid spy, a man who kisses and tells. By all standards this is a characterization utterly lacking in sympathy, yet Brent seems to win it from the movie fans. True, he balks at the final betrayal of the woman he is paid to betray because he loves her, but even this redeeming feature would not ordinarily relieve the character of all taint. There is something about the stalwart, young Irish giant, who has been both soldier a> adventurer, that leaves the imr that he is incapable of the _— the screen. At any rate he seems able to win a hero’s halo in any kind of a role. The picture is based on the story “Adventuress” by Alice D. G. Miller, adapted by Robert Presnell. Others in the cast include Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins and Monroe Owsley. Michael Curtiz directed. 2nd day of run Little Food, Plenty Sleep, Kay Francis’ Only Working Rules Diets may come and diets may go, but Kay Francis, co-featured with George Brent in “The Keyhole,” the Warner Bros. production now playing at. COs ce oat Theatre, calmly ignores them all. And for a very good ~* reason. Kay invariably loses weight during the production of a picture. Not an alarming amount, to be sure. Nothing to worry about. But she never takes off less than three pounds. Sometimes, during a particularly intense and trying picture, she will lose as much as eight pounds. Her own explanation of this fact is that she throws herself so intensely into the part she happens to be playing, with all the nervous energy at her command, that a loss in. weight is the result. | Besides which, she finds that her appetite is subnormal during a picture. Kay Francis eats lightly from the day that shooting begins and doesn’t regain her normal interest in food until it’s over. She finds that plenty of sleep does her more good than food, and she makes it a rule, while working, to be in bed not later than nine o’¢lock. Young women who take their work, whatever it may be, with similar intensity, might do well to copy Kay Francis in these matters. Michael Curtiz directed “The Keyhole.” Allen Jenkins and Glenda Farrell are important members of the cast. Page Five