VividSimon Simply Perfect

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

blanche-2 "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.

Neil Doyle 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.

kidboots Apparently women went to a Kay Francis film to view her dresses and with 20 changes of costume in "The Keyhole" she doesn't disappoint. One of the most beautiful stars of the 1930s, she is completely complimented by George Brent (one of the most handsome of leading men.)This film was loosely remade by Warners in the late 40s as a Doris Day vehicle - "Romance on the High Seas" - Janis Page had the Kay Francis role. This film being a pre-coder, had a few more unlikeable types in it.Kay plays Ann, who is married to wealthy businessman, Schuyler Brooks (Henry Kolker). He is very suspicious of her and already has her chauffeur giving details of her movements. Suddenly she announces her plans to holiday in Cuba for a couple of weeks so Brooks employs private investigator Neil (George Brent) to shadow her and try to make her fall in love with him.Ann has a secret - she was originally a dancer and married to her partner (Monroe Owsley in another oily performance). She thought she was divorced but he has come back into her life and is blackmailing her on the threat of exposure. She wants to holiday in Cuba to finally be rid of him.Allen Jenkins plays Neil's "valet" who becomes entangled with a mercenary gold-digger played with gusto by Glenda Farrell - "the only way he will get rid of me is to jump overboard". This plot was left up in the air with Jenkins happily going off to marry Farrell, still thinking she is an heiress.When they arrive in Cuba. Neil finds he is really falling in love with her - and Ann trying her hardest to resist.I really liked the film if only to see Francis and Brent together, and can heartily recommend it.

mukava991 THE KEYHOLE has a clear plot hook, strong characters (you love 'em or hate 'em), non-static cinematography and colorful details that keep you entertained from the first frame. A number of Kay Francis movies had a similar plot structure: wealthy, beautiful, fashionable, sophisticated woman with man problems, usually triangular, but in this case quadrangular. Michael Curtiz keeps this one moving at a fast clip. In this particular plot, Francis's nasty ex-husband (Monroe Owsley) is blackmailing her while her jealous, aging current husband (Walter Kolker) hires a dapper private eye (George Brent) to follow her to make sure she's not seeing another man and of course Brent and Francis fall in love. Allen Jenkins (as Brent's dopey sidekick) and Glenda Farrell (as a crooked golddigger) are on hand as comic counterpoint to the lead players. Francis is charming as usual, exhibiting her trademark "look" - the raven hair swept back to show off her natural widow's peak, the unique eyebrow penciling that curves around her melancholy eyes, and the statuesque grace; and of course her character goes through about 15 costume changes in the 69-minutes of running time (a different drop-dead outfit for every segment of the day). The public inevitably tired of her, which is why she is forgotten today; she was more interested in her salary than in the quality of her roles, as she freely admitted. But when she was in her prime, wow, what a prime. Moving with feline grace in backless satin gowns, she is phantasmal and ravishing, yet still earthy, accessible and even vulnerable. You can't look away. So what if she couldn't pronounce her r's?