MANDALAY (1934)

This wonderful pre-Code film is practically an archetypal example of the kind of film they don’t make any more: the steamy tropical melodrama involving sex, crime, betrayal, and fabulous fashions. ONE WAY PASSAGE and RED DUST may be better films, but this is more fun. In Rangoon, Kay Francis is the lover of Ricardo Cortez, a handsome but good-for-nothing gunrunner who is in debt up to his eyeballs. In order to get help from slimy nightclub owner Nick (Warner Oland), Cortez goes up river to sell guns, leaving Francis with Oland; he forces her to become a "hostess" (a classy prostitute) at his club. She makes good at her trade, dressing in slinky silver lame and calling herself Spot White--though we hear one man suggest that she should go by "Spot Cash." Head cop Reginald Owen tries to deport her, but she blackmails him, leaving Rangoon but taking a chunk of cash from him. On a boat to Mandalay, looking to escape her past, Francis strikes up a friendship with doctor Lyle Talbot, who seems like a nice guy, but has a drinking problem. Suddenly, Cortez shows up on the run from the law and threatens to derail Francis' future happiness. The old Francis might have been dragged down by Cortez, but the new Francis figures out how to deal with him, once and for all.

Francis' lisp is quite noticeable throughout ("Wangoon," "tomowwow") but she's lovely and sexy and quite believable in her various transformations. She has great chemistry with both Cortez and Talbot, and she’s a knockout in various shiny outfits. One of her best scenes involves her figurative bitchslapping of police commissioner Owen. Michael Curtiz directed, and the beginning feels like a dry run for CASABLANCA, as the camera drifts slowly around the assorted clientele at Nick's nightclub (but instead of someone like Bogart running the saloon, it's someone like Sydney Greenstreet). Ruth Donnelly is wasted in a small supporting role of little consequence, but she gets off a great line when she complains that her husband won't let her wear sexy clothes because they make her look "nude--like a wet seal." Francis sings "When Tomorrow Comes," twice clearly dubbed by a non-lisping singer, but once it seems to be her own voice. The movie came out in early 1934 and the ending, which lets a murderer off the hook, would not have been possible just a few months later under the newly enforced Production Code. Well acted, nicely shot, and lots of fun. [TCM]