Street of Women (1932) User Reviews

The title makes it sound sensational and prurient...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 10 December 2010]

... but in fact it's quite tame for the precode era. The title comes from a line that Kay's lover Larry Baldwin (Alan Dinehart) says about a helpful encouraging woman being behind every accomplishment on the street. The story revolves around the affair of wealthy married Larry Baldwin and fashion designer Natalie Upton (Kay Francis). They've been in love for several years, keeping it a secret from even their closest friends. Larry has basically been waiting for daughter Doris (Gloria Stuart) to grow up so he can ask his wife for a divorce. Larry's wife Lois has her calendar filled with the New York City social life and has no time for Larry. In fact she's somewhat put out with him because he doesn't need to work yet he continues to do so and his working is putting a kink in their joint social appearances at important parties. It seems she thinks that a man's place is in a tuxedo. Now that Doris is of age, Larry is about to ask his wife for a divorce, but there's one complicating factor of which nobody is aware. Natalie's kid brother Clarke and Larry's daughter Lois have fallen in love and plan to marry.

This movie is worth watching for several reasons. For one, you get to see Roland Young and Alan Dinehart play really nice guys. Usually these two played cads or outright villains. That's particularly true of Dinehart. Plus Kay Francis gives a very heart warming performance as a woman who is desperately trying to do what's right for everyone else and forgets to do what's right for herself as well. It's one of her more subtle roles, and she manages to breathe life into what looks like a pretty ordinary script. Finally, I really liked the relationship Larry had with his grown daughter - it struck all the right chords for portraying a dynamic that is transitioning from parent-child to adult-adult. The two had quite a friendship going.

Just don't judge all Kay Francis movies by this one. In 1932 Kay made three major motion pictures - "Trouble in Paradise", "Jewel Robbery", and "One Way Passage". This was just one of several B pictures that stars had to make back in the day in addition to their A list pictures.

pre code, modern woman Kay Francis

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 28 October 2008]

Kay Francis (Natalie) would make two films with Roland Young (Link Gibson) in the 1930s, and Director Archie Mayo. They also paired her with Alan Dinehart (Larry Baldwin) twice, also for two pre-code movies. And it was produced by Hal Wallis, who did all the Elvis movies! Also look for Louise Beavers, who would have a starring role in Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert two years later. In Street of Women, Natalie is a successful designer, whose brother Clarke (Allen Vincent) is coming to visit, but he's not as young and innocent as she thinks he is. Vincent was only in films for ten years, and appears to have stopped acting around 1939. Natalie has been seeing Larry, who is still married to someone else. This has several elements that will be used in "The Women" in 1939 - there's a showdown in a dress shop, between the wife and "the other woman". Natalie must figure out how to work things out without losing her family and friends, and she's got to do it all in 59 minutes. No wasted words in this shortie from Warner Brothers. Gloria Stuart, still alive as of October 2008, (plays Doris Baldwin) holds the record as the oldest actress to be nominated for an Oscar for the 1997 version of "Titanic", AND was a founding member of the S.A.G. acc to IMDb. The minister in this film, Edward LeSaint, had been acting and directing since 1912, and worked right up to his death in 1940. Interesting group of actors.

Too much type-casting once again

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 24 December 2006]

I happened to see this and three other Kay Francis films recently when they were shown on TCM. And, surprisingly, all four films were about adultery! So, when I saw her appear on the screen, I just KNEW she was no good!!! This sort of type-casting must have been what killed Ms. Francis' career--that and the more restrictive and less sleazy style of films that were mandated by the new Production Code in 1934.

This film was definitely Pre-Code in its sensibilities since it sought to explain and excuse adultery--something that NEVER would have been seen in later years in Hollywood. The explanation is that Larry's wife is unfeeling and only interested in society parties, so his three year affair with Natalie (Ms. Francis) is justified.

Unfortunately for the lovers, two terrible things stand in their way. First, Larry's wife won't grant him a divorce. Second, it just so happens that Larry's daughter and Natalie's brother are secretly engaged and no one even knew that they were dating! Talk about a ridiculously improbably turn of events! Think about it. Natalie and Larry's family have no sort of relationship at all and of all the girls in New York City, her brother falls in love with Larry's daughter!!! Please!!

Overall, this is a time-passer and not a great nor a bad film. However, for fans of Pre-Code or film historians, it is worth finding.

Proto chick flick programmer appeals.

[Mozjoukine · 4 January 2003]

Back in the early thirties, when Warners rolled out a couple of these schedule fillers a week, Kay Francis was briefly the star you played in theaters in nice neighborhood where cowboys and gangsters were thought to be too working class. This is not the best of the vehicles she adorned elegantly but it's become an attractive period piece.

Kay is the "indecently successful" business woman, making life bearable for unhappily (of course) married Alan Dinehart, on the BACK STREET model. "We've had our happiness. Now we have to pay for it."

Dinehart's company is building the sky scraper, visible in the process view through round windows characteristic of designer Grot, in her high fashion apartment. They want us to believe that these structures are all inspired by the women in their proprietors' lives - hence the title.

The idea of architecture as an expression of the personalities of its creators was still hanging round Warners when they made THE FOUNTAINHEAD and the two films make an interesting comparison.

Production is good and it's always nice to see Roland Young even in a straight part.

From vixen to heroine in one easy year.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 26 October 2017]

While she may have been forgotten outside of the late, late show in the 1970's and 1980's, the elegant Kay Francis has made a remarkable comeback as a classic movie star nearly 50 years after her death. Two books, pretty much every film available for either DVD or TV broadcast and memorabilia with posters, head shots and stills have popped up and been cherished by fans and collectors. I've been a fan hers since the early 1990's, so getting remastered versions of her films has been a long time priority.

In this short Warner Brothers romantic drama, she is the owner of a high end fashion palace, and is in love with the Unhappily married Alan Dinehart. His wife, Marjorie Rambeau, refuses to give him a divorce, even though their marriage has been an extremely unhappy one. It is almost like Kay's later film "In Name Only", but this time Kay is the woman deserving of happiness while Rambeau takes over the part that Francis would play with excellent bitchery almost a decade later.

The young Gloria Stuart who would enter film immortality 65 years later as the old Rose in "Titanic" plays Dinehart's young daughter, ironically in love with Francis's younger brother. When Francis learns how a divorce between her parents would affect Stuart, she tries to break off with him she loves for his daughter's sake, but he persists. This leads her old admirer, Roland Young, to make a decision that will hopefully bring Dinehart and Francis together. At just under an hour, this romantic drama is never dull and shows Francis off in perfect fashion with young Stuart looking gorgeous and Gateson overdressed to prove her snobbery and pretentiousness.

Not as racy as other pre-code films, this shows how a woman can be noble even when involved in a potentially scandalous romance. The opening shows Dinehart and Young overseeing a construction job, and then switches to Francis's analogy of the city below as a street of women, perhaps built physically by men but dominated by the "gentler" sex. It's obvious that the macho beginning was utilized to entice male audiences, but ultimately becoming a woman's film, still enjoyable none the less.

Pre-code elements save another bland melodrama

[a_chinn · 6/10 · 8 April 2017]

A married architect is stuck in a loveless marriage, but then find love again when he starts an affair with a dress designer. However, melodrama ensures when his daughter falls in love with his mistress' brother. The drama isn't all that interesting, but the pre-production code elements of sex outside of marriage and martial infidelity make the tepid drama a bit more entertaining. Kay Francis was the only actor in the film I was familiar with.

Kay Francis suffering in beautiful clothes; Gloria Stuart pre-Titanic

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 9 June 2021]

Kay Francis stars with Roland Young, Alan Dinehart, Gloria Stuart, Allen Vincent, Marjorie Gateson, and Louise Beavers in "Street of Women" from 1932.

Since this is precode, Natalie (Francis) is having an affair with an architect, Lawrence (Dinehart). There's no problem until her brother Clarke (Vincent) comes home and will be staying with her. Since she brought him up, she feels he won't accept her as an adultress. So she tells Lawrence that they can no longer meet at her apartment.

Clarke comes home and falls in love with Lawrence's daughter Doris (Gloria Stuart). When she finds out about the affair, she can't accept it. Clarke becomes so upset he basically dumps Doris and takes off for a job in South America. Seems a shame since Natalie and Lawrence have already broken up.

This melodrama has average acting, Francis wearing great clothes, and Gloria Stuart looking absolutely beautiful. Just think, a mere 65 years later, she'd have a whole new career after portraying the old lady in Titanic!

Francis does sadness well, and you do pull for her throughout. It's a real melodrama, and, since it's precode, she's not punished for her sin. I was glad.

Pre-code but less racy than the title suggests

[meaninglessname · 7/10 · 21 May 2020]

Whatever sordid ideas "Street of Women" might bring to mind, this film has nothing to do with any of them. This romantic triangle (or perhaps larger geometric figure) is more daring than it would have been after the Production Code cast its pall over Hollywood because its sympathies are squarely with the adulterous couple over the neglected wife.

In the depths of the Great Depression, audiences loved nothing more than seeing films about millionaires with no greater problems than their bed partners (or, after The Code, their platonic friendships).

The hero here is a financier building skyscrapers; the architect (no doubt to Ayn Rand's dismay) is an otherwise ineffectual sort who moons over a dress designer unaware she's the financier's mistress. The wife's crime is she wants to move about in high society rather than coming up with keen ideas to advance her husband's career as the mistress does. Since everyone has money to burn, nobody gets hurt.

As a soap opera about the sex lives of the very wealthy, what distinguishes this from similar epics? There are some interesting plot twists involving relationships between other family members that affect the two main characters. (I'm trying to avoid spoilers, though you've probably seen some by now.) There's intelligent and sometimes witty dialogue. Best of all, there's the fast pace common to the better pre-code films which, like this one, pack more plot and action into sixty minutes than today's two and a half hour epics.

Don't expect a real wild pre-coder, just a well-done romantic drama, and enjoy if that's your thing.

Back Street Light

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 13 January 2014]

Only a year before Street Of Woman came out the first Back Street hit the big screen with Irene Dunne playing the long suffering mistress whose long term affair never could see the light of day. I'm guessing Warner Brothers decided to film this story and give it to their current queen of tragedy Kay Francis so that they could capitalize on Back Street's popularity and give her a happier ending.

Kay is the long silent mistress of tycoon Alan Dinehart who has been married to a real witch of a woman in Marjorie Gateson. However he does have a daughter in Gloria Stuart with whom he takes comfort. Gloria finds out about the long standing affair inadvertently and just who do think is the young man is whom she's seeing. Why it's Allen Vincent, aspiring architect and brother of Francis.

For all concerned her carrying on with Stuart's father while Stuart was involved with her brother was too much for Kay. Glad she realized and glad Roland Young was around so she could wind up with a happy ending. That's better than what Irene Dunne and Margaret Sullavan and Susan Hayward in all three Back Street adaptions got.

This was a B feature woman's picture the kind that flourished back then, the absence of which leaves so many crying why there are no good roles for women these days. Meryl Streep seems to have no trouble finding them though.

Kay Francis with that lisp and soulful eyes was perfect casting for these films. She and the rest of the cast acquit themselves well. If your taste is women's pictures Street Of Women is for you.

Nothing to See Here

[srkoho · 6/10 · 14 January 2022]

No pre-code promiscuity in this one. Somewhat disappointed but Kay Francis is always a pleasure to watch. The love triangles keep things interesting along with the family dynamics at work but overall this one is just a OK movie to watch from a bygone era. Worth the time suck.

I'm Not Falling For It

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 28 July 2023]

Kay Francis can't avoid being the harlot. She was an adulterer in "Scandal Sheet," an adulterer in "Transgression," a side chick in "Guilty Hands," and a side side-chick in "Ladies' Man." It's like the producers ask, "Who can we use to play a woman with no self-worth or fidelity?" Then Kay Francis pops her head in and asks who called her name.

In this movie she plays a homewrecker again, one of her favorite roles. She played Natalie, the mistress of Larry Baldwin (Alan Dineheart), a wealthy architect.

Larry was on cloud nine when he was with Natalie and she likewise. The two were perfectly satisfied being secret lovers though they felt their love should not have been a secret.

In fact, Natalie made one of the worst speeches imaginable. When she was confronted by Larry's daughter, Doris (Gloria Stuart), about their illicit relationship Natalie claimed that love was nothing to be ashamed of and since she and Larry were in love it was all good.

What a load of nonsense.

Larry tried to justify it to his daughter by playing to her own convictions. He stepped to her and said, "You told me one time that you didn't believe in the old conventional morals--that you had rather a modern, intelligent, and tolerant attitude."

Ooooh what a slick one. He tried to paint his extra-marital affair as something "modern," "intelligent," and "tolerant." It was game if I ever heard it, except he was gaming his own daughter.

Larry and Natalie's love life was upset by her younger brother, Clark (Allen Vincent). You see, Clark wouldn't approve of such a relationship. He's what you'd call prude or a puritan. Furthermore, Clark was in love with Larry's daughter, Doris. So you can see how that would be a bit of a quagmire if a father and daughter were married to a brother and sister.

Then there was the small matter of Larry's wife, Lois (Marjorie Gateson). She was portrayed as a cold, emotionless woman who only cared about her social image. She wasn't the least bit jealous or upset about her husband stepping out on her, she was only concerned with the optics.

This is an old Hollywood trick. When they want to make the illicit affair more romantic and sympathetic, they make the spouse of the cheater wicked or generally unlikable. Lois fit that bill which made rooting for Natalie and Larry more agreeable. We can feel better about ourselves for wanting Larry to be with Natalie since Lois was such an impassive B.

I, for one, wasn't falling for any of it. In the end this was another fluffy high society movie about trysts, pretentious behavior, and social image.

Free on YouTube.

Let my life work out this way

[ecaulfield · 8/10 · 6 January 2002]

Did you know that Alan Dinehart has a voice like William Holden's? Quite possibly, you never knew who the man was before you considered watching this film, as in my experience. I have not investigated his career to determine how many films he was entrusted to 'carry,' but in Street of Women, he is quite capable of filling the role of romantic leading man opposite a most lovely, refined Kay Francis. His voice is just one aspect of his pleasing presence.

The film's title implies a connotation of the risque sort, which is not at all depicted here. In truth, when they are tested, most of the characters of this film live by an imposing code of honor which hardly allows them to pursue pleasure with recklessness. Despite some of the typical dramatic obstacles of a romantic feature: the unyielding wife who makes you root for the other woman (!); a daughter who is unforgiving because she is a bit untried in the realities of life; Street of Women provides an ample showcase for Francis to exude her gentility and warmth and gives you the opportunity to discover the attractively reedy-sounding Dinehart. And rather than the 'scoundrel' role he seems often to have been assigned, here Roland Young is allowed to play understanding matchmaker. Recommended escapism.

Kay Francis shines once again...she's a gorgeous heart breaker!

[Lopopolobooks · 8/10 · 22 October 2006]

I happen to be a huge fan of Kay Francis...my mother and her sisters felt that Kay was the ideal woman when they were in their teens in the l930's. Kay made her best films from l930 to l939. In this film, she is the intelligent, successful, and gorgeous lover of a married man whose wife is a bejeweled stinker. Alan Dinehart, who I've seen in very few films, is the unhappy husband in love with the beautiful dress designer Kay plays. The wonderful Roland Young wants to marry Kay, but she adores her loving married beau. Young is always great and here plays the suitor who is also in business with her beau, yet doesn't give up proposing to Kay. Alan D. has a pretty daughter who adores her daddy and gives him lots of kisses on the mouth, and who is this darling, Gloria Stuart? None other than the actress from Titanic...who throws her jewels into the ocean at the end of the film...she was so pretty as a young actress. Here she denies her daddy her approval to leave her mother so he can marry Kay. And who does young Gloria fall in love with? Kay's beloved young brother who won't forgive Kay for having a married lover, none other than his own fiancée's father! In the end, it's a noble Roland Young who saves the day, and younger brother marries his love, Gloria Stuart,(their wedding scene is a heart breaker!), and Kay and Alan are united at the end. I adore Kay Francis films because of her famous sense of style..her dark hair contrasting with her very white skin, and her huge, light colored eyes are devastating. Women went to her films just to see her hairstyles and her wardrobe; she was also a very very good actress, very believable. She had an amazing figure and the oh-so-fashionable clothes hung on her tall figure so well. God bless her and TCM for these gems.

A Forgotten But Still Great Kay Francis Film!

[JLRMovieReviews · 8/10 · 28 September 2016]

In "Street of Women," the love of women inspires men to build. These skyscrapers are testaments or monuments to womankind, so says Roland Young to friend and fashion designer Kay Francis. He keep proposing to her, but she keeps declining. Instead, she finds love in married man Alan Dinehart, but when he presses his wife for a divorce, she won't agree to it. By the way, Kay's brother and Alan's daughter, played by Gloria Stuart, are in love and plan to marry, but the usual complications set in. This is a very enjoyable little film, which is grand in production value and storytelling. Kay has never looked better and/or that much in real love! She has good scenes with actor Alan Dinehart that resonate with the viewer; these are real people we care about. But who will make the sacrifice for others' happiness? Who will live happily ever after? Roland Young, known for his "Topper" movies, is the man to solve the problems, as he seems to be the one with his head on his shoulders. "Street of Women" is a unknown entry in the career of Kay Francis that deserves to be shown on TCM more often.