Kansas City Princess (1934) User Reviews

Fast-paced nonsense

[csteidler · 6/10 · 5 November 2014]

Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell spout zippy dialog as a couple of manicurists moving up in the world in this very silly comedy.

Robert Armstrong is Dynamite, a good-natured tough guy who wants to marry Blondell—who is keen on that idea despite Glenda's outspoken disapproval ("If you was the bearded lady in the circus, you'd still be too good for Dynamite"). All three end up on a boat bound for Paris, where Armstrong meets millionaire Hugh Herbert and quickly declares himself Herbert's bodyguard.

The plot itself makes very little sense but is held together, more or less, by the personalities of the four stars, who seem determined to make it something fun, however thin the story. The dialog is certainly colorful—packed with phrases like "a low down mug" and "That guy getting fresh?"—and generally delivered as rapidly as humanly possible (especially by Blondell and Farrell, certainly a couple of Hollywood's all-time great fast talkers).

Overall, it's not particularly memorable but very easy to take for the hour or so it lasts.

This farce has some good laughs at first, but it peters out half-way through.

[Art-22 · 6/10 · 10 December 1998]

Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell play fast-talking, wise-cracking blondes, roles they often had because they did it so well. They wind up trying to escape from small-time hood Robert Armstrong, who believes Blondell gave her engagement ring to Gordon Westcott, who actually stole it from her. The chase is on when Westcott meets Armstrong and shows the ring to him. He steals it back again, but is furious enough to wring Blondell's neck if he catches up with her. The fun in the first part is all in the chase, with the girls staying one step ahead of Armstrong, first by donning scout uniforms to get on their convention train, and then by jumping into a cab already occupied by two aldermen going to Paris by ship. Armstrong flew to New York to get there ahead of the train and followed the cab, with all three boarding the ship. Before you know it, they are on their way to Paris, but broke. The girls use their wiles to get passage money, and Armstrong uses his gun to force millionaire Hugh Herbert to hire him as a bodyguard. Farrell is more the gold digger of the two, and when she hears a millionaire is on board, they pose as French manicurists to get into his room, where Armstrong is waiting, but more pacified. At this point, the focus of the film changes, much to its detriment. The three hatch a plan to get Herbert's wife, Renee Whitney, to stop fooling around with Ivan Lebedeff in Paris and come back to Herbert. The idea is to trap Lebedeff in a room with one of the girls, so that Whitney can see how unfaithful he is to her. It didn't quite work out that way, with Herbert in for a big surprise.

The first half of the film was genuinely funny, with lots of quips and one-liners, including Farrell reminding Blondell that girls these days need three things - money, jack, and dough. The second half was more tedious than funny, and except, perhaps, for the surprise ending, was a waste of time.

Paris on the con

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 15 December 2016]

Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell found enough roles between them as wisecracking dames who've been once around the track too often and have learned that they seemed at times to be in every Warner Brothers urban picture for a while in the early 30s. So no matter the quality of the film itself they're always fun to watch and more fun to listen.

The two are like peas in a pod here, a pair of manicurists from Kansas City. One of them is engaged to gangster Robert Armstrong and the other still has oats to sow. But when Farrell loses the engagement ring, both manage to con their way to New York and then Paris. The girls do their manicuring thing on the ocean liner after they're caught without tickets. Armstrong too is resourceful and he hooks up with eccentric millionaire Hugh Herbert. That last sentence is a redundancy.

No use to tell any more of the plot it's pretty fast moving, but also goes off in all directions and becomes incoherent at times. Note also the presence of Osgood Perkins as a phony French private eye.

For fans of Blondell and Farrell, you folks should see Kansas City Princess.

Starts Off Good but Quickly Falls Apart

[Michael_Elliott · 6 December 2013]

Kansas City Princess (1934)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Rosie (Joan Blondell) decides to go out with a man after her best friend (Glenda Farrell) says that her gangster boyfriend (Robert Armstrong) doesn't deserve her. Once out on the date the man steals a valuable ring from her that was given to her by the gangster. Fearing for their safety, the two girls head to New York but of course the gangster finds out and goes after them. No, this isn't a hard-hitting drama from Warner but instead it's a "B" comedy that starts off well but quickly falls apart into a disastrous second half. Blondell and Farrell are so good together that the film actually starts off on a very good note. I thought the two actresses had some nice chemistry together and we get a pretty funny sequence where Farrell is teaching Blondell what to say in order to get a rich man. There's also a pretty good dinner sequence where the two ladies and their dates end up in a bad situation. Once the girls jump on the train and head to New York, the entire film just comes crashing down. As others have pointed out, it really does seem as if the screenplay wasn't completed so the actors, director and others just showed up and starting making things up as they went along. There's really not a single thing in the second half of this picture that makes any sense and for the life of me it just seemed like a bunch of characters talking at one another in order for the running time to reach past the hour mark. Before long additional characters are brought into the chaos and it still doesn't make any sense. The only ones who are going to want to check this out are fans of the two ladies. Both are good in the film but even their charm can't save this stinker.

Always Willing To Look At Joan Blondell

[boblipton · 6/10 · 7 July 2020]

The IMDB synopsis describes this movie as "two wisecracking manicurists flee an irate gangster". That's a better precis than I could manage. William Keighley doesn't seem able to do much with a complicated script; only Hugh Herbert (as a millionaire on his way to confront his wayward wife) and Glenda Farrell as the inciting manicurist are very good. Robert Armstrong is ok as the irate gangster, but Joan Blondell is unaccountably rote, trying to make sense of her lines in what should be a high-speed farce.

That's rather a disappointment to me. In just shy of 50 years of film performances, it's rare to see Miss Blondell not be great.

could be funnier

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 28 June 2022]

Rosie Sturges (Joan Blondell) and best friend Marie Callahan (Glenda Farrell) are manicurists in Kansas City. Marie does not like Rosie's gangster boyfriend Dynamite Carson (Robert Armstrong). There is a ring, girl scouts, and plenty of situational comedy.

This is a gangster screwball comedy thriller. The situation is convoluted. I was expecting more from the girl scouts. There is potential for greater comedy. The concept suggests some more outrageous fun but it doesn't quite get there.

Zany screwball comedy

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 11 March 2017]

This is a screwball comedy with a plot that plays fast and loose with any semblance of credibility. It has Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, two manicurists, running away from Blondell's boyfriend (Robert Armstrong) because she was duped out of her engagement ring. It just happens to have been by one of his friends, and instead of explaining, the two masquerade as part of a girls club and hop on a train to New York, and then when still pursued, a boat to Paris. It's pretty zany, can you tell? Along the way, the amateur magicians they run into are fun to watch, but the millionaire played by Hugh Herbert is less so. It's not great but watchable, with some entertaining banter between Blondell, Farrell, and Armstrong.

Perhaps the main alert broadcast by this flick . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 19 December 2018]

. . . emanating from the always eponymous Warner Bros. was an urgent plea to be on the lookout for public corruption, then running rampant at levels not to be surpassed until America's Present Day Putin Administration. Zanesville, OH, aldermen "James Cameron and Sam Warren" are particularly proficient at pilfering Public Resources, as they travel toward Europe on the Taxpayer's dime (and a luxury liner), boasting seemingly full access to the City Treasury for funding frivolous flings with far-flung floozies. Warner's prophetic prognosticators no doubt select Zanesville as the Heart of Municipal Darkness here for a reason. When KANSAS CITY PRINCESS first played the Big Screen, Zanesville was infamous for being the ancestral home of "Zane Grey," the first writer to make a million bucks from his scribbling. Mr. Pearl Grey was NOT born with a Christian Silver Spoon in his mouth--his early tomes were underwritten as "vanity press" offerings by his well-heeled wife! As luck would have it, the self-styled "Zane" soon raked in enough dough to buy a large fishing trawler and have it turned into his own private "yacht." This allowed him to escape his missus by tooling around the world with his drinking buddies HALF of every year, dashing off his "best-sellers" when he was not too busy setting most of the world records for hooking irreplaceable "trophy" fish. Since Warner Bros.' seers always excelled at exposing anti-social charlatans, it's small wonder that they chose Zanesville for the home of their pair of globe-trotting swinish wastrels in KANSAS CITY PRINCESS.

Fine except that the film really has no plot...none.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 5 September 2013]

"Kansas City Princess" is a film that sure looks as if the script was not even close to being finished when the movie was shot. So much of it seemed vague and incomplete that I just can't recommend it no matter how much I enjoyed the actors.

Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell are two hucksters who manage to get themselves onto a cruise ship despite having no money. Through conniving and lying, they manage to ingratiate themselves to a dippy rich guy (Hugh Herbert). Additionally, Blondell's boyfriend (Robert Armstrong) also manages to get hired by this dippy rich guy. What happens next just seems random and silly...which it was.

I like Joan Blondell films. She played a great dame and Farrell was also quite good. The problem is that they had no script to work with and I kept waiting for the story to materialize...which it never did! Overall, enjoyable but severely lacking when it comes to story.

"Say, have you been snortin' that nose candy again?"

[pronker · 5/10 · 26 November 2018]

Asks Armstrong of Barnett, who is his stooge, not that Armstrong is much higher on the social ladder. This is among a few zingers that the script provides, along with Farrell and Blondell playing manicurists who troll for sweethearts who will lift them out of drudgery. Farrell is more the calculating type, while Blondell has fallen, at least halfway, for Armstrong's semi-lawless self. The movie's costumes are among the prettiest from the era and the direction has a few surprises. For example following Armstrong through a crowded hotel lobby to where his sweety works; the camera continues to show Blondell working back to back with Farrell as they polish the appearance of their customers, while showing Armstrong looking on through a plate glass divider.

This is fun to watch, because the two blondes calculate themselves into and out of financial troubles with startling aplomb. The plot itself guarantees a viewer to pay strict attention to the ways in which the two ladies struggle to keep above water in Depression America. Two aldermen cheerfully bankroll their trip to Paris, where the story comes a cropper with unpleasant cheating wives, conniving PIs, and lots of crowd scenes to catch Herbert playing around in order to secure Wifey's divorce proceedings. That part wasn't quite as fun; much better was the first half of the movie's disguise of the two jolly ladies as glum Girl Scout types on way to /their/ convention.

All in all, Armstrong, Farrell, and Blondell amuse with Herbert, not so much. The denouement pairing off the two girls was unexpected.

Miss Blondell & Miss Farrell Are At It Again

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 16 September 2002]

Two smart dames must take it on the lam when a jealous hoodlum goes out of control.

KANSAS CITY PRINCESS was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which Warner Brothers Studio produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.

Joan Blondell & Glenda Farrell are perfectly cast as the sassy, fast-talking females who use their wiles to get them all the way to Paris. Unlike their other films, the gals have an even parity here, equally sharing the wisecracks and what little romantics the plot tosses their way.

Robert Armstrong does very well as the somewhat dense petty gangster who precipitates the girls' flight. Hugh Herbert, wacky & whimsical as ever, appears as a hapless millionaire who befriends Blondell & Farrell, making use of them in a hilariously inept plan to catch his faithless wife.

Smaller roles are very nicely filled by T. Roy Barnes & Hobart Cavanaugh as two free spirited aldermen who happily assist the girls when they need it most; and Ivan Lebedeff as the wily Russian doctor who is cuckolding Herbert.

Movie mavens will recognize Arthur Houseman as a inebriate getting a manicure from Blondell; and Lillian Harmer as the formidable Girls of America leader, both unbilled.

While never stars of the first rank, Joan Blondell (1906-1979) & Glenda Farrell (1904-1971) enlivened scores of films at Warner Bros. throughout the 1930's, especially the eight in which they appeared together. Whether playing gold diggers or working girls, reporters or secretaries, these blonde & brassy ladies were very nearly always a match for whatever leading man was lucky enough to share equal billing alongside them. With a wisecrack or a glance, their characters showed they were ready to take on the world - and any man in it. Never as wickedly brazen as Paramount's Mae West, you always had the feeling that, tough as they were, Blondell & Farrell used their toughness to defend vulnerable hearts ready to break over the right guy. While many performances from seven decades ago can look campy or contrived today, these two lovely ladies are still spirited & sassy.

kc princess

[mossgrymk · 5/10 · 28 July 2022]

Blondell and Farrell, as usual, have lots of sass. Laughs, however, are in considerably shorter supply. Especially unfunny is the shipboard stuff which, when compared to the comedic battleship that is "Gentleman Prefer Blondes", is barely a dinghy.

In the hands of anyone other than Blondell and Farrell, this wouldn't be all that interesting.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 9 June 2020]

Another variation of the gold diggers story, this is one of half a dozen or so films starring the team of the feisty and wisecracking Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell. They are manacurists on the run from record cheer Robert Armstrong who end up on a steamship heading from New York to Paris where they encounter millionaire Hugh Herbert who has ironically hired Armstrong as his bodyguard. Doing their best to pacify Armstrong and gain some money, they go after wealthy men on this ship with Blondell setting her sights on a French playboy and Farrell going after Herbert who is estranged from his wife.

It's only because of the two female stars that this life is above its formula comedy of wisecracks and unbelievable situations. The two ladies just barely pass muster of making their characters somewhat like a bowl, it's obvious that are simply out for all they can get without caring about who goes down. Herbert's gimmick of being a wealthy ditz has its limits, often creating more groans than laughs. The conclusion of the film is extremely loud with blonde gals cleaning illness and moaning non-stop as everybody rushes to her room, thinking that she is being attacked. This lacks funny lines names of the industry worth quoting, and it is very apparent that the team of Blondell and Farrell had done much better.

Like an episode of that sit com you watch.

[1930s_Time_Machine · 5/10 · 13 March 2023]

From the first few bars of Leo Forbstein's jaunty, jolly intro music you know what to expect and that's exactly what you get: Joan and Glenda's smart and sassy comedy double act guaranteed to make you smile.

You'll certainly smile but probably not laugh at this one. Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell are both brilliant as are Robert Armstrong and Frank McHugh but this is one of the weaker pictures in the series. It's entertaining enough (in fact, very entertaining) but somehow doesn't feel as funny as it should be. Some critics have blamed the ridiculous story but it's no less believable than those of their other ones. Possibly this wasn't quite as sparky because it was made at the time when the new Production Code regulations were being introduced - it must have been difficult adapting such a racy, raunchy double act to conform with Hollywood's new pseudo-puritanical regime.

It's not a fabulous film, the story is makes no sense, the acting flips between over the top overacting and uninspired just reading by rote but.... I still loved this. It's harmless, good natured fun.

a Blondell & Farrell adventure

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 14 December 2019]

One of the many films made by early talkie stars Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell.. This is a fun one, as long as you buy in and go along for the ride. Rosie and Marie are manicurists, trying to get away from the mafia boss Dynamite (Robert Armstrong), and end up getting stuck on a ship that is sailing off to Paris. The antics include meeting up with Hugh Herbert, rich guy "Ashcraft". he is easy going, and easily buys into everyone's story, as they all take advantage of him. there's a bit of slap-stick humor, three stooges style, as they run around the ship, and try not to get discovered. so they are hiding out on the ship, and they take jobs as..... manicurists! of coure, it will all hit the fan, and everyone's secret will come out. it's pretty light and fun. good, fluffy, fun. directed by William Keighley... directed some great actors in great films, (errol flynn, pat o'brien, james cagney, al jolson) but no oscars for him.

Very goofy but where's the comedy?

[SimonJack · 4/10 · 10 April 2020]

"Kansas City Princess" is a fast-paced comedy romance that isn't much of either. I enjoy all types of comedies, from the frantic, rambling, screwball, farcical, to the witty, clever, sophisticated, with all kinds of zany and romantic ones in between. But the key word here is "comedy," which means laughter, chuckles, smiles. Unfortunately, this film has so little that it barely scores on the funny meter.

As others have noted, the two female leads dash across country and the ocean, from one venue to another. Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell have some fast-talking lines as Rosie Sturges and Marie Callahan. But they aren't funny, and the script writers knew it which is why they tried to play most of the humorous stuff off Hugh Herbert's character, Junior Ashcraft. Herbert was okay in small doses in the films he was in. But when much of a film's humor was built around him it soon turned to deadpan or just rambling and unfunny silliness.

The plot for this film is just such a scramble to begin with. It has so little to get even a chuckle. These few lines of dialog are a strain to prove the point. The four stars are for Blondell and Farrell showing up.

Dynamite Carson, "Oh, say, Jimmy, what name are you usin'?" Jimmy the Dude, "Frank Harrington." Dynamite, "Harrington? How do you spell it?" Jimmy, "H-a-r-r..." Dynamite, "Oh, make it Smith, will ya?" Jimmy, "Okay, Frank Smith." Dynamite, "OK."

Marie Callahan, "Ain't ya got any ambition?" Rosie Sturges, "Sure, maybe I'll marry Dynamite." Marie, "Over my corpus delicti."

Marie Callahan, "Now, look! You get this, and get it straight. A girl's gotta have three things nowadays. Money, jack and dough. About time you learned it."

Junior Ashcraft, "Oh, Lovings, how could you? After our romantic courtship. We met in the Follies that Friday night and was married Saturday morning. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"