By the time "Mandalay" was released Kay Francis was realising that decamping to Warner Bros. from Paramount had not been her best career move. She had a lackadaisical attitude about the scripts she accepted, her attitude being that as a top star the studio wouldn't put her into rubbish - she didn't reckon with the cut throat Warner Bros. "Mandalay" was yet another Ruth Chatterton hand me down. Chatterton had defected to Warners around the same time as Kay and as the studio's No. 1 star was paid a staggering $9,000 a week - but that didn't last long. One of the mysteries of Hollywood, to me, was why Lyle Talbot didn't become a bigger star. He could play bad guys and sympathetic heroes equally well and in the early thirties was good looking - but his role in "Three on a Match" as a weakling hoodlum may have typecast him. At least in "Mandalay" he was given a more rounded characterization.
Joseph Von Sternberg may have made this a classic but under the hands of Warner's macho all purpose director, it emerged as "high camp" - with Kay being given some incredible dialogue, such as "If you touch my garter, I'll scweam"!!! Once, Kay's status had demanded script writers scan the story looking for any pesky Rs and Ws but by 1934 nobody cared. Kay plays Tanya Borisoff, mistress and traveling companion of Tony Evans (Ricardo Cortez) who abandons her at seedy "Nick's Place" in Rangoon, in exchange to pay off his debts - Warner Oland is the slimy proprietor. She soon becomes "Spot White" - the star attraction who slinks down the stairs in "that dress" (a beautiful knockout glittering silver sheath, that is often shown in photos of Kay at her most alluring). After some sage advice from an old hand, "The Countess" (Rafaela Ottiano) Tanya decides to ruthlessly take the patrons for whatever she can get and she soon has secrets about all the higher up officials which comes in handy whenever she is due to be deported.
To escape the "heat" she sets off for the cool, green hills of Mandalay and on the boat she meets alcoholic doctor, Gregory Burton, (Talbot) who is also going to Mandalay to help with a black fever epidemic. When a small child dies on board because Burton is too drunk to help, Tanya decides that, as two misfits together, they can help each other - until Tony re-enters the picture. As if Tanya could fall for his sleazy embraces again, he spins her the old story of "life hasn't gone right for me since I left you" - but secretly he is still up to his neck in trouble until he receives a coded message to warn him that the police are on his trail. He even proposes that Tanya come back with him where he will set her up as the top hostess at his club!!!
More action is packed into the last 10 minutes than the rest of the movie combined. Tanya is held on suspicion of murder (a charge she is innocent of) because of Tony's disappearance and a small bottle of poison that is found in his cabin but when Tony unexpectedly returns, Tanya then paves the way for a chance of happiness with her soul mate Gregory. Being made just before the code was enforced there is a sultry scene between Kay and Ricardo which leaves nothing to the imagination.
Joseph Von Sternberg may have made this a classic but under the hands of Warner's macho all purpose director, it emerged as "high camp" - with Kay being given some incredible dialogue, such as "If you touch my garter, I'll scweam"!!! Once, Kay's status had demanded script writers scan the story looking for any pesky Rs and Ws but by 1934 nobody cared. Kay plays Tanya Borisoff, mistress and traveling companion of Tony Evans (Ricardo Cortez) who abandons her at seedy "Nick's Place" in Rangoon, in exchange to pay off his debts - Warner Oland is the slimy proprietor. She soon becomes "Spot White" - the star attraction who slinks down the stairs in "that dress" (a beautiful knockout glittering silver sheath, that is often shown in photos of Kay at her most alluring). After some sage advice from an old hand, "The Countess" (Rafaela Ottiano) Tanya decides to ruthlessly take the patrons for whatever she can get and she soon has secrets about all the higher up officials which comes in handy whenever she is due to be deported.
To escape the "heat" she sets off for the cool, green hills of Mandalay and on the boat she meets alcoholic doctor, Gregory Burton, (Talbot) who is also going to Mandalay to help with a black fever epidemic. When a small child dies on board because Burton is too drunk to help, Tanya decides that, as two misfits together, they can help each other - until Tony re-enters the picture. As if Tanya could fall for his sleazy embraces again, he spins her the old story of "life hasn't gone right for me since I left you" - but secretly he is still up to his neck in trouble until he receives a coded message to warn him that the police are on his trail. He even proposes that Tanya come back with him where he will set her up as the top hostess at his club!!!
More action is packed into the last 10 minutes than the rest of the movie combined. Tanya is held on suspicion of murder (a charge she is innocent of) because of Tony's disappearance and a small bottle of poison that is found in his cabin but when Tony unexpectedly returns, Tanya then paves the way for a chance of happiness with her soul mate Gregory. Being made just before the code was enforced there is a sultry scene between Kay and Ricardo which leaves nothing to the imagination.