Wednesday, October 30, 2024

1933 - THE KEYHOLE, comedy/drama about marriage.

 1930's actress Kaye Johnson was pretty hot stuff for a few years before she became box office poison.  Johnson plays a married woman who falls in love with a private eye played by the rather stiff actor George Brent.  Brent’s been sent to spy on her to make sure she's not cheating on her husband.  Well that's about it for a plot for this film.


Really there isn't much to say about this film.  It has a comedic subplot involving actors Allen Jennings and everyone's favorite 1930's tough broad Glenda Farrell which isn't particularly funny. It does eat up the running time so we don't have to endure much of the Kaye Johnson/George Brent romance.

 

If there is anything that stands out about this film it's the involvement of Michael Curtiz one of the best Hollywood directors of the 1930's and 40's.  Curtiz keeps thing moving along at top speed and occasionally sticks in an interesting camera angle but that's about it.  Curtiz got a lot of the big film projects at Warner Brothers studio but he was a contract director and frequently get stuck directing stuff like this.  Sometimes Curtiz could make these kinds of films interesting but the screenplay was already old stuff even in 1933.

 

The film was written by Robert Presnell Sr,  the running time is a quick 69 minutes.

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