Man Wanted (1932) marked Kay’s first film as an official star of Warner Brothers; she played the headstrong chief editor of a magazine. The difference between her Paramount features than those of Warner Brothers is startling. In most of her Paramount contract years, Kay only played the love interest, an art-deco version of the vamp-like woman. At Warner Brothers, however, she played characters more like herself, professional women with little tolerance for the male attitude towards the professional female. Unfortunately, the only real interesting aspects in the majority of her Warner Brothers movies are her star personality and talent, her characters themselves, and Kay’s stunning wardrobe. In truth Kay didn’t know what she wanted to play, and she struggled to find what she considered suitable work throughout her entire career as an actress. But she was getting full recognition from moviegoers, and Kay was emerging, behind Ruth Chatterton, as Warner Brothers’ top female star.

1932 was definitely the year that Kay emerged as one of Hollywood’s elite. Despite the Great Depression cutting into box office receipts, Kay’s movies became surprise hits, each earning a bigger profit than the next. One Way Passage (1932) was Kay’s favorite of all her films, and for obvious reasons; it was an excellent film. But it was Trouble in Paradise, released at the end of ’32, that made her a top Hollywood star. Considered one of the best movies ever made, and Kay’s only pairing with director Ernst Lubitsch, the film might as well be considered the critically best movie she ever made. Because of Kay’s most infamous quote, “I can’t wait to be forgotten,” many are quick to claim that she had no interest at all in any movie she made, and this can be disproved by what she wrote in her diary about Paradise, “I am working very steadily and so excitingly – Lubitsch is simply thrilling – I always knew he was a genius but one can’t really understand his particular greatness until under his direction.”

“I’m not afraid. Of course, everybody knows that a good many players begin to go downhill in prestige after they have been before the public for five years. That has happened to a number of very good friends of mine, whom I won’t mention.” –Kay Francis

Luckily, the public had too much interest in Kay’s exotic looks and talent to let her go. In 1933, The House on 56th Street proved a huge moneymaker for Warners that year. An excellent PreCode melodrama about a mother who takes the wrap for her daughter when she [the daughter] commits murder, Kay saw nothing spectacular about the movie and commented, “If it does better than my other films, it's because I parade thirty-six costumes instead of sixteen.” Kay showed her sense of humor in several interviews; it was her way of coping with what she considered inadequate films. The Keyhole (1933; one of my favorites) paired Kay with George Brent for the first time. While critics were kind without being too enthusiastic, audiences loved it. 1934’s Mandalay was a step up from her other Warner efforts. In the movie, Ricardo Cortez sells her into white slavery (the sex trade), and like most PreCode divas, she thrives on her new profession. Later, when she is trying to start a new life, Kay runs into Cortez on a cruise ship. She poisons him, and gets away with it. The film’s exotic touch, Kay’s original looks and beautiful costumes, and Ricardo Cortez’s wonderful sleazy personality made the film a stellar hit (grossing over $600,000).

By this point, Kay had more than eclipsed Ruth Chatterton on the Warner Brothers lot, and Bette Davis was definitely behind Kay as a motion picture star, but as intelligent off screen as both ladies were on, they saw each other as big competition. While the average Kay Francis movie grossed around $600,000, the average Davis picture only grossed about $300,000. Even in their less than stellar films, Kay made considerable more than Bette at the box office. Her Dr. Monica (1934) grossed $443,000 and Bette’s Ex-Lady (1933) made $283,000. Off the lot, Kay was also pulling bigger audiences than modern legends such as Katharine Hepburn. It’s difficult to compare Kay to such legendary names, but one must remember that this was 1934, not 2008 (when this biography was written). Kay’s popularity was equal to that of Barbara Stanwyck, box office receipts and fan magazine publicity are surviving proof.

Mary Stevens M.D. (1933) featured Kay as not only a female doctor, but also an unwed mother. Dr. Monica featured Kay again in the medical world, this time in an intense melodrama. After a series of roles in which she played modern, intelligent women, Kay opted for a change, “I want to get away from the ‘new woman’ – the Doctor Monicas - if I can. I want to do something essentially feminine.” Predictably, she was again dissatisfied with the change Warner Brothers offered her, and she had a good reason to be upset. Wonder Bar (1934) was the first time Kay complained publicly about her assignments. “Frankly, I did not want to take part in that picture. I made no secret of my dissatisfaction of my role. It was small, inconsequential part, and I believed (and still believe) that I should not have been forced, by my contract, to play it,” Kay wrote in her diary. Although her name headed the all-star cast, Kay’s role was played down considerably while Dolores Del Rio was obviously the film’s true star. The film marked Kay’s biggest hit up to that point, grossing $2,035,000 at the box office, and, as previously written, Kay’s name had brought in a considerable amount of that money, since she was top billed.

From a modern view point, nothing Kay was making at Warner Brothers was as bad as she was making it sound, but it must have been frustrating on her part. On the MGM lot, Joan Crawford was lost in predictable romance, but MGM’s movies, and female stars, reigned as top moneymakers in Hollywood because there were female screenwriters at MGM who wrote the women’s pictures. At Warner Brothers, the women’s stories were written by men. As the production code came into effect in July 1934, Kay struggled more than ever to find herself as a screen superstar, as did Jack Warner to keep his moneymaker on top of her game.

Kay Francis’ first film under the supervision of the tyrannical production code administrators was British Agent (1934) with Leslie Howard. Kay received good reviews, “Miss Francis’ straight, breezy charm is well suited to the role of Elena,” wrote a critic for the Los Angeles Evening Herald Express. After completion of that movie, Kay sailed to Europe where she went on a sex binge, resulting in pregnancy which was terminated by abortion. But Kay was struggling to find happiness with a male lover, and often turned to women not only sexually, but emotionally as well. She had an on again off again fling with Maurice Chevalier, which resulted in a solid friendship a few years later.

Back on the Warner Lot, Hal Wallis announced plans for the next Francis feature. “He says they are acquiring plays, one by one, suitable for her, so that they will have a list to choose from. A few days ago I Found Stella Parish, the dramatic story of an actress, by John Monk Saunders, was purchased with Kay in mind.” And they stuck to their word, as I Found Stella Parish was one of Kay’s best hits of 1935. Also that year, the studio had allowed her to work in a more upbeat story, Living on Velvet with George Brent and Warren William. She was teamed again with Brent in The Goose and the Gander -probably the best pairing of the two, critics were not too enthusiastic, but audiences loved it. At the end of 1935, Jack Warner gave Kay a new contract before her old one had even expired. It offered her a considerable amount of more money, and showed her importance to the studio. While Jack Warner and Kay were good friends, and were photographed at parties together a number of times, Jack also saw her as a valuable asset. Now Kay was ranking up in Hollywood alongside Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, and Jean Harlow, but Kay’s movies were still the least critically acclaimed. One fan wrote, “It seems outside of One Way Passage (in which she was grand) Kay has been handed a lot of roles that someone must have refused to play.”

1936’s Give Me Your Heart was one of the last good Kay Francis movies at Warner Brothers. Stolen Holiday and The White Angel were less than stellar, especially the latter. Another Dawn (1937) only succeeded because of public interest in the up and coming Errol Flynn, but Kay’s movies were still bringing in the big money. In 1936, Variety voted her the sixth most popular female movie star, and her salary of $209,100 was more than any other actress in Hollywood. While many consider her performance in her next movie, Confession to be the best performance of her career, Kay was tired of suffering in tears and demanded a change.

After the commercial failure of First Lady, a change to light-hearted comedy, Kay Francis filed suit against Warner Brothers on September 4, 1937. The line had been drawn when they refused to give her the lead in Torvarich (1937), which Kay had been promised. She certainly had a lengthy list of reasons for her actions, and Kay’s attorneys demanded that her contract with Warner Brothers be cancelled immediately, but Jack’s lawyers refused. The two parties settled the suit in December of 37; Kay’s contract was to expire on September 28, 1938, but until then, she would be forced into whatever the studio decided to place her in. The clock was ticking for Kay Francis, and the rest of her career at Warner Brothers were sheer misery.