(Michael, January 1, 2007)

1/2 (out of five stars).

Transgression (1931), Kay's fourth loan out from Paramount, is actually a good picture that I really did enjoy. She plays Elsie, the wife of a millionaire (played by Paul Cavanagh) who has a steamy affair with a Spanish lover (Ricardo Cortez) while her husband is in India on business. So his wife won't be too lonely, Robert (Elsie's husband) sends his wife to Paris. It is there where she transforms from innocent ingénue to sophisticated art-deco vamp.

After she "falls in love" with Latin-lover Don Arturo (Cortez), she meets him in Spain where he plans to seduce her. Elsie, perhaps feeling guilty, refuses to give in to temptation at first, but eventually, she can't help herself. While at Don's home, a man appears; he is the father of a (!) sixteen year-old girl who was seduced by Don, abandoned by him, and died having his child out of wedlock. (This is really one helluva soap opera!) The man not only warns Elsie of Don's evil nature, but he also kills Don in revenge. Elsie then flees the home, but remembers one very important thing: a letter she mailed her husband asking for a divorce so she could marry Don. Surprisingly, the whole adulterous plot is pretty blunt, even by today's standards. Before Don makes love to Elsie, he takes a ring off of his hand, places it on hers, and makes a crack about their affair being "like a wedding night with no wedding."

Kay's acting throughout is fine, especially in the emotional scenes, most notably the scene where Don is murdered. But she does get a bit too affected at times, and makes some odd facial expressions which consist of budging her eyes and letting her mouth hang open. Ricardo Cortez plays very erotically, as he always does in these sleazy, wonderful, precode dramas; however, the guy was a damn good actor. As for Paul Cavanagh, he does a good, sincere job in his lifeless part (not his fault, of course). In all, that movie is pretty damn good, but obviously not a mainstream classic. However, it does show us how talented Kay Francis was from early on, and for a B-movie made seventy-seven years ago, it's pretty damn interesting!

As for the letter (which not only asks for a divorce, but reveals her torrid love affair with Don), well, it turns out Elsie never mailed it. Instead, she put a blank piece of paper into the envelope and threw the actual letter into the fire. She and Robert reunite, and realize that they were only meant for each other.

In all, Transgression (1931) proves to us Kay Francis was the perfect candidate for superstardom, which she would reach a year later with 1932’s Trouble in Paradise.