Girls About Town

This film is about two professional gold diggers - Marie has her heart in her work (Lilyan Tashman), Wanda doesn't (Kay Francis). The two women are paid handsomely to entertain men who are in town to do business with their employer and to soften them up so they are more receptive to striking deals with that employer. This film has more introspection than many precodes, possibly due to the presence of George Cukor as director. He really did a great job in "women's films" such as these. At any rate, Wanda is on the lookout for the love of her life and most improbably finds him during one of her "assignments" - Lansing businessman Jim Baker (Joel McCrea). However, she can't marry him until she obtains a divorce from her long estranged and lazy husband (Anderson Lawler). With experience in marriage to such a shady predatory character, you'd wonder why she would want to give matrimony another try.

Kay Francis has made many such films - the good girl in bad girl's clothing - but few films remain that show Lilyan Tashman and what she could do with a meaty precode role. This is one of them. As Marie she manages to look out for herself, be charitable to a friend in need, and even help the wife of a stingy client reunite with her husband (Eugene Palette). The two women even turn out to be great friends, trading fashion tips of all things. As always with Lilyan, there are the wonderfully delivered catty remarks. Sadly she died in 1934 of cancer at the age of only 37. Check this one out to see one of the biggest names in precode film in a pretty good movie (Kay Francis), and one star that did not shine quite so brightly, but added spice to any role she was given (Lilyan Tashman).