Transgression

Young Kay Francis commits a "Transgression" in this 1931 film also starring Paul Cavanagh and Ricardo Cortez. Kay is Elsie, the wife of a wealthy British businessman. The two share a huge, beautiful home in England. A business trip calls the husband, Robert, away to India for nearly a year, and wives are not allowed. So she will be less isolated, Elsie heads for Paris. There she becomes glamorous, sophisticated and worldly. She meets a rich, handsome Spainiard, Arturo (Cortez) who escorts her around and wants a lot more. He finagles a way to get her alone in his mansion; tragedy occurs.

This is an old-fashioned melodrama; few people could suffer like Kay Francis, even early on. Everything about her was so distinctive - her look, her voice, her clothes - it's hard to take your eyes off of her. Cortez is smooth and caddish as her pursuer; Paul Cavanagh as Elsie's husband is difficult to read. He never lets you know how he's going to react until the situation is upon him - then he might surprise you.

Mildly entertaining, of interest for the early Francis.