Kay Francis Movies

francis 1111Want to know the best Kay Francis movies?  How about the worst Kay Francis movies?  Curious about Kay Francis box office grosses or which Kay Francis movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Kay Francis movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.

Kay Francis (1905-1968) was an American stage and film actress.  After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio and the highest-paid American film actress. Her IMDb page shows 72 acting credits from 1929-1951. This page will rank 49 Kay Francis movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  Television roles, some of her early Paramount movies (of course) and her 3 late Monogram movies (who?) were not included.

Drivel part of the page:  During our research we stumble across a nice treasure every once in awhile.  A couple of years ago we found this webpage on Kay Francis.  Well….we put all of the Francis box office rentals from that page into our database….and pretty much forgot it.  While recently Flora, requested a Kay Francis page….so it was a nice surprise to find domestic and worldwide box office rentals on almost 40 of her movies all ready to go.

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Kay Francis Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Kay Francis movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Kay Francis movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Kay Francis movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Kay Francis movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins each Kay Francis movie received.
  • Sort Kay Francis movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive.  For example…if you type in “William Powell” in the search box….the 3 Powell/Francis movies will pop right up.

Kay Francis Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses

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Possibly Interesting Facts About Kay Francis

1. Katharine Edwina Gibbs was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1905.  Her nickname as a child was Kay…..and her first husband was James Francis….which is how she became Kay Francis.

2. Kay Francis had a speech impediment. She was known around the Paramount lot as “the wavishing Kay Fwancis.”…..that sounds kind of mean spirited.

3.  From the years 1930 to 1937, Kay Francis appeared on the covers of 38 film magazines, the most for any adult performer and second only to Shirley Temple who appeared on 138 covers during that period.

4. Kay Francis was married five times…but never had any children.

5. Kay Francis was considered for the Scarlett O’Hara role in Gone With The Wind….then again it seems every acting actress of the 1930s was considered.

6.  Kay Francis and her movies did not get much Oscar® love.  She was never nominated for an Oscar®…..she never starred in a Best Picture Oscar® nominated movie….only four of her movies got a Oscar® nomination…and only one won an Oscar®.

7.  Kay Francis’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6766 Hollywood Blvd.

8.  Kay Francis left most of her $1 million estate to train dogs at Seeing Eye, Inc.

9.  Kay Francis’ career adjusted box office gross was over $2.85 billion.

10.  Check out Kay Francis’ movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

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57 thoughts on “Kay Francis Movies”

  1. She was a huge star for Warner Brothers. Pretty much the Jennifer Aniston of that era. A pretty talented movie. I recommend any of her movies with William Powell. I see some of those movies did not make the page. Good stuff.

    Reply

    1. Yes, I have seen more Kay Francis movies than what made the page, many of them with William Powell.

      Bruce can only include movies if he can find box office information.

      Reply

      1. Hey Flora….. Paramount strikes again. I think every one of her movies from 1932 to 1944 made the list…and that was the bulk of her career.

        Reply

    2. Hey TCM Mike. I like the Aniston comparison…..I can see your point…. I imagine Aniston might have the same issue in the future when people look back on her career. I think we are missing two Powell/Francis movies…..as Flora responded….I do not include a movie if I strike out when it comes to box office grosses.

      Reply

  2. Interesting page on somebody I had not heards of before. Looks like she was a big star back in the day. Any word on the subscriber button?

    Reply

    1. Hey Stein….yep she was a big star in the mid 1930s. Still looking at different subscribe buttons…..hopefully we will find one that works well with our website.

      Reply

  3. Kay Francis? Heard of her but I have no idea what films she’s been in. Did someone request her or are you now randomly flicking thru Halliwells Filmgoers Companion? [sniggers]

    Messing with you Bruce, I’ll bet Flora’s heard of her… of course she has… let me check… 15 films! Yikes! I’m almost embarrassed to mention my tally count… [looks around, whispers] just one movie… [bites fist] can you guess which one? Clue… my favorite comedy team’s first movie.

    I thought I’d seen King of the Underworld starring Bogie, Another Dawn starring Flynn and When the Daltons Rode starring Scott but they are not in my datafiles.

    Good to see The Cocoanuts high up on the UMR chart and I guessed correctly that Trouble in Paradise was the most highly rated of these films. It’s a film I’ve wanted to see but keep missing it. I will keep a look out for In Name Only too.

    An interesting page on a little known (to me) actress. Voted Up!

    Reply

    1. I’m the one who requested her, Steve.
      Well, you and Bruce are tied…..

      I did not know who she was when I first started watching her movies either. Then I saw this same woman showing up in films and looked her up.

      It’s like how I discovered who Ward Bond was, or Eric Blore, or Richard Widmark. You see these people often enough and then you figure out who these people are.

      Flora

      Reply

      1. Hey Flora….the request list….has turned into a pretty popular page…thanks for all of your suggestions.

        Reply

    2. Hey Steve.
      1. I figure after I get done with the Consumer Report Book on 400 stars….that I will crack open the Halliwell books…lol.
      2. As the following comment says….this came from a Flora request. I think she was a much bigger star than you and I thought….there are numerous books out there on here. It sounds like her personal life was very very interesting….filled with lots of people we know.
      3. Tally count….wow combined….we have a tally of 2…..needless to say…Flora destroyed us. 15 to 1 to 1. Hard to believe we tied for 2nd with one movie….I thought you were a movie fan…lol.
      4. King of the Underworld got some good reviews…probably worth checking out….the same can not be said for When The Daltons Rode.
      5. I figured you would like where The Cocoanuts got rated.
      6. I had not even heard of Trouble in Paradise…..and now it is on my “must watch” list
      As always thanks for stopping by and sharing your movie knowledge.

      Reply

  4. Hi, Bruce!

    What a fabulous present to receive from you this Tuesday evening after getting home from choir.

    Usually you like to go back and forth between classic and current stars but you have done two classic stars in a row!

    Thanks for my requested page. Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes how much I love your site and your entire family- well I am being redundant – a bore ala Meg Wildwood of Wildwood Arkansas in Breakfast at Tiffany`s. Your site is AWESOME!

    Do people who visit your site know that your son is serving in the military in Alaska – they should.

    I am a big fan of Kay Francis. She was eventually given B scripts when Bette Davis became popular.

    That nickname does sound mean spirited. Well, she showed them because she was a big star!

    People who are jealous of other people often make fun of them.

    For reasons I don`t understand, people on the TCM site call me names and yet:

    They keep reading me anyway. My threads have LOTS of views. Hmmm. Does not seem worth it.

    Lionel Barrymore
    Harold Lloyd
    Peter Falk
    Christopher Reeve
    Michael J. Fox

    Lots of famous people have some physical ailment and they pull through it.

    Back to which Kay Francis movies I have seen on this list:

    I have so far only seen 15 movies on this list. This means that I have LOTS of Kay Francis movies to look forward to seeing. 🙂

    Here my 5 favourites in no order:

    Raffles
    Confession (Basil is a fabulous CAD!)
    In Name Only
    Trouble in Paradise
    Mandalay

    How wonderful that she left most of her money to a seeing eye dogs fund.

    Sounds like she was a Betty White – Doris Day type of woman.

    Great page!

    Flora

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora.
      1. Thanks for the kind words about the site and Bryan serving in Alaska.
      2. I look at you leaving the TCM forums as their loss…not yours.
      3. Those five are great stories….I had not heard of Francis’ speech issue until I went looking for interesting facts for this page.
      4. Tally count…you 15…..me and Steve come in with a combined 2…..so sad. He found his one Francis movie because of the Marx Brothers….maybe she should have made more movies with them and Grant….lol.
      5. Glad to see my one Francis movie made your Top 5. Trouble in Paradise is now on my list of movies to watch.
      6. Betty White and Doris Day….is great company to keep.
      As always….thanks for your contribution to the page….glad you liked your requested page.
      I think the amount of box office information out there….shows how big she was back then….I am very pleased with how this page turned out…especially with all of the worldwide box office numbers….that happens very rarely when doing these classic performers.

      Reply

  5. One is the loneliest number
    One is the loneliest number
    One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do
    One is the loneliest
    One is the loneliest
    One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do

    Sadly my tally count is 1. The only Kay Francis movie I have seen is In Name Only

    Reply

    1. One ! There are a LOT of Kay Francis movies airing on Turner Classic Movies. Put Kay Francis on search on TCM and you will see when the next Kay Francis movie is airing.

      Which is the one movie you have seen?

      Reply

      1. Wait. I see now you said that In Name Only was the only movie you have seen.

        That is a cool film.

        Reply

        1. Mr. Cary Grant is the reason I have seen my lonely old one Kay Francis movie. Now granted she played a very convincing evil woman in that one. I get most of my movies I watch at my local library….not thinking I have seen many of her movies on those shelves. Thanks for the information on her movies on TCM.

          Reply

      2. Talking of TCM I finally got a Tivo machine a month ago and it has been handy recording old westerns off the TCM channel for me to watch at weekends. On the downside it keeps recording a lot of reality shows and sitcoms without my knowledge or permission and I have to delete them when they pile up. I’m only interested in recording old movies and the occasional ultra-violent tv series like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. 🙂

        Reply

        1. Yes, I got my neighbour who just turned 14 on Sunday to show me how to use PVR – something I previously had no knowledge existed.

          Now I can set things up to record up to 2 weeks in advance if my provider has the titles already listed. I did have to get it set up so that I no longer record the same episode of something more than once. Seemed I would have the Batman television show record 2 times per day as they aired the same one two times a day on a children’s channel that Clinton set up because he knows I love Batman.

          So I have a constant high percentage recorded and I need to delete as much as possible once I have seen them. I do not tend to do this.

          TCM is planning on airing Westerns two days a week all day for June and July just like they did with Film Noir last year on Fridays….WOW

          Reply

          1. Sounds like you have a tech savvy neighbor and lots of movies to watch. The westerns should be fun…..that is actually my next big product…..westerns….tons and tons of movies to research.

        2. Very cool. I have heard TiVo likes to make its owners happy….and will record lots of stuff it thinks you will like. I binge watch both Game of Thrones and The Walkng Dead….as I wait until the full season reaches DVDs land.

          Reply

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