The House on 56th Street (1933) watch online HD

Kay Francis is extraordinary in this fatalistic tale--the surprises this plot has in store for her character, Peggy Van Tyle, are heart-wrenching: stoically, heroically, she survives them all.

For audiences suffering through the depression, the hardened-heart determination of Peggy Van Tyle must have proved inspiring. Things start out well for attractive dancer Peggy Van Tyle, but everything she loves is taken from her, even her dignity, and there are great scenes here of her adjusting to the "modern" world she reenters after serving 20 years in prison for a murder she did not commit.

This story is full of unexpected twists, not the least of which is how successful Peggy is in her "fresh start" as a hustling gambler. The at-sea casino card game she plays against her future partner-in-hustling Bill Blaine is astounding: no one can match Kay Francis's poker face!

This is a very grim tale. But the strength of character--really, I should say the "durability" of character--which Kay Francis portrays here is ultimately supremely uplifting. No matter what life throws at her she does not break!

Melodramatic soap opera spanning several decades about a chorus girl named Peggy (Kay Francis) who performs in the "Follies of 1905" and is pursued by two rich men, one older, one younger and handsome. Well of course, she falls in love with the younger/handsome one and they get married, though she's sad to hurt the feelings of the older man, Fiske, who, apparently, has been good to her for years. The couple honeymoons in Europe, Peggy finds she is "possessed" by gambling when they hit Monte Carlo (this figures in later), they return to their big, new mansion on 56th street, and soon have a baby daughter. Meanwhile Fiske spends years carrying the torch for his old love and convinces her to visit him, but he commits suicide 'cause she won't keep seeing him - and SHE gets caught holding the gun! Off to prison for manslaughter, twenty years later she gets out, gives herself a new name and a new look, and ends up hooking up with a professional gambler/card shark (Ricardo Cortez) on a voyage to Europe - her little daughter, now grown-up thinks her mom died in prison. Yeah, you got it - this woman's life has really taken a turn and there's even more to come!

This film is very good, fast-moving, with an interesting, if far-fetched, plot that really held my interest. Kay Francis acts up a storm, she's great in this, and looks dazzling in loads of gorgeous gowns and jewels. This film really features two separate halves, two separate lives for our main character. The first half where she is the mom and family woman living the good life - the second half where she becomes a gambler's sidekick, soon rooking suckers, by an odd coincidence, in the same house on 56th street she once lived, now turned into a "speakeasy". Enjoyed the scene where she displays her "skills" at palming cards during a game of poker against the gambler, who himself is using a deck of marked cards. Very good film.

This is another of those pre-Code movies in which someone literally gets away with murder--as can happen in real life. Neither the killer nor the victim is totally good or bad, which is also the way life is. That was until 1934, after which point in Hollywood the murderer was always punished and "fallen" women were always doomed to suffer.

The film covers a long period of time, giving elegant Kay Francis the chance to appear in clothing of many styles. She could be very compelling in her performances, although it was a somewhat declamatory style of acting very much of its time. Consistent with that is the "old" make-up for the character--essentially, silver hair and a touch less lipstick. Wistfulness was something that she did very well, and with her cello-like voice and big shining eyes, she was a treat to hear and see.

The storyline is somewhat improbable (surprise) and Kay is the only thoroughly likable character, but if you just go with it, there are some rewards--her cardsharping is a lot of fun.

The House On 56th Street is a Stella Dallas like melodramatic soap opera that Kay Francis did for Warner Brothers before Bette Davis made a specialty of them for that studio. This pre-Code film is laced with irony for Kay.

Kay's a Floradora girl from the Ragtime Era who has all the men chasing her in 1905. She's the kept woman of ragtime rake John Halliday, but young Gene Raymond sweeps her off her feet and they marry and have a daughter. He takes her back to the family digs on East 56th Street in New York City and fancy digs they are.

Halliday gets some bad news from his doctor that he's only got months to live and he wants to live them with Francis, whatever the scandal. Francis tries to prevent him from committing suicide, but when Halliday does in the struggle for the pistol, she goes up for manslaughter and gets 20 years.

Fast forward to the Roaring Twenties and Kay's now free and living anonymously and making a living as a gambling lady with Ricardo Cortez and William 'Stage' Boyd. She gets an opportunity however to impart one really big favor on grownup daughter Margaret Lindsay and it's a beaut.

Although Bette Davis would later do these kind of parts, I mention Stella Dallas because The House On 56th Street also involves a mother separating herself from her daughter for her own good. Francis's role which she does a fine job with seems to fit Barbara Stanwyck even better.

Favorite scene here is the gambling scene on board a ship where Francis takes Cortez to the cleaners even though he's cheating. It reminded me a lot of the climax in Rounders with Matt Damon and John Malkovich.

Though The House On 56th Street is dated, it's still an effective film. Note the sense of irony in Francis's final line in the film.

Lightning-paced drama directed by Robert Florey stars Kay Francis (top female star at Warners) as a chorus girl in 1905 who is pursued by an older man (John Halliday) who has no interest in marriage and a younger man (Gene Raymond) who wants to marry her. She opts for Raymond and becomes a society hostess and eventually has a baby. Later, when she learns Halliday is ill, she visits. He tries to commit suicide but Francis is convicted and jailed for 20 years. The baby daughter grows up (Margaret Lindsay). Out of jail, Francis goes by the name of Mrs. Stone and meets up with a gambler (Ricardo Cortez). They work in a speakeasy and everything is OK until the daughter shows up one night. The ironic ending is perfect.

At 68 minutes, this film whizzes along but is filled with lots of period detail and plot elements. Very nicely done. Kay Francis gets to transform from the frilly 1905 fashions and hair to a sleek henna-rinsed beauty in 1927 and finally to a slightly graying babe dealing cards in 1933. She's terrific, and the ending will surprise you.

Co-stars include Nella Walker, Henry O'Neill, Frank McHugh, Hardie Albright, and William "Stage" Boyd.

During the years where Bette Davis sloshed around Warner's film after unremarkable film, Kay Francis was one of its major stars even if her work varied in quality. In 1933 alone she appeared in five movies (something perfectly common then), neither the one memorable. This one, THE HOUSE ON 56TH STREET, is a movie that covers three decades in a marked woman's life and does so in little more than an hour. We're told the story of Peggy van Tyle who is (wrongly) convicted of killing a former lover and is sent to jail for approximately 25 years, losing her husband and infant daughter, and when she comes out, she sets up shop in the same house where she once lived in marital bliss and with a partner in crime converts it to a speakeasy where similar events concerning her young, twenty-ish daughter (Margaret Lindsay) will essentially occur, mirroring the tragic ones in the past.

Quick, with little fat in between events, this is another of Warner's melodramas that showcases Francis' ability to look completely sad, forlorn, and eventually hardened, but it is not a memorable movie overall. Lindsay seems flat here; other than that, no one registers above what it expected in such a short movie.

I interpret this not as a full length feature but as a one hour front end of double feature (which would be preceded by a cartoon and a newsreel). In other words, you could call it a B movie. Seen that way, it is almost perfect. It is short and uncomplicated but manages to engage you and deliver a twist at the end.

It starts out looking like it will be another Kay Francis light romantic comedy along with the usual accompanying fashion show. Certain, she parades quite a collection of hats in the opening 20 minutes or so. Then the melodrama and angst kicks in and it becomes clear that this is no comedy.

It is not profound and opens no new paths in movie making. It sets out to entertain and deliver on expectations but manages to give something extra. You come away satisfied that you have seen a good movie but not so tired and engaged that you can't watch the back half of the double feature.

Kay Francis delivers what you would expect from her. In 1933, people went to see her movies expecting certain things and they get them plus some additional and effectively portrayed moods and emotion as a bonus. However, I must say that she is not as stunning and glamorous as she was in many of her other movies but that could be appropriate and deliberate here. The rest of the cast is up to their tasks. There isn't enough material for any of them to actually shine. The movie moves quickly and covers more than one time period.

Overall, a very successful B movie.

The Queen of the Follies of 1935 becomes the Black Jack Baroness of 1933 in this not so weepy woman's picture where Kay Francis wears the fashions of four decades. She is a favorite of stage door Johnny's, particularly young Gene Raymond and aging John Halliday, both of whom love her ferociously. Who do you thinks she picks and how do you think her life will be destroyed by this thanks to the suicidal loser? After all, Kay Francis suffered more than any other woman did in the mid 1930's, and even if her tears stained her clothes, she could always cover it up with one of her fabulous wraps.

Sent to prison for manslaughter (wearing a sequined prison gown as she bids farewell), she is released 20 years later (after a sequence where the audience sees newspaper columns of historical events), she finds herself working as a dealer in a speakeasy located, you guessed it, in the home she lived in happily years before. Ricardo Cortez plays the gambler she meets on a European cruise she takes after getting out of prison, and Margaret Lindsay is her grown daughter whom Francis discovers has a gambling problem. No rest for the wicked as Francis must come to Lindsay's rescue without revealing who she really is.

It is ironic that in her gay turn of the century outfits, Ms. Francis greatly resembles Liza Minnelli who in "Cabaret" declared "I feel just like Kay Francis!". Look at Minnelli in period costumes in "A Matter of Time" to see what I mean. Not considered one of the best actresses of the golden age, Francis was highly underrated and newer audiences have come to adore her thanks to constant showings of her dozens of films on TCM. She is more subtle than many of the same era's stars, lady like without being saint like and always the epitome of style.

The opening sequence is extremely memorable for a look at the days of early Broadway where the Floradora like chorus performs "While Strolling Through the Park", an era where many chorus girls were sometimes as popular (or notorious) as the headliners.

WARNING: LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS!!!!

Often, the plots of films need the viewers to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy them. However, sometimes films go way beyond this--and the plot is so completely ridiculous that you can't dismiss the nagging voice in your head that says the film SHOULD have been written better. Such is the case with "The House on 56th Street"--an enjoyable but totally ridiculous film.

The film begins with a chorus girl (Kay Francis) falling for two men. One is older and vows never to marry--the other is handsome, younger and willing to make an honest woman of her. Not surprisingly, she picks the second man and goes on to have a very good life living in a fashionable abode on 56th Street in New York City. However, when she learns some time later that her older ex-lover is sick, she goes to visit him and he kills himself right in front of her!! She appears to have done the deed herself and is sent to prison for two decades for a crime she didn't commit. In the meantime, her daughter is raised by the husband and his family and they tell the girl her mother is dead.

When Francis gets out of prison, she reinvents herself. Now she is a professional gambler working with handsome Ricardo Cortez. They fall in love and move into the old house on 56th--the house he picked out and bought for them. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!??! A bit later, Kay's daughter comes to the gambling house and loses a fortune. Kay begs Ricardo and their partner to forgive the dumb young lady's debt--but they won't. A bit later, when Cortez threatens to go to the young lady's husband about this outstanding debt, the girl (Margaret Lindsay) murders Cortez. Please note: the lady is a murderer!!! So, what does Francis do? She covers for her daughter!!! Now I now that she was family, but the creepy young lady did murder someone!! How all this works out is just bizarre--so bizarre you need to see this to believe it! I would classify this film as a guilty pleasure. The plot is stupid and I won't deny this. However, it is STILL oddly entertaining and fun to watch. Silly, trivial and fun....as are many of Francis' films of this era.

Directed by Robert Florey, with screenplay by Austin Parker and Sheridan Gibney that was based on a story by Joseph Santley, this slightly above average pre-code drama stars Kay Francis, with Ricardo Cortez, Gene Raymond, John Halliday, Margaret Lindsay, and Frank McHugh.

Francis plays follies girl Peggy Martin, who's romantically pursued by wealthy Monte Van Tyle (Raymond) even though she's Lyndon Fiske's (Halliday) mistress. Both men attend her every show, Monte with his friend Chester Hunt (McHugh), who's interested in Peggy's blonde sextet co-worker Dolly. Eventually, the 'marrying kind' Monte proclaims his love for Peggy without ever inquiring about her past, her father had been a river-boat gambler shot for cheating at cards; they marry in a civil ceremony because his mother had disapproved. While they're on their 'around the world' honeymoon cruise, during which Monte learns about Peggy's gambling prowess and makes her promise never to gamble again, he has a big townhouse built for her on 56th Street; the year is 1905.

Years later, Peggy is established as a high society regular, hostess of entertaining parties in their home. Monte's mother Eleanor comes to call when she learns about her granddaughter, who's been given the same name. Eleanor apologizes and accepts Peggy; grandmother then gets to take care of her namesake sometimes too. One day, when Peggy has come to retrieve her daughter at Eleanor's, her mother-in- law 'introduces' her to a family friend, Lyndon, who is discrete about his prior relationship with Peggy. However, when Lyndon learns that he's dying, he begs Peggy to visit him while he convalesces. She finally agrees to visit him shortly before he's planned to travel abroad. Lyndon confesses that the one mistake he'd made in his life was not marrying Peggy, that he'd overestimated his influence over her. He begins to force himself on her, begging her to go to Europe with him. Peggy is upset and starts to leave when Lyndon pulls out a gun. She struggles with him trying to prevent him from committing suicide but the gun goes off, killing him anyway. Lyndon's butler rushes in to discover Peggy over his master's dead body, holding a gun. The facts of Peggy's past are printed in the newspapers and she's quickly convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years.

While in prison, Peggy learns that Monte, whom she'd asked to never visit her again, had been killed during World War I. After serving her sentence, in 1925, Peggy returns to a busier New York City, where she learns from Mrs. Van Tyle's lawyer that she'd been left $5,000 on the condition that she never contact her daughter Eleanor. She agrees, goes to a beauty parlor for a make-over, and takes a cruise. On-board the ship, Peggy 'Stone' is approached by Bill Blaine (Cortez); she's standoffish but accepts his invitation to have a drink later. Peggy is warned by a member of the crew that Bill is a card-shark. Armed with that knowledge, Peggy is able to take Bill for everything he's worth in a card game. Later, however, she apologizes and accepts his offer to work together, business only, to fleece others across Europe. Eventually they return to New York where Bill offers Peggy a chance to join a friend of his, Mr. Bonelli in a speakeasy club with gambling upstairs; they think she'd be a sensation as a female dealer. Peggy is reluctant to join until she learns that her House on 56th Street is the location of the establishment.

One night while Peggy's dealing, a playboy named Freddy who'd been losing money convinces his married friend Eleanor Burgess, nee Van Tyle, to play even though she'd been warned by her husband never to gamble again. Apparently, reckless Eleanor had somehow inherited the gambling gene from her long absent mother, whom she'd been told was dead. Peggy, recognizing her daughter from a society newspaper photo, allows Eleanor to win $1,000 before she refuses to deal anymore. Eleanor complains to the manager, Bill, who orders her to get back the house's money. Peggy decides to teach Eleanor a lesson, hoping she can cause her daughter to never gamble again. Eleanor loses $15,000 by dawn before Peggy, Bill, and Freddy force her to quit. Bill holds the IOUs and, aware of who she is, tells Eleanor to come back later in the day, perhaps they can work something out. Peggy then urges Bill to tear up the IOUs; he finally agrees to talk to Bonelli about it. Later, of course, the owner refuses and when Eleanor arrives, Bill pressures her to pay what she owes. He threatens to call her husband and when Bill begins to call, Eleanor notices a gun in the desk drawer; she then shoots and kills Bill. Peggy, who'd been on her way upstairs, hears the shot, assesses the situation, tells Eleanor to wait outside the office, and then cleans up the crime scene, wiping away fingerprints and taking the IOUs from Bill's coat pocket.

Conveniently, Eleanor had been planning on going away with her husband on a cruise that night at midnight. So, Peggy gives Eleanor the IOUs and tells her to make the ship. After her daughter has left, Peggy locks the office door and then watches the clock that evening while working her table at the club. Bonelli comes upstairs to deposit some money in the safe and discovers Bill's body; since Peggy had tried to prevent him from entering the office, and had followed him in, Bonelli knows she's involved but she denies that Mrs. Burgess had anything to do with it. With that knowledge, Bonelli, who says he could have his boys take care of the body, effectively blackmails Peggy into accepting a permanent position in his employ at the club, in the house where she'd once promised her husband Monte that she'd never leave.

Soap opera at its best with Kay Francis impressive as a chorus girl marrying a wealthy suitor, while spurning an older one. The latter asks her to come to his home and on one such visit, he kills himself and she is blamed for killing him and sent to prison for 20 years.

Francis has a penchant for gambling in the form of card playing. It shows her in prison while America is changing in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Released from prison circa 1933, her daughter was told that her mother is dead and Francis heads for Europe only to meet up with a card sharp, Ricardo Cortez, and they form a team.

Returning to New York, they are offered a spot in a gambling house on 56th street, the very same home that Francis and husband,Gene Raymond, had shared years before.

Naturally, her daughter, now married comes to gamble and loses a fortune. Panicking, she shoots Francis's partner and runs off to Europe with her wealthy husband. The evil of gambling is certainly shown here and the owner of the casino has it over the Francis character that he can dispense with the body easily providing that she remain at the casino.

The film ends with a woman trapped and in despair, but ready to make a life for herself at the seedy place.

But I will give it a 6 because Kay Francis is always watchable, for some reason.

She is the best thing in this movie; the others, all males parts except for Margaret Lindsay's brief role as her grown-up daughter. The others are serviceable in their parts.

Once again, Kay finds herself on trial for a murder; this time it really was an accident as her older, former lover tries to commit suicide when he can't convince her to spend his remaining months of life with him. She gets "sent up" for 20 yrs for manslaughter, and her husband is killed in the war. When she is released, she finds her daughter believes she is dead, so she takes the money left to her by her mother-in-law and sets sail.

She meets up with a grifter and together they make money as card sharks, in a club set up in the very house where her former life took place. The final irony comes when her daughter loses $15K at Kay's table and winds up shooting Kay's partner/lover. Kay can't let the girl's life be ruined the way hers was, so she takes the blame, agreeing to stay with the owner of the club, staying on as dealer and possibly more, in exchange for him getting rid of the body.

Overall, not very realistic in any way, not very compelling of a script, but Kay has a few good moments and looks especially beautiful in the scene in the beauty shop when she has had a makeover upon release from prison.

House On 56th Street (1933) Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Gene Raymond, Margaret Lindsey. Kay is a 1905 showgirl (Peggy} on Broadway and lover to Lyndon Fiske. She also has young Monte Van Tyle{Raymond) wanting to marry her. So she does. He builds her a mansion - the title address. Hubby is taken to war and Peggy has a baby girl And then Monte is killed, so Fiske pounces and says he needs her back, he is ill, etc. She says no. He takes out a gun. Badabing. In a struggle, he is shot and killed. Peggy is arrested, tried and given 20 years. House goes, baby goes to mother-in-law, and 20 years pass. We see Kay released and given a new start by an inheritance from her mother-in-law. From dowdy, gray haired convict, to glamorous widow sailing on a luxury ship and meeting up with crooked gambling man, Cortez. Eventually teaming up, they make lots of money and end up at the 56th St address, now the biggest gambling house/speakeasy in NYC. Well, now we have the set up for daughter and her beau, threatened by gambling problems. Suffice to say, Kay suffers but her daughter cries a lot as she sails off into the sunset with her young man, thanks to Ma. Kay wears a different gown in almost every scene in the speakeasy. Gorgeous. 8/10