A thief with class

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Movie
German title A thief with class
Original title Jewel Robbery
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 70 minutes
Rod
Director William Dieterle
script Erwin Gelsey
production Warner Brothers
music Bernhard Kaun
camera Robert Kurrle
cut Ralph Dawson
occupation

A thief with class (Original title: Jewel Robbery ) is an American film by William Dieterle with the popular screen couple William Powell and Kay Francis in the lead roles.

action

Vienna at the turn of the century. Baroness Teri is married to the very rich, but also very old Franz von Hohenfels. Her husband spoils her in every possible way, she has an abundance of jewelry and yet she is bored. One day she happens to meet her husband in a jewelry store who is about to buy her a 28-carat diamond. Price negotiations are about to close when the robber raids the store. While the accomplices clear the display, the very charming and elegant robber begins a flirt with the baroness. After the robbery has taken place, the robber offers the baroness to lock her in the safe of the shop. She refuses, as long as he does not accompany her: When the baroness returns home later that day, she not only finds a sea of ​​roses in her bedroom, but also the said diamond and the robber. Suddenly an - alleged - police officer appears and arrests the two of them. Instead of going to the police station, however, he takes her to the robber's apartment, where the robber confesses that he wants to flee to Nice with the baroness. Then the right police are at the door. The robber quickly ties up the baroness to save her honor and escapes through the window. The liberated baroness announces that she urgently needs to relax her tense nerves after all the excitement, preferably in Nice.

background

It premiered on July 21, 1932 at the Strand Theater, New York. General theatrical release was on August 13, 1932.

Kay Francis had moved to Warner Brothers in 1932 with William Powell from Paramount and several successful joint films and quickly rose to become a popular actress in dramatic love stories. The studio gave her several good roles and reintroduced her with Powell as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Originally, however, Barbara Stanwyck was supposed to take on the female lead. Francis and Powell first demonstrated how well their characters harmonized on screen in Street of Chance in 1930 . After Powell was mostly used as a seedy character at Paramount, Warner Brothers changed his image to the romantic and charming hero of elegant salon comedies. The two stars worked so well together that they reappeared in front of the camera immediately after filming was over. The project was a journey of no return and by then should be their greater commercial success for both parties. The dialogue direction took over the later successful as a director William Keighley . The story of Jewel Robbery is based on the play Jewel Robbery on Kurfürstendamm (original title: Ekszerrablás a Váci-uccában ) by Ladislas Fodor from 1925. It is a typical pre-code story which, thanks to the rather lax enforcement of the censorship regulations, used every opportunity to bring all kinds of frivolities and personalities onto the screen. William Dieterle directed the film in the style of Ernst Lubitsch and his anger in paradise as a light salon comedy with polished and ambiguous dialogues.

Nevertheless, the film does not go to extremes so as not to irritate the censor too much. Film historian Dale Thomas described the gallant hints as follows:

“The viewers of 'Jewel Robbery' were invited to partake of Kay Francis' adulterous relationship with William Powell and her delight, even though the adultery itself didn't take place until two days after the storyline ended, which technically speaking, from Kay at least makes a respectable woman during the film's runtime. "

The film advertised with an ambiguous slogan:

"He stole her jewels - but that wasn't all!"

Reviews

The Los Angeles Evening Herald Express was impressed by Kay Francis:

“Kay is naughty again. And I mean naughty. [..] It is for sure one of the most frivolous roles she has ever played. "

The lexicon of international film also found several decades apart:

"A breakneck quickly staged crime comedy with a charming and funny main actor."

Theatrical release

The cost of production was $ 308,000, almost double the average cost of editing a Kay Francis film of the time. In the US, A Class Thief grossed $ 316,000, with an additional $ 110,000 from abroad. Total revenue was just $ 426,000.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Wilhelm (William) Dieterle - actor, director . In: CineGraph - Lexikon zum Deutschsprachigen Film , Lg. 22, F 14
  2. Viewers of Jewel Robbery were invited to exult and conspire in Kay Francis's adulterous liaison with William Powell, even though that adultery is not to be consummated until two days after the onscreen story is over, which makes her technically, I suppose, a running- time virgin.
  3. He stole her jewels - but that wasn't all!
  4. Kay is naughty again. I mean naughty! [...] It is quite the naughtiest role she has done in pictures.
  5. A thief with class. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 21, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used