''Kansas City Princess'' is a 1934 American comedy film starring

Joan Blondell Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years. Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on ...

and

Glenda Farrell Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress. Farrell personified the smart and sassy, wisecracking blonde of the Classical Hollywood films. Farrell's career spanned more than 50 years, appearing in numerous Broadwa ...

. The film was directed by

William Keighley William Jackson Keighley (August 4, 1889 – June 24, 1984) was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director. Career After graduating from the Ludlum School of Dramatic Art, Keighley began acting at the age of 23. By the 1910s and 1920s ...

with a script written by

Sy Bartlett Sidney "Sy" Bartlett (born Sacha Baraniev; July 10, 1900 – May 29, 1978) was a Ukrainian American author and screenwriter/producer of Hollywood films. Early life Sy Bartlett was born on July 10, 1900 in the Black Sea seaport of Mykolaiv in th ...

and Manuel Seff.

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

sought to duplicate the success of ''

Havana Widows ''Havana Widows'' is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Ray Enright, starring Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell. It was released by Warner Bros. on November 18, 1933. Two chorus girls travel to Havana in search of rich husbands. Th ...

'' (1933) by pairing Blondell and Farrell as a comedy duo of blonde bombshells; ''Kansas City Princess'' was the third film to feature this pairing. The film was released by Warner Bros. on October 13, 1934.

Plot

Kansas City manicurist Rosie Sturges is in a relationship with minor gangster Dynamite Carson. Her friend and roommate Marie Callahan is a fellow manicurist seeking a rich husband. Marie dislikes Dynamite and urges Rosie to drop him. With Dynamite out of town, Marie prompts Rosie to take a date with customer Jimmy the Duke. However, the girls do not know that Jimmy is an associate of Dynamite, who is furious to learn that Marie has been dating behind his back. Fearing Dynamite's anger, Rosie and Marie leave Kansas City by disguising themselves as members a girls' group to board a train to New York. With Dynamite in pursuit, the girls meet two businessmen in New York, Samuel Warren and Jim Cameron. After Dynamite corners them on a ship to Paris, the girls trick the two men into throwing their purses out the window to borrow money for their fares and new clothes. Dynamite becomes a bodyguard for millionaire Junior Ashcraft, who is sailing to Paris to confront his wife whom he suspects has been having an affair with Dr. Sascha Pilnakoff. When Rosie and Marie learn that Junior is on the ship, they pose as French manicurists to persuade him to give them the money to repay their debt, not knowing that Dynamite is his bodyguard. Dynamite exposes them to Junior and the girls become hysterical. Junior gives them the money and asks them to accompany him to Paris to meet with his private investigator Marcel. In Paris, Junior, Dynamite and the girls meet with Marcel. Rosie poses as Dr. Sascha's lover to force Junior's wife to leave him and reconcile with Junior. However, Marcel double-crosses him and instead leads his wife to find Junior with Marie. Junior decides to get a divorce and marry Marie. Rosie also accepts Dynamite's marriage proposal, but only if he promises to leave the world of crime.

Cast

as Rosie Sturges *

as Marie Callahan * Robert Armstrong as Dynamite 'Dynie' Carson *

Hugh Herbert Hugh Herbert (August 10, 1885 – March 12, 1952) was an American motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches. Career Born in Binghamton, New York, Herbert attended Cornell Univers ...

as Junior Ashcraft *

Osgood Perkins James Ridley Osgood Perkins (May 16, 1892 – September 21, 1937) was an American actor. Life and career Perkins was born in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Henry Phelps Perkins Jr., and his wife, Helen Virginia (née Anthony). His maternal g ...

as Marcel Duryea * T. Roy Barnes as Alderman James 'Jim' Cameron *

Hobart Cavanaugh Hobart Cavanaugh (September 22, 1886 – April 26, 1950 ) was an American character actor in films and on stage. Biography He was born in Virginia City, Nevada on September 22, 1886. Cavanaugh attended the University of California. He worked in ...

as Alderman Sam Warren *

Gordon Westcott Gordon Westcott (born Myrthus Hickman, November 6, 1903 – October 30, 1935) was an American film actor. Biography Born in St. George, Utah, in 1903, Westcott studied architecture at the University of Chicago, where he was also lightweight ...

as Jimmy the Dude *

Vince Barnett Vince Barnett (July 4, 1902 – August 10, 1977) was an American film actor. He appeared on stage originally before appearing in more than 230 films between 1930 and 1975. Early years Barnett was born July 4, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylva ...

as Quincy *

Ivan Lebedeff Ivan Lebedeff (born Ivan Vasilyevich Lebedev ( rus, Иван Васильевич Лебедев), 18 June 1894 – 31 March 1953) was a Russian film actor, lecturer and writer. He appeared in 66 films between 1926 and 1953. In 1940, his no ...

as Dr. Sascha Pilnakoff * Renee Whitney as Mrs. Ashcraft *

Arthur Hoyt Arthur Hoyt (March 19, 1874 – January 4, 1953) was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 275 films in his 34-year film career, about a third of them silent films. Career Born in Georgetown, Colorado, in 1874, Hoyt mad ...

as Mr. Greenway

Production

In production, the film was titled ''Princess of Kansas City''. The film was completed three months before its release, but Warner Bros. delayed its release until after the birth of Joan Blondell's child to reduce the length of her interval between pictures.

Reception

Andre Senwald of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote: "If you can imagine the Misses Blondell and Farrell as bogus girl Scouts you can imagine almost anything, a factor which should prove of considerable assistance at ''Kansas City Princess''. In the athletic farce at the Roxy these racy girls, the screen's foremost professors in the study of the female acquisitive instinct, are demonstrating the merry art of getting something for nothing. Like most of the product which wears the Warner Brothers trade-mark, this one is fast and lively even when it isn't funny. Its principal misfortune is that its stock is shopworn. The cynical gold-digger has gone out of fashion lately, and the photoplay suffers the ills of obsolescence. The humor is improved by Hugh Herbert and Robert Armstrong, while Osgood Perkins is attractively loony as a treacherous French detective. But ''Kansas City Princess'' is muscular, loud and frantic, rather than impressively hilarious, and even for farce it never makes a great deal of sense."

References

External links