A Notorious Affair (1930) User Reviews (22)

Watch it for the strangeness of it all

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 30 May 2015]

I'm not sure what this movie is trying to tell us, but after watching it twice I decided that is not important. It is all of the little things that make this a rewarding yet campy experience, most likely for the film history buff. The movie is about a young heiress, Patricia Hanley (Billie Dove), whose engagement is announced without her even being present. Did Dad and dear fiancé just talk this over and assume the bride's opinion is of no matter? Meanwhile Patricia is in love with an Italian starving artist who is working hard to make it as a concert violinist (Basil Rathbone as Paul Gherardi) and marries him, perhaps believing that it is easier to seek forgiveness than permission from dear old snobby dad - she'd be wrong. When she interrupts her own engagement party to say she has married a poor Italian musician, dad ejects her from the family, and "her set" - the idle rich - turn their back on her.

Up to this point there is a parallel story, that of Countess Olga Balakireff (Kay Francis), who fortunately, unlike poor Basil Rathbone, does not even feign an accent to any real extent. She is actually introduced in the opening scene as pretty much an idler who spends her time either on horseback or picking her latest liaison from among the servant class. I think the point here is to say that Patricia choosing marriage with somebody she loves is not accepted by her wealthy friends and family, but Olga treating her manservants like her property and using them for sex is not only accepted but somewhat admired, given the conversation and gossip in the opening scene.

Paul will never get anywhere on the concert scene unless he can find a "patron", and wouldn't you know that Olga just happens to be a patron of the arts who is attracted to the exotic Paul. How will this all work out? Watch and find out.

Why is this great for film buffs? First of all, because what is absolutely hilarious today could not have been known in 1930 - that Basil Rathbone would become the face of Sherlock Holmes in the movies in the late 30's and 40's and would play both villains and heroes in other films, but always classy, erudite, and somewhat British. Today Rathbone's shrill performance with a bad accent is the equivalent of watching Kelsey Grammar of Frasier fame play The Hulk in a Marvel Comics film production.

Then there is poor Billie Dove. Like so many of the silent stars, her looks said it all in the silents, but here it is the dawn of sound and she is expected to project with words not just gazes and she just is not up to the task. She isn't terrible, she is just completely mediocre and no competition for what is to come - the first generation of talking film actresses - Blondell, Stanwyck, Davis, and company.

Finally there is the "mystery illness" that was just accepted in early films as a legitimate plot device. Someone becomes paralyzed by a nervous breakdown and an operation is necessary? I'm an engineer by trade and even I know this is medical hooey.

So watch it for the film history of it all, and finally watch it for Kay Francis, who is marvelous and seductive in this her only second year in films. Recommended mainly for the film history buff.

Watch it for Kay Francis only

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 22 November 2018]

If you like Kay Francis, this is probably a movie worth checking out. She's silky smooth as a man-eating seductress who has her sights on the husband of a rival. If there's a female equivalent to the "male gaze", she has it, and she's always in full control as she uses men and then casually discards them, including a couple of stable boys early on. It was interesting to see Basil Rathbone before he was a star and Billie Dove towards the end of her career (and in a talkie), but unfortunately the plot is overly melodramatic, and when Francis isn't lighting up the screen, the film is far less interesting.

Beautiful Billie Dove....

[Dr. Ed-2 · 6/10 · 23 April 2001]

in her first all-talkie film is ok but miscast as the English rose who loses her violinist husband (Basil Rathbone) to a predatory womn (Kay Francis, who steals the film). Billie Dove tries hard and her acting isn't really bad, but the accent comes and goes. At one point she mentions something as being "versa-till" which doesn't sound all that British. Kay Francis is fun as the sexual predator and looks as gorgeous as Dove. Dove's talkie career lasted only a few years and consisted of about 10 films. She's much better (in a supporting role) in 1932's "Blondie of the Follies" with pal Marion Davies.

Billie Dove!

[data-25 · 27 November 1999]

Patricia Hanley (Billie Dove) married violinist Paul Gherardi (Basil Rathbone), despite the strong disapproval of her father and their high society friends. Dramatics ensue.

Billie Dove is the only saving grace of this movie. Her charm, beauty and engaging presence make this dull soap opera watchable. Less watchable is Basil Rathbone, who is miscast as a romantic leading man. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. or even Phillips Holmes would have been much better in the role. Kay Francis, as the other woman, acquits herself nicely, with her best films yet to come.

It should be noted that this film is one of Billie's few surviving Warner Bros./First-National talkies. For example, her four 1929 films are lost! Still, if you are a Billie Dove fan, you might enjoy this one.

He's with her. No, he's with her. No, he's with her

[marcslope · 5/10 · 27 June 2018]

Basil Rathbone, sporting an inconsistent supposed-to-be-Italian accent, is a struggling violinist caught between heiress Billie Dove and countess Kay Francis in this not terribly interesting early-talkie soap, directed stodgily by Lloyd Bacon. Dove, a silent-screen beauty who comes off reasonably well beneath the mic, marries him to the consternation of her rich, stuffy family, and as he quickly becomes the world's greatest violinist, he pursues an affair with Francis, who's beautiful, lively, and sumptuously dressed. He's a temperamental cad, so you're not really rooting for him to end back up with Billie, especially as she's being pursued by old beau Kenneth Thomson, who becomes Rathbone's doctor after he acquires some sort of Movie Disease. The whole thing would make more sense if Rathbone ran off with Francis and Thomson reunited with Dove, and the screenplay has to contort itself ludicrously to provide a Happy Ending. It's not especially compelling, but hey, some beautiful clothes, it's over in under an hour and a quarter, and you can marvel at how quickly Rathbone became a better actor.

Don't Take It Serious--It's Too Delirious!

[museumofdave · 7/10 · 26 June 2015]

This is a deliciously daft precode, notable for the appearance of a very pallid Basil Rathbone as a high-strung Italian violinist (or was he French?), one of the few available talkies made by wide-eyed, silent star Billie Dove, and mainly, the presence of a slinky, sex-mad countess Olga, played with great verve by Kay Francis, who early on establishes her credentials by trying out the stable boy and then checking out the older dude who works the feed duties: Kay is constantly on the prowl in a very modern sense, while the script sets up poor Billie as the put-upon wife who gives up fortune for love and finds out husband's real talent is infidelity.

For today's moviegoer, this is probably pretty dull stuff, but for the film historian, the fan of Kay Francis, or anybody who wants to enjoy the minor delights of an early "B" romance, this can be great fun.

The 25 Year Old Kay Francis

[richardchatten · 4/10 · 30 March 2019]

Although Billie Dove is top-billed above the title and the rest of the cast, I'm with those who think Kay Francis the real reason for watching this nonsense - along with everything else in which she appeared during the first year of her contract with Paramount as a lisping 'other woman' in mannishly short hair and slinky plunging dresses. Aged only about 25 when the film was shot, but already exuding a mature sophistication that far surpassed Theda Bara, Francis makes poor Miss Dove looks positively homely by comparison.

Struggling with an incredible 'Continental' accent that increasingly slips as the film progresses, Basil Rathbone is saddled with the thankless part of a whiny violinist who Ms Francis soon tires of and abandons in the South of France the better to continue her tour of the rest of the opposite sex. Rathbone promptly succumbs to one of those mysterious debilitating illnesses so common in old movies; and the film becomes a real drag without her.

Photographed by Ernest Haller, the killer outfits Francis models and the imaginative sets are the work of Edward Stevenson and Anton Grot (both uncredited) in a surprisingly plush production to bear the name as director of veteran Warner Bros. workhorse Bacon.

Dove and Fwancis

[jondaris · 6/10 · 10 October 2006]

It's a credit to silent screen star Billie Dove that she actually manages to keep Kay Francis from walking away with this movie. It's a great role for Kay, as the lecherous Countess Balakireff, with some killer dialogue ("I never noticed you had pale blue eyes before. I hate pale blue eyes").

Dove, as heiress Patricia Hanley, elopes with starving violinist Paul Gherardi (Basil Rathbone), throwing away her family, fortune and fiancé in the process. Gherardi promptly begins an affair with the predatory Balakireff, as well as achieving fame and what is apparently a load of cash. When Balakireff throws over Gherardi, he suffers a nervous breakdown and is tended to by Dr. Alan Pomeroy, (Kenneth Thomson) Mrs. Gherardi's former fiancé.

Rathbone tries hard -- in fact, it's amazing that he remained so trim with the amount of scenery he was chewing. But Dove and Francis steal the movie from him effortlessly. It's the lovely Dove, with her luminous eyes, and the ravishing Francis that raise this film above the typical precode programmer.

Special credit goes to Thomson, who comes off as a complete loser in the opening scenes, only to return in the latter part of the film as a credible potential love interest. Also noteworthy is the gown Francis wears in the Christmas Carol scene, with a neckline that plunges to her waist.

The plot here is thin, but the team of Dove and Francis make it an interesting diversion.

Your gay Lothario is here -- run to him

[blanche-2 · 5/10 · 24 January 2016]

Stilted dialogue, melodramatic performances, and a formulaic story are what make "Notorious Affair" from 1930 bad.

It's bad today; it was the style back then. Plays and movies dealt in melodrama and in the upper classes.

The film stars Kay Francis, Billie Dove, and Basil Rathbone, who is woefully miscast as an Italian violinist named Gherardi, mispronounced in the movie as "Gerardi". It's a hard G, Guhrardi. Francis plays a complete slut who goes to bed with every man she meets; she goes after Gherardi, who is married to Dove. He succumbs.

In one hilarious scene, he tells her he's going home. She shuts the curtains to her boudoir, and he stands there, face full of desire, closes his eyes, and sighs.

Both Francis and Dove are stunning and beautifully dressed. Francis has a presence and sophistication. Dove is luminescently beautiful, with huge, expressive eyes and an oval face. It's such a shame nearly every one of her films is lost. She retired very early from films but lived until age 94.

Rathbone, with his outrageously bad accent and overly made up face, is wooden and too big for the screen, having come from the theater. Screen acting with speaking was very new.

The gowns are gorgeous.

This film is a great example of the old acting style and type of film made pre-code. Most of all, it's a chance to see the gorgeous Billie Dove.

"The countess is very.... versatile..."

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 14 November 2020]

I wonder if she warmed up Basil Rathbone's milk and made sure that his room wasn't too hot. She is Kay Francis, a Russian countess living in London and the toast of the riding society. She is also the great seductress, seducing a famous jockey then dumping him and turning the man who cleans the stables into her butler. She fires him because she sees that his eyes are far too pale blue for her, a color that she has just realized that she hates. Her next target is the married Basil Rathbone, husband of her high-society acquaintance Billie Dove and a famous violinist.

By billing, this is Billy Dove's picture, and certainly in close-ups, the veteran silent actress is gorgeous. She has a very modern look about her, and when her hair is down, is particularly striking. With her big eyes and sad facial expressions, she is a combination of Loretta Young, Sylvia Sidney and Janet Gaynor.

But in talking pictures unfortunately, Billy is not that successful. She pauses seemingly between each word, and that makes it appear that she is looking at a cue card and unsure of what she is supposed to be concentrating on while saying her lines. That is a great distraction, and even though she's the heroine, the way she speaks adds monotony to her characterization and that makes her performance very dull.

As the daughter of wealthy Montague Love, she finds that her father is against her marrying a poor violinist like Rathbone. Still, she continues to live in the style to which she has become accustomed, show her character gets to suffer in satin while Rathbone is playing his violin to nearly a nervous breakdown while he is being groomed as Francis's next conquest. Rathbone's performance is delightfully bad, overly melodramatic and inconsistent in his accents. He switches dialects faster than Francis switches lovers.

Naughty girl Kay Francis gives a performance that had there been supporting Oscars in 1930, she would have been one of the top contenders. Francis is not playing a Theda bara vamp. She is thoroughly modern and proud of her womanhood and seduces and dumps lovers with no regret. It is obvious that she is having a delicious time with this character. She gets great costumes and hairstyles, and delivers her lines with such wit and intelligent that she comes off as one of the most fun party girls of the pre-code era.

The films of this era are a mixed bag because of the lack of technical achievements in camera movement and sound design, but on occasion, there is a gem that taking into consideration the lack of a production code, they become deliciously fun because of the glorification of sin that they provide. Everything about this film is decadent and over-the-top, but unfortunately, the lack of direction for Dove adds a weakness to the complete product. Nevertheless, her face here is the stuff that production stills are made for, and for that element alone, she is very memorable.

Kay is good; the others flounder

[mukava991 · 3/10 · 6 October 2008]

Although many Billie Dove fans are delighted with her work here, I have to pass. As a socially prominent member of the British smart set, her British accent is basically non-existent and her line readings sound just like, well, line readings and her emoting seems trance-like and ponderous. Basil Rathbone, usually a fine actor, seems off-kilter throughout and also speaks with a weird sort-of-accent - in his case something like Italian, though we cannot be sure. The script manages to keep his precise ethnicity a secret. He is further hampered by the script which gives him one of those old movie diseases, something to do with nerves, which requires surgery. The only real entertainment is provided by the illustrious Kay Francis sporting a lacquered bob with side curls in her role as a depraved countess who shamelessly devours men, including Rathbone, and then spits them out. She pulls it off with her unique aplomb. She is the only living thing in this dead sea of a film.

Kay Francis Stands Out in Otherwise Wooden Film

[JLRMovieReviews · 6/10 · 28 September 2016]

Billie Dove, Basil Rathbone and Kay Francis star in this early talkie about "A Notorious Affair." Basil is a concert violinist who, in the beginning of the film, marries Billie and then becomes infatuated with Kay Francis. The film then bogs down into too much talking. The film has its moments of wit and has good supporting characters, such as Laura Hope Crews from "Gone with the Wind." But the film suffers badly from Billie Dove's wooden acting, particularly in scenes that matter most, especially the scenes between Basil and herself, the closing scene included. And, Basil Rathbone must have gotten better as he had more acting experience, because frankly his delivery was rather unaffected. There was no emotion in their words. What gives the film the life it has is owed to Ms. Kay Francis, as she is excellent as the smoldering, exotic and sensual temptress. She is missed so much when she is not in the scene. While "A Notorious Affair" is a must for Kay Francis fans, others need not bother. 6/10 for a memorable Kay Francis performance.

Camp-fest early talkie

[brianina · 2/10 · 19 April 2001]

An unintentionally hilarious early talkie melodrama with Kay Francis as the Countess Balakireff chasing everything in pants. At the beginning of the film she "throws back" the stableboy for being too young before setting off for the chauffeur! The high-toned English set she moves in is such a clichéd bunch of harummpf-ers that it's ridiculous. But the topper is Basil Rathbone as an Italian violinist with a Chico Marx accent! "My violeen! How weel I ever play eet again!" "Patreecia, my meelk is cold!" It's campy beyond belief.

Bland Melodrama

[Michael_Elliott · 25 April 2012]

A Notorious Affair (1930)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Dreadful pre-code from Warner about a poor violinist (Basil Rathbone) who marries a rich girl (Billie Dove) but the two refuse money from her father. They finally make it on their own and this is when the husband has an affair with a vamp (Kay Francis) and now the wife must decide their future. A NOTRIOUS AFFAIR is a major flop that really doesn't work on any level and in the end it's just one long melodrama after another that never adds up to anything. I think a lot of the blame can be pointed to the screenplay, which seems to be going through the motions and they're not very good ones. There's really no twists or turns to the story and you'll see everything coming from a mile away and this includes the silly ending. Another major problem is the fact that this is a film set in British society yet most people are speaking with an English accent and if any actor does try a British one it's usually going in and out. The performances aren't much to write home about either, which is a shame since we've got such a good cast. Dove has some of the strangest line deliveries that you're going to see in any early talkie. Just check out the early scene where she's talking to her father about getting married. Francis probably comes off the best as she was used to playing the tramp by this point of her career. The most interesting performance has to be Rathbone who is quite bad. It's funny to think how great he would become later in his career but the more of his early work I see the more I'm shocked that he managed to stick around as long as he did to get everything worked out. Many Rathbone mannerisms are on display here but they don't work. You can see the same stuff from his later performances where he nails them. A NOTORIOUS AFFAIR is a very bad movie but film buffs will probably still want to check it out due to the cast.

Not ANOTHER Kay Francis adultery film!!!!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 24 December 2006]

I happened to see this and three other Kay Francis films recently when they were shown on TCM. And, surprisingly, all four films were about adultery and three of them had Kay playing a horrid skank! So, when I saw her appear on the screen, I just KNEW she was no good!!! This sort of type-casting must have been what killed Ms. Francis' career--that and the more restrictive and less sleazy style of films that were mandated by the new Production Code in 1934.

The actual star of the film was Billie Dove as the wonderful wife who was so villainously mistreated by her husband, Basil Rathbone. She was magnificent and really deserved a better film than this. Billie was gorgeous and sweet and everything a man might want in a wife in this film--so of course, her hubby cheats on her repeatedly.

As for Ms. Francis, she was pretty much her usual rich vamp who loves to wear low-cut dresses (even though they did not complement her figure), although she seemed a lot hornier than in her other Pre-Code films. She was making eyes at practically EVERY man in the film--from the stable boy to the chauffeur to her friend's husband. Her acting was competent, of course, but it provided no stretch at all for the actress. In addition, I know this will sound cruel, but she just wasn't nearly as pretty Ms. Dove, so it made her vampish role seem a bit hard to believe.

But, the real stand-out in the film was Basil Rathbone--and this is not for a good reason! Although quite handsome in the film, he played either a French or Italian violinist (you can't tell--his accent was a bit vague) who often forgot his accent or had the accent change within the same scene! I have always loved him in films, but here he was just awful and having him drop the accent altogether would have been best.

Now as for the plot, it was interesting but seemed to resolve itself way too quickly. In fact, it ended so quickly that I felt kind of cheated and wanted it to be worked out a little slower and more realistically.

Great writing....surprisingly modern.

[Piltdown_Man · 7/10 · 30 August 2005]

I found this movie remarkably modern, even given it's early filming. Kay is quite the vamp, yet gives a nuanced performance. Billy Dove is gorgeous and, is it just me, or does she have the biggest eyes ever? Rathbone shows substantial range. Usually cast as a "strong" character with no flaws, he is clearly able to show a weaker side of himself.

I loved some of the direction in this film. Great scenes, such as one where Billy returns home early from the theater. Her walk toward camera is perfect, as is the score that accompanies it. Throughout the film, the score is strong, yet understated...a rare occurrence on many early films, where sound was OVERUSED just to prove it was there!

Bottom line, this is an excellent film.

What he is and what he can give her

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 13 January 2016]

Silent screen star Billie Dove's voice registered well for the talkies in A Notorious Affair. But next to Kay Francis's voluptuous vixen, man hunting countess Dove comes off clearly second best in A Notorious Affair.

Dove is the daughter of Lord Montague Love and she comes home one fine day bringing with her a French violinist husband, poor and penniless who is played by Basil Rathbone. Poor, penniless and French even. Three strikes and Dove is out as Love disinherits her.

Of course Rathbone is a fortune hunter much like Monty Clift in The Heiress. And he does come to the attention of Francis who takes him for what he is and what he can give her.

Both Rathbone and Francis did better work and this is the first film with Dove that I've seen silent or sound. She's really quite bland for this role and given the characters as presented there was definitely a wrong ending here.

Not a horrible film, but definitely mediocre at best.

vamping Kay Francis

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 20 June 2023]

English socialite Lady Patricia (Billie Dove) falls for poor Italian violinist Paul Gherardi (Basil Rathbone). They quickly marry. Her father disapproves. Man-eating Countess Olga Balakireff (Kay Francis) manipulates Paul's rise to fame and drives a wedge between the married couple.

Kay Francis is the standout performer in this movie in a vampy performance. Billie Dove is overshadowed by her antagonist and I'm not sold on her relationship with Gherardi to begin with. He has more chemistry with Kay Francis although it's more like she sees him as a meal. This love triangle has no side with rooting interest.

An unforgivable ending tacked on to a ridiculous melodrama

[richard-1787 · 1/10 · 21 May 2020]

Most of this movie is a really tenth-rate melodrama. Good woman falls for penniless musician who is of the "wrong class" - he's a foreigner and doesn't know any of the "right" families. Then he cheats on her with another woman, while all the while acting like a hypochondriac. Then, just as it would appear that she has a chance to marry someone of her own class, someone who is "right" for her, that is messed up and ... the movie ends with an unexpected switch that is as infuriating as it is unexpected.

But even before the really terrible end, everything is wrong with this movie. The dialogue is often like a parody of 1930s radio soap opera - and probably was. Basil Rathbone, who had one of the greatest voices in 1930s-40s movies, capable of giving Shakespearean resonance to the dialogues in all those great Eroll Flynn movies, is made to play an Italian immigrant who slides in and out of a bad Italian accent - that ruins his delivery. Everything else is bad too.

I suppose this was meant to be a "woman's picture," something that consoled women trapped in bad marriages engaged in despite their parents' better judgment. Was that still a large audience in the 1930s? I don't know, but this movie really stinks.

"Patricia, my milk is cold!"

[guswhovian · 6/10 · 26 May 2020]

Rich socialite Patricia Hanley (Billie Dove) elopes with poor violinist Paul Gheradi (Basil Rathbone), but she may loose him to a seductive countess (Kay Francis).

As a fan of Basil Rathbone, I was looking forward to seeing him in a leading role. However, he is absolutely horrendous, delivering his dialogue with no conviction whatsoever. It's hard to believe this is the same actor who would grace so many wonderful films later in the 30s and 40s.

Kay Francis looks ravishing, but doesn't get much to do besides sit around and look seductive, which she does very well. Billie Dove and Kenneth Thomson were quite good as well.

The film definitely displays its stage origins, and the direction is uninspired. First time viewing. 3/5

early Rathbone and Francis

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 17 June 2018]

This was the very beginning of the film careers for both Basil Rathbone and Kay Francis, but appears to be about the end of the line for Billie Dove. Dove had been big in the silent films, but didn't seem to do so well in the talkies. Apparently she was a VERY close friend of producer Howard Hughes, but went up against bigger star Marion Davies, and she retired from acting soon after that. Rathbone plays the married, talented star musician Gherardi, who spends more and more time with the Countess (Kay Francis). Dove is the faithful, devoted wife who looks after him, but realizes the marriage is about done with. When Gherardi has medical issues, she starts spending more time with the doctor looking after Gherardi. Rathbone would go on to play Sherlock Holmes a million times, and Kay Francis had a huge, successful career of her own. This one is just so-so. Francis is pretty good, but it's not Rathbeone's best work. It's very light, airy, and predictable. Only a hundred seventy votes so far on imdb, so Turner Classics must not show this one very often.

Cliche Heaven, Violins And All

[theognis-80821 · 6/10 · 27 July 2023]

Eleven years after women obtained suffrage and a few weeks after Marlene Dietrich donned her top hat to wow the schoolboys at "The Blue Angel" and take charge of Emil Jannings, top-hatted Kay Francis was introduced as a great huntress, a Russian countess of course, into polite English society, strutting about, puffing on a cigarette and trifling with the help. Into this genteel milieu arrives lovely, young Billie Dove, an impoverished, sensitive Italian violinist in tow (Basil Rathbone). Thus, she incurs the disfavor of her dignified father (Montagu Love) and shocks his guests, as she reveals that the high-strung Italian is, in fact, her new husband. All this despite Kenneth Thomson, a fine young Englishman, who loves her from afar. And so the stage is set for a brisk template for the soap opera art form.