Jewel Robbery (1932)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Charming jewel thief William Powell's gang robs a jewelry store while bored baroness Kay Francis is there, along with her husband and her lover. Francis is immediately attracted to the suave criminal. Later, after the robbery, Powell tracks Francis down and tries to convince her to come away with him.Chic comedy with a great performance from William Powell. Kay Francis and Helen Vinson are good as a couple of slutty aristocrats. Talky but light and fun. Lots of Pre-Code goodness, such as the use of marijuana cigarettes, partial nudity, and sexual innuendos. Basically half the movie is one long scene (the jewel store robbery), so it's got a stagy feel to it but it's entertaining and never dull. Short runtime helps.

There isn't one sub-standard frame in this delightful romp; it oozes sophistication and could have been made a good decade later than it was. It doesn't get better than Kay Francis and William Powell - and the very next year Powell would team up with Myrna Loy for the first in the Thin Man franchise - who both walk on air through this soufflé which is perfect in all departments starting, of course, with the script by Sampson Raphaelson, albeit adapted from yet another - Liliom, The Shop Around The Corner - Hungarian playwright, through the direction of William Diertle to the brilliant playing of Powell and Francis with first-class support from the rest of the cast. A gem of a jewel robbery.

I'm slapping myself in the forehead right now for not figuring it out myself. Those 'happy' cigarettes William Powell was handing out were of the dreaded reefer madness variety. Other reviewers on this board point that out so blatantly that my only defense is that the smokes worked their magic so quickly I never made the connection. Experience you see, ever so limited, never produced the giggles or the night watchman's hysterics so quickly.This is a blast of a film. You never quite get to the level of Cary Grant screwball comedy, but it's wonderful nevertheless. William Powell, playing on the opposite side of the law that Nick Charles did, is just as suave and sophisticated as your intended jewel thief should be. "With your permission Hollander, we're robbing your shop" - really now, how could you refuse a request like that? Especially after verifying that insurance for the merchandise was in full effect.There's another great Powell line (funny, but Powell's character didn't have a name, did he?) - "I'm opposed to the American school of banditry, I studied in Paris". Just the sort of quip to win over the bored Baroness Teri (Kay Francis), whose philandering lifestyle is most evident in this pre-Code film that's just brimming with innuendo and double entendre. Teri's request to The Robber in my summary line above is my favorite, but depending on your demeanor, Powell's remark to the Baroness as he throws her to the pillows is just as illicit - "You're so lovely, it's hard to be brutal with you". Where's that kind of writing today?Maybe I was just lucky to catch this on Turner Classics today, but this is definitely one to see. I'd do it again, preferably with a rewind button handy to do over those situations I described above. It's hard to keep up with a moving target when you don't want to miss anything, sometimes the savoring takes time and reflection.

This film has to be on the short list of films-that-epitomize-pre-code-Hollywood. Adultery, drugs, crime, flaunting of morals and convention, free-spirit thumbing their nose, all done with humour and glamour. One can understand why the church was upset! Problem was that there were many films that played on these themes so it must have seemed that Hollywood was really out to corrupt the world. This one has the full package but with a wink and smoothness that today's garbage film-makers would never have the patience to pull-off. Too bad the code swung the pendulum way too far in the other direction. A must-see for Francis and Powell fans.