Stolen Holiday

80 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Stolen Holiday is a 1937 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Kay Francis, Claude Rains and Ian Hunter. It is loosely based on the Stavisky Affair, a French political scandal. A Russian con artist digs his way into the upper reaches of French society, but is finally exposed, with tragic consequences.

Plot

In 1931 Paris, Nicole Picot, a model for a fashionable dress shop, is hired by nearly-penniless Stefan Orloff to help persuade a financier to fund his ambitious plans. By 1934, Stefan has established an investment bank; in gratitude, he provides the capital that Nicole needs to set up her own business and become a successful dress designer (though she insists on paying him back).

British diplomat Anthony Wayne romances Nicole and wins her heart. However, when Stefan's crooked schemes start to unravel, he asks Nicole to marry him without divulging his main motive: the attendance of her influential friends at the well-publicized ceremony would bolster public confidence in him and buy him time. She agrees, out of friendship alone, much to the distress of her friend and assistant, Suzanne. It is too late. At their wedding, Stefan's closest confederate, Francis Chalon, is taken away by the police for questioning, and the other guests hastily depart.

Knowing that Chalon can incriminate him, Stefan goes into hiding at a remote chateau. However, he makes a mistake, sending a letter to Nicole asking her to join him. She does so, despite Anthony's protests. Nicole gets Stefan to admit the truth, though he insists he does love her. When he sees that the police have followed Nicole and have surrounded the chateau, he excuses himself. To spare her from being dragged down with him, he goes outside. As he expected, he is shot and killed, though it is staged to look like a suicide to avoid causing further embarrassment to the government.

Afterward, Anthony persists and finally gets Nicole to agree to marry him.

Cast

• Kay Francis as Nicole Picot
• Claude Rains as Stefan Orloff
• Ian Hunter as Anthony Wayne
• Alison Skipworth as Suzanne
• Alexander D'Arcy as Leon Anatole
• Betty Lawford as Helen Tuttle
• Walter Kingsford as Francis Chalon
• Charles Halton as LeGrande
• Frank Reicher as Charles Ranier
• Frank Conroy as Dupont
• Egon Brecher as Bergery
• Wedgwood Nowell as M. Borel

Preservation

In addition to being held by Warner Bros., the film is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.^[1]

References

Bibliography

• Rode, Alan K. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.

External links

• Stolen Holiday at the TCM Movie Database
• Stolen Holiday at IMDb
• Stolen Holiday at AllMovie
• Stolen Holiday at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films