Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's 1914, and a town festival is interrupted by the arrival of the Archduke and Duchess who are promptly assassinated, erupting Austria-Hungary into war with the Serbs. For town mayor Walter Huston, this brings on another crisis, as his officer pal Nils Asther falls deeply in love with Huston's wife, the noble Kay Francis. For years, Francis and Asther manage to avoid each other, often causing Huston to believe that his wife resents their friendship, but as the political climate changes, secret come out, betrayals are revealed, and a sacrifice must be made, not only to save a friend, but to aide the political climate as well.This is a complicated almost operetta like tale of an affair that is more stolen kisses than sexual lust, as Asther and Francis remain loyal to both their friendship and marriage to Huston, even though it's obvious that Francis isn't deeply in love with her husband, even at the beginning. The film starts off literally with a bang, slows down tremendously as the details of the love between Asther and Francis are revealed, but explodes suddenly into the lavish fiesta where rich and poor mingle together, dancing furiously to the music of the happy gypsies as flowers fly, kisses are stolen in secret, champagne corks pop and the food turns the revelers into gluttons. But behind that celebration, there are more than just land wars going on, and when this takes on the serious dilemmas, it becomes nearly a landmark work of art.For comical relief, there's Louise Closser Hale as Huston's much older sister and Eugene Palette as Asther's right-hand man who seem to have a secret past. Ms. Closser Hale admonishes Palette for his ogling nature then slyly invites him into her kitchen. Jean Parker, as Hale's daughter, is seen only briefly, so by the time she re- appears for one major scene, it's almost forgotten that she was ever on before. The film drags in a few spots that almost brought my rating of it down, but once it builds up to a high crescendo of the huge party scene and all the drama that occurs afterwards (particularly Huston's realization of what has gone on all along), it settles into a fine film. As one of only four films that Francis made for MGM during her career (on loan), it shows her in a beautiful light, particularly the scenes with her and Asther's close-ups framed by candles as if to say that the flame was flickering with tremendous heat.

"Storm at Daybreak" SHOULD have been an exciting movie. After all, MGM put a lot of money and effort into this...going so far as borrowing one of the top stars of the day, Kay Francis, from Warner Brothers, to make this film. Although it has some good moments, however, it's a sluggishly paced and dull film.The film begins on a very strong note, as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife is recreated in a very realistic and graphic manner. This event led to the outbreak of WWI and the rest of the film is about the Serbians during this time. Mayor Dushon Radovic (Walter Huston) is a loyal servant of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire...but he also is worried about the mistreatment of his people by the hated Hungarians. So he tries to balance his duty with his patriotism. At the same time, his wife Irina (Kay Francis) has decided to take a much more active role in defending her Serbia by hiding wanted Serbs. At the same time, Captain Geza is trying to find these wanted men AND he's become captivated with the Mayor's wife.The scenes between Geza and Irina should have been smoldering but instead were just dull...the root of the problem in the film. It should have looked more like a romance than it was...but instead just limped along to the ultimate finale.

The story opens with bustling realism depicting the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at the start of World War I when Austria and Hungary were divided by political storms. WALTER HUSTON, as a Hungarian mayor, gets initial prominence in the early scenes, with KAY FRANCIS as his wife who is hiding some Serbians from Austrian authorities and who catches the watchful eye of NILS ASTHER, an Austrian officer.It soon becomes apparent that this is going to be a rather heavy-handed love story (with some pathetic attempts at humor) involving these three against a background of tumultuous political events while KAY FRANCIS and NILS ASTHER have a fling at romantic moments that look like they're straight out of a tear-jerker from silent films. There's even a bit of the smokehouse ham in WALTER HUSTON's performance.Miss Francis was never a great actress and she needs all her wiles here to make her role as Huston's wife even remotely credible. That she fails is evident from her first appearance and she looks uncomfortable in her period costumes.Of course, I may be biased. I never did like KAY FRANCIS nor was I able to see her creating a real or likable character in any role she played. Since this is not a typical Francis film, it's a bit more tolerable than most, except for some extravagant overacting in '30s fashion.It's a film that goes steadily downhill after the well staged opening of the assassination--straining for a sense of excitement and importance but it fails miserably to connect. Lush production values can't hide a mawkishly sentimental script and another teary role for Miss Francis as the wife in love with another man.

I've been wanting burn a DVD of this film since I saw it about a year ago on TCM. Finally had the chance today. It's another Boleslavski film where every frame is art - see Fugitive Lovers. No one - not even Von Sternberg photographing Dietrich - took more care is setting the scene. Lighting, foreground, background, focus, all show a master's touch. Even the quick cuts of a second or less show the love affair of a man with his art. And just about every supporting villain in Hollywood is in it: C. Henry Gordon, Lucien Prival, Mischa Auer, Akim Tamiroff, Leonid Kinskey and Charles Halton (almost all uncredited). And not even mentioned in IMDb: J. Carroll Naish as an assassin. The rousing coach ride finale is a precursor to The Body Snatcher's and almost as good. Overall a schmaltzy Kay Francis vehicle made palatable by a great director. The film shows Boleslavski's versatility: here an epic versus Fugitive Lovers where almost everything happens on a bus. Too bad he died so early.