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Absolutely brilliant

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I Found Stella Parish masterfully engages the viewer. It is very stylized hokum, but yet it is sincere and rather poignant. Kay Francis plays an actress with a secret past that involves having given birth to a child out of wedlock. Taking a break from her stage career, she decides to focus on her role as a mother and travels incognito with her daughter, played by Sybil Jason. It's a nice bit of casting, and their performances nicely complement each other.Three years later, Warners would reunite Francis and Jason on screen in Comet Over Broadway. Once again, they are mother and daughter, and once again Miss Francis is an actress.

The film begins with the American, Stella Parish, well on her way to becoming the #1 star of the British stage. Yet, on the night of her greatest triumph, she disappears. This is because Stella (Kay Francis) has a hidden past as well as a daughter she's been keeping a secret. When her old mobster husband (Barton MacLane) finds her in London, this is what prompts her to disappear.Ian Hunter plays a very nosy reporter who inexplicably does some amazing things to try to find her. He actually goes to the trouble of following her trail on board a cruise ship, but finding Stella isn't easy, as she's in disguise as her daughter's 'aunt'. Ian insinuates himself in their lives and behaves like a friend---all the while planning on revealing her secrets once he learns them all. However, once he realizes exactly who she is and why she ran, he isn't terribly keen on betraying her to the public--though he already had sent some of the story to his publisher! But stopping this story is imperative, as by this point, Stella has fallen for him and he's come to realize what a great old gal she really is. Where this all eventually leads is,...well,...crazy! Up until the end, it's hard to dislike the film in spite of its faults but the end disappoints.This plot is all very hard to believe and if you can't get past all this, the film will be tough going. However, if you can look past this, the film is an entertaining soap opera--thanks mostly to good acting and direction. Also, when it comes to Stella's daughter, you'll either find her the most adorable thing you've ever seen on film or she'll make your blood sugar level shoot to the moon! Worth seeing but far from perfect.

This is a badly dated melodrama about an actress whose dark past is revealed by a conniving reporter. Kay Francis is luminous, but she can't play trash. When Stella gets tough and starts on her downward trend, Kay, with her patrician beauty and educated accent, can't do it. A very talky movie, supposedly set in England, but the atmosphere and language aren't very British.Apparently the play she appears in has something to do with Caligula - trust me, it's no starmaking play or performance. It was fun to see that the play actually had an orchestra, a reminder of the old days when "straight plays" were really huge events.

Considering Mervyn Leroy directed this film, it has to rank as a disappointment. Kay Francis sleepwalks her way through a ridiculous plot about an actress whose career is threatened by blackmail. Casey Robinson's hastily written screenplay was probably an afterthought while he worked on Captain Blood, but there's no excuse for a film set (partly) in Britain to include constant references to people's 'apartments' and feature cars with left hand drives! Ludicrous Cockney accents we can overlook, but these details distracted me throughout the film. Everything about Stella Parish looks like a rush job, and Ms. Francis seems particularly anxious to call it a day. Not a complete disaster, but edging close to it.