Quickly Made Gangster Movie with Kay Francis vs Humphrey Bogart Central to the Thin Plot. Bogey is a Stereotypical Bully with a Moronic Sense of Humor and an Ego to Match His Hero "Napoleon". Kay Francis, on the other hand is Anything but Stereotypical for the Era. She Plays a Strong Female Doctor having to use Her Wits and Wiles to Save Her Career and Her Determination and Intelligence is a Refreshing Role for Her Gender in the 1930's. She is Totally Believable in the Part and Matching Her is Bogey's Goofy Gangster and somehow the Bogart Character comes across as a Likable, Brainless Thug like something in a Cartoon.Overall, some Side Characters like Kay's Mother tend to Grate the Nerves and a couple of Bogart's Gang are very Dated Stock Gangsters. The Film is Entertaining and Enjoyable while Not in the same League as the Best WB Crime Films of the Thirties.It's a Short, Fast Paced and Compact Movie with enough Playful Panache to Pass as a Lighter than Usual Look at some of the Clichés of the Genre.

It's the end of the road for Kay Francis at Warner Brothers, where after 7 years of being their highest paid leading lady, was reduced to "B" pictures, and here is basically secondary to rising star Humphrey Bogart, still playing the gangster and holding her against her will after being responsible for her husband's death. It's not a pretty picture, either for Kay's career or for the movie audiences, for this is pretty thin stuff. Bogart played many gangsters over the years, and Joe Gurney is probably his least interesting. This was a remake of a film called "Dr. Socrates" where Paul Muni played a physician forced to help out gangsters, and now Kay's in the same boat, having watched the ruthless criminals murder her husband in cold blood. There's plenty of action and shoot-outs with the law to keep the audience awake, but the results are rather mediocre. It's a shame that Warners couldn't have come up with a better story for Ms. Francis and Bogart to work together with. They'd have been great in a romantic drama as a socialite and gritty anti-hero who try against the odds to be together. The "B" ramifications of this script are obvious, the production pretty much rushed through to get another Bogart film out to the craving public and get Francis's dressing room free for the new leading lady of the lot, Bette Davis.

King of the Underworld features an early role for Humphery Bogart in one of his many gangster roles.He plays Joe Gurney who uses a female doctor to treat his men and pays her for it. He follows her when she goes to live with her Auntie after one of Gurney's men kills her doctor husband who also worked for him. Gurney kidnaps an author on his way to find the female doctor and gets him to write his life story and he then plans to kill him. He finally meets up with the doctor and after she gives Gurney and his men a substance that makes them temporarily blind, she and the author, who have now fallen in love manage to escape just as police arrive...Joing the excellent Bogie in the cast are Kay Francis, James Stephenson and John Eldredge.Watching King of the Underworld is a good way to spend just over an hour one evening.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Once again, through no fault of her own, Kay Francis is in trouble and must get out of it through brains and determination. This time it's Bogey, doing a minor variation on Duke Mantee from PETRIFIED FOREST. As in most of Kay's vehicles from this period -- Warner's was pushing Bette Davis as their leading female star at this point -- everyone works hard and gives a performance that makes this hokey weeper watchable.