A Monogram studio B movie, Allotment Wives notably starred Kay Francis, Otto Kruger, and Paul Kelly. From the poverty row studio that brought us wonderful pop culture Bs like Charlie Chan, the Bowery Boys, Bela Lugosi’s weird but wonderful horrors, and more than a tumbling tumble-weeds’ worth of westerns, came this military insurance scam film noir. Kay Francis was the highest paid actress for Warner Brothers of the 1930s, after a successful run at Paramount. When she openly disagreed with the quality of the work she was getting from Warner Brothers, they relegated her to the backlot for speaking out. Picture deals became harder to find and she eventually signed with Monogram. The term ‘poverty row’ evolved from the smaller B movie studios that produced movies during the 1920s through 1950s, with a lot less money, lesser known actors (or known actors on a downward spiral), and production schedules that didn’t allow for retakes and elaborate staging. But many of those movies remain endearing to movie fans today, especially this one. This pressbook is a more prestigious example of a Monogram pressbook mostly due to Kay Francis’s presence.
