Although she is definitely a villain, I kind of get where Maida is coming from...at least in the beginning she came off as a woman who was trying to hold her marriage together, or was that her act?
At the end she undoubtedly the evil antagonist...either way bravo to Kay Francis for making her villainous character semi- real.
Kay Francis did an excellent job. I really hated Maida and wanted her to fall into a ditch or something worse. I really dislike people who could make someone's life miserable in their pursuit of riches.
In the beginning I could have some sympathy for her. She was in love with someone but worried together they'd have nothing. A lot of couples fall quickly out of love when they struggle to make ends meet. There's an off chance she could have married Alec for money but fallen in love with him after they married.
Almost the very minute I thought that there was sufficient evidence to the contrary. She was always in it for the money. She did not care that she and Alec were estranged and in a loveless marriage. She didn't care that her lust for his wealth (or his father's as we learn later) was keeping him in a marriage that was sapping his very soul.
She used whatever tricks she could to hold on to him when she could have just as easily taken a settlement and gone on her way to find another man. The fact her lover killed himself also showed her mean streak. She would have known the guy was not taking it well but she still dumped him and sent a matter-of-fact letter to end it.
I don't see how anyone could have any sympathy for Maida more than for a split second. As soon as we see who she really is the only thing we could feel was contempt.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]
At first I thought she was gallantly trying to hold her marriage together for all the right reasons. But as soon as she told Alec that she had been in love with that other guy when they got married, but she had chosen to marry him instead because of his money, I dropped her like a hot potato.
As for Kay Francis, she's one of my favorite actresses and this was the first time I'd ever seen her play a bad person. She did such a good job, I overcame my natural affection for her and was able to properly despise her character.