[1] Most often seen in light comedy,[2] Allen played Sybil Chase in the original West End production of Private Lives and Elizabeth Bennet in the 1935 Broadway production of Pride and Prejudice.

After her education in France and Germany,[4] she trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where her 1926 graduation performance caught the attention of Basil Dean, who cast her as Nina Vansittart in the Noël Coward play Easy Virtue, when it arrived to London from Broadway.

[5][6] In 1929, she married Raymond Massey, after he had cast her for a part in Noël Coward's play The Rat Trap.

[5] Her first West End appearance followed in July 1930, where she played the role of Sibyl in Noël Coward's Private Lives.

During this time she appeared on Broadway, in Cynara, and as Judy Linden in The Shining Hour, and in several films, most notably Merrily We Go to Hell.