Old movie Madness: Red Headed Woman (1932)

A film with a screenplay by Anita Loos (author of Gentlemen Prefer blondes, no less). 

This film is a joy, a camped up over-acted, Pre-Code joy.  Harlow plays the red headed woman of the title, covering her trademark blonde do with a red wig.  Her character is Lilian ("Lil" or "Red") Andrews, an utterly mercenary sort who uses sex as currency in her attempt to cross from the wrong side of the tracks to the right one, and doesn't care who she hurts along the way.

The film opens with Harlow, as "Red" draped across a chaise and with a cheeky wink she makes reference to Loos' novel with the line “So gentlemen prefer blondes, do they?” setting the tone for this racy romp.

Red lives with her best friend Sally, played by the ever wonderful Una Merkel, and together they ply their charms on seemingly unsuspecting chaps left right and centre.  Red has set her sights on the boss and makes a very deliberate play for him, collecting his post and dropping it off at his house when his wife is in.  She offers to work late and take dictation and when  Mr Bill Legendre is distracted by her shapely legs as she unsubtly hitches up her skirt, she decides to tell him that she loves him. Mr Legendre valiantly fights back but when he sees that she has his photograph clipped to her garter he gives in and soon the pair are discovered kissing by Bill's wife, Irene.

Bill adores Irene, his first love, and tries to persuade Red to leave town and leave him alone but she will have none of it, becoming a full time stalker, following him to restaurants and finally turning up drunk and barging into his house.  Irene finally has enough and leaves Bill, giving clever Red the perfect chance to get her claws into him as he is down.  They live the high life, drunk on booze and sex, and she manages to persuade him to marry her.

Unfortunately marriage to a rich man doesn't bring our Red the glamour and social acceptance she imagined. Bill's friends do not want to associate with her and remain loyal to Irene.  Red finally snaps when she realises that she has been deliberately left off the invitation list for a party and she forces herself into the path of the wealthy Charles Gaerste, a family friend of the Legendre's.  Not knowing her identity, the mature Mr Gaerste falls for her fiery charms and takes her home.  Red threatens Mr Gaerste with exposure of a very different kind unless he helps launch her into society, and out of fear for his reputation he tries his best to get his friends to accept her.

Sadly this fails and the people she so wants to impress just mock her.  Red decides she has to leave town and thrilled to be rid of her Bill sends her to New York.  Once there she launches a full scale assault of Mr Gaerste - it is a miracle his heart held out really.  She intends to marry him, a plan Bill is more than happy to support as he wants Irene back.

Unfortunately it all unravels for Red; Gaerste sees through her and, enraged, she attempts murder.  Failing at that she agrees to leave for good with a particularly good looking chauffeur.  When we last see her she is in the company of an elderly man with her chauffeur pal driving them from the racecourse.  We can only assume she is continuing to exploit men for money and has found herself a handsome accomplice.

Harlow's performance in this movie has received a lot of praise, and it is certainly worth it.  At first look I felt her acting rather wooden, but I realised this was deliberate - Red is an emotionless creature who exists only for herself and this comes over in Harlow's cold style and the very fake crying scenes.  She really does well to make such a one dimensional girl seem interesting, she is fascinating to watch, especially when she turns on her wheedling baby voice to extract what she wants from the men around her.  Another gem is Una Merkel, who always brings a sparkle to a movie and is the voice of reason to all of Red's aspirations.

The weak point is really the story - are we to believe that all these men are so weak and blind as to fall for Red's obvious tricks?  I tend to credit chaps with more intelligence than that, but then I'm hugely out of practise.  Next time I'm on a date I'm going to try a baby voice and see if I end up wed!

This was one of the Pre-Code movies thought to have spurred on the implementation of the Production Code.  Harlow's "Red" was a promiscuous character: a marriage wrecker, having pre marital sex, committing adultery and even, gasp, appearing in public intoxicated and trying to kill a man.  Despite this she effectively gets off scot -free - living an easy life with a man she loves and fleecing old gents out of their dough quite happily. 

What a scandal!

This isn't a serious movie, it isn't making a point, but neither is it a comedy.  Harlow is excellent in an over the top way and it is well worth seeing just to see her light up the screen with her baby face.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

Old Movie Madness: Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

Being laid up at home I have had plenty of time to watch some films, so it ain't all bad.  One of today's selection was the sweetly romantic "Wife Vs. Secretary" from 1936 starring Jean Harlow, Clark Gable and Myrna Loy as well as a young Jimmy Stewart.

This is a classic 30's romance of misunderstanding and is beautifully played by the majority of the cast.  Gable is advertising executive V.S (otherwise known as Van or Stanhope) who lives an affluent lifestyle with his adoring wife of three years, Linda (Loy).  The film opens on their wedding anniversary with V.S pretending to have forgotten while secretly having placed an extravagant diamond bracelet in their breakfast.  This opening scene is interesting as the dialogue hints heavily at the couple having spent the night together, casting Loy as a sex symbol rather than just "the wife".

Next we see V.S. at the office, striding through confidently greeting everyone, clearly a man who loves his job.  As he walks into his office we see a curvy young lady stood on a chair hanging a picture of him above the desk, she jumps down and greets him fondly.  This is Helen "Whitey" Wilson, his secretary (Harlow). Van's mother fears Whitey will be a temptation to her son and she wastes no time in warning Linda of her feelings.

Whitey is a beautiful and very intelligent young blonde, engaged to the earnest Dave (Stewart), we next see her at the dinner table with her family ready for a night out, wearing a classically Harlow white satin gown.  Unfortunately V.S. calls her and she goes to work leaving poor Dave to go to the theatre alone.

Whitey delivers the papers V.S requested to a party, and still dressed in her theatre outfit the blonde causes quite a stir among Linda's friends who all assume V.A. is having an affair and make their assumption obvious to Linda who still professes that she trusts her husband implicitly.

Dave asks Whitey to marry him and she refuses as she does not want to give up her career, or perhaps the opportunity to be close to V.S., and when he entrusts her with his latest business secret and takes her with him to an out of town meeting tongues again wag.  Things escalate when V.S has to attend a meeting in Havana and takes Whitey with him.  They have an innocent but drunken night out together to celebrate their successful business meeting and get in at 2am.  The phone rings and Whitey answers, Linda hears her voice on the line and hangs up - now convinced that her husband is having an affair.

Linda wants a divorce and V.S starts to turn to Whitey for comfort, however she does the decent thing and tells Linda that she would be a fool to leave him.  Linda finally returns and Whitey decides to settle with Dave.

The film has some sterling moments - my favourite being close to the end where Whitey is explaining to Linda that she cares for V.S and is in fact willing to be second best but that she thinks they would be happier if they got back together.  It is strongly and earnestly played by Harlow.  Also interesting is the underlying message about gossip, this being the damaging this in the couples marriage, V.S having never really noticed Whitey as a woman, as evidenced by the nickname.

The wardrobe isn't amazing, there are some distinctly odd garments worn by Loy, especially around the house, including once very long slightly oriental looking dressing gown with a wide leather belt.

Stewart's acting is very laboured and wooden, but then this isn't the relaxed sort of role he excelled at.  Gable is quite slimy and irritating, it definitely takes a while to warm to him, and his clothes have a brash nouveau quality which adds to this (checked tweed suit and polka dot tie - ouch!) and while I do adore Harlow I find it hard to see her as a sex symbol with her cutesy dimpled chin and Kewpie doll features (perhaps it is my modern eyes). Interestingly though she isn't really acting the vamp here, there is no swanning around in underwear or sleazy wisecracking and the only scene where she is dressed sexily (her theatre outfit) shows her looking awkward and uncomfortable as V.S helps her with her coat.  Quite a departure from her earlier roles.  In fact this was a deliberate move, Harlow even darkening her hair a few shades for the role.

Not a just a fluffy comedy but a good solid romantic film with a heart and a message.  Very worthwhile viewing.