An oddly indifferent selection: her best films (Red Dust, Bombshell, Dinner at Eight, Wife vs. Secretary, Libeled Lady) are all absent. Weird. But if you want to tape a sampler, here is what they are showing:
The Beast of the City (1932). Her first MGM film, a snappy gangster film, Jean excellent as a hard-boiled moll.
Red-Headed Woman (1932). The one to catch. Naughty pre-Code comedy, Jean as a nympho golddigger.
Hold Your Man (1933). Sappy melodrama with Clark Gable.
The Girl from Missouri (1934). Ruined by the Code, instituted halfway through filming. Patsy Kelly is great as Jean’s pal, though.
Riffraff (1936). Awful. labor drama with Spencer Tracy. Jean Being Earnest in a brown wig while she grew her hair out.
Reckless (1935). Her only musical, based on Libby Holman. Both her singing and dancing are dubbed. Fun, silly.
Suzy (1936). Probably her worst film: a WWI drama with Cary Grant.
Personal Property (1937). Her second-to-last film, an arch comedy with Robert Taylor. Filmed in three weeks, and shows it.
Don’t judge Jean by these films–find her better ones! But if you want to dip your toes, pick and choose from the above.
If this is her worst film then everything else she ever did must have been stellar. I thought Suzy was delightful; fell apart in the third act but an overall enjoyable flick.
I’ve been avoiding Jean for the last several months because I dated this guy a couple of times who’s a big fan and who turned out to be a total freak so there were some unpleasant associations. Reading the newest biography helped burn out some unpleasantness though so I’m hoping a few of the movies will finish the job.
I didn’t realise she made that many films. I thought apart of her allure was she hadn’t made that many films since she died young and thus there was a cult status over the few films she made (ala James Dean). Guess I was wrong.
Actually, I’m glad they’re not showing the usual handful of Harlow pictures. Seems like Dinner at Eight, Wife vs. Secretary and Red Dust have each been on two or three times in the past six months. Glad to see them going for something different.
You’re right, Eve, that is kind of a crappy selection of her films! I’m embarrassed that they’re showing Reckless! I’ve never actually seen it, but the clip they show of it in one of the That’s Entertainment! volumes is horrendous.
Red Dust, in my opinion is the best out of everything she ever made.
I’d say if you can only tape three of these, go for The Beast of the City (good, taut gangster film, and Jean’s pretty good in it), Red-Headed Woman (by far the best they’re showing that day) and Reckless (it’s bad, but in a glitsy, enjoyable way).
And if you have a shred of loyalty to me, you’ll skip the one-hour docu that follows, as I was shut out of it by her “other biographer,” whose name shall not be mentioned.