Wolff rating: FAIR
Plot summary: Harlow is a star beset on all sides by grasping, manipulative people.
Biased, pithy comments: This is touted as the ``funniest movie Jean Harlow ever made,'' which doesn't say too much for Harlow. It wasn't exactly her fault---her accent is one of the quietly funny things that works (it keeps switching depending on who she's talking to). Unfortuantely, the entire film seems to be something out of the Theater of the Cruel---Harlow is boxed in by her publicity agent, her awful relatives, and the strangers who love her on screen. One is supposed to find it heartwarming, I guess, that Tracy secretly loves this women he keeps torturing, but I just found it mean. It was clearly a radical send-up of Hollywood at the time, but with today's overhyped tabloid media, it's hard to *not* experience a star's life firsthand. Your mileage may vary---you might like it better if you see it as a product of the times it was made in. Or not. Kudos for Louise Beavers as the straight-talking maid hauling around the giant, badly-controlled dogs (another part that works when the rest of the movie fails).
Other Notes: Gee, women---notice how when things finally go wrong, Harlow just starts crying? She just needs a good man to handle things for her. You know, like Space Hanlon. Yeesh.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Ivan Lebedeff, Louise Beavers.
Directed by: Victor Fleming