Platinum Blonde (1931)

The movie took excellent money domestically and in Great Britain. In Australia, it was one of the big hits of 1932. COMMENT: Harlow swings her way through a comedy whose plot is rather similar to that of Love Is News (and its remake). She is beautifully photographed and most attractively costumed, whilst the director makes the most of her presence with delightfully long tracking shots and imaginative camera angles. And while the plot is familiar to us modern viewers, it is served up with wit. Harlow seems a bit unsure of herself in her earlier scenes, but really warms to the role as the film progresses and quite overshadows Loretta Young who has the nominal heroine role. The rest of the cast is very competent. Robert Williams, who died shortly after the film was made, was a natural and graceful player with the style and the voice of Lynn Overmann. Reg Owen and Halliwell Hobbes contribute some amusing bits of business. The film was produced on a lavish budget and Capra has directed with tremendous style and imaginative verve.OTHER VIEWS: Platinum Blonde loses track of itself about seven/eighths of the way through and comes to an unsatisfactory end. I mean nobody is rooting for the lackluster, thin-as-a-rake Loretta Young character when the hero is already bedded down with voluptuous Jean. Still,One for Harlow Robert Williams is an interesting personality (I always look him up whenever I see this film to see what else he starred in - I'd certainly like to see some of his other films) and the film has enough, wit, pace and get-up and go to sustain interest over several viewings. Some great character studies too from Halliwell Hobbes as a backsliding butler, Claude Allister as a superfluous flunkey and Louise Closser Hale as outraged mother. Walter Catlett, Reg Owen and the guy who plays the editor are amusing too. Stylish direction and camerawork. Other technical credits A-1. - JHR writing as George Addison.

Good acting too. I enjoyed seeing Robert Williams and sorry to read that he died soon after the film was made. He played the snappy reporter just right, although the movie never really explained the great attraction between his character and Jean Harlow's very well-all of a sudden, they are married.Not a Loretta Young fan...but she is fine in this film, and of course (as per her contract I think) she has to end up with the man. Strange to see a divorce being the reason, but then it is pre-code. Still, usually you would see the woman walk out on the man, not vice versa.The plot is pretty cliché, but the pace is fast, and keeps moving, so it keeps your interest. Gets a little heavy-handed with the "bird in gilded cage" references...

Let me just say, flat out, this film was simply...The Robert Williams show. It's an absolute tragedy we never got to see anymore films with him in it. I'd bet he would have been a star.It's easy to see why he was chosen for the lead in this one. This guy had serious screen charisma. For a film made in 1931 it sure feels like one from today. You get the impression he was almost like William Powell in his delivery. He's dead on in every scene. It doesn't hurt that Capra Directed this one so you know it wouldn't be a stinker.You would think with Jean Harlow in this it would be another one of her wise crackin' ways films...but it's not. I mean it's obvious the film played on her with the title but this was before she became the Jean Harlow we all know from The Red-Headed Woman to Red Dust and all the way to her early death. She's sorta second string in this one. For what it's worth, she couldn't hold a candle to her counterpart in this film in Loretta Young, in terms of beauty. Jean Harlow may have been probably the earliest screen vamp but she wasn't near as beautiful as a lot of her contemporaries.Don't see this film because it's got Jean Harlow and don't see it because it's an early Capra work. See it for Robert Williams...the would have been major star. For what it's worth, Robert Williams should be proud wherever he is, he made a winner.

The title is puzzling since Harlow is hardly the movie's central focus. Nonetheless, I find myself agreeing with reviewer Robert's perceptive comments even though they're not popular (I've learned that these websites attract mainly fans of a movie, regardless whether the film is good, bad, or in-between). The characters here are indeed two-dimensional caricatures, while every line out of Smith's (Williams) mouth is a tiresome, all-knowing wisecrack. At the same time, he drones on in a flat monotone cadence that's about as annoying as a prolonged dial tone. And though I have no sympathy for America's plutocrats, I kept hoping the much-abused Dexter (Owen) would return the favor and knock some of the smugness out of Smith. In fact, another hour of this dreary "class-struggle" would likely have converted me into a flaming royalist. One point where I diverge from Robert is Harlow. She certainly is no classic beauty; at the same time, Capra's camera tracks her rather ample caboose like a near-sighted gumshoe. Nonetheless, even if miscast as a proper lady instead of a sassy dame, she does deliver a plausibly edgy performance as the jealous upper-class wife. All in all, I expect this plodding takedown of the uppercrust suited Depression era audiences of the day. However, I doubt that even that wily comedic talent Cary Grant could have emptied the overbearing conceit out of this one.