In the 1932 "Red-headed Woman", Jean Harlow plays a compulsive gold digging seductress, from a poor and poorly educated background. In the present film, she also plays a low class compulsive gold digger: Eadie. Initially, she targets wealthy, or influential men perhaps 3X her age. But, eventually, she falls in love with young Tom Paige Jr(handsome and personable Franchot Tone), who is reasonably close to her age, and the son of a prominent banker(Lionel Barrymore, as Tom Paige Sr.) He can't keep his hands or lips off of her! However, Eadie differs in one important respect(besides her hair color) from her character in "Red-headed Woman": she refuses to yield to demands of sex before marriage. She doesn't want to take a chance on ending up as a mistress, who will eventually be abandoned. Thus, she tries to seduce wealthy men into wanting to seduce her, but demanding a marriage certificate and ceremony before any sex. She almost loses Tone because of this strict policy. However, he eventually comes to believe her claim of virginity and to respect her for it. However, Tone's father can't believe that such a beautiful chorus girl from a low class background, who obviously is a gold digger, is still a virgin. Hence, after failing to convince Tone that she is the wrong girl for him, he manufactures a scandal centered around her. Despite her pleas to Tone that she is innocent of charges, he choses to side with his father, for a brief period. Hence, Eadie gets drunk and accompanies a wealthy married older man,(Charlie) who had been sending her flowers, to his mansion. Charlie had just paid her bond so that she could be with him. Eadie's friend Kitty(Patsy Kelly) pleads with her not to do this, but is ignored. Meanwhile, Tone has had a change of heart, and goes looking for Eadie. Somehow?, he learns that she has gone with Charlie. Kitty lets him in the mansion, he runs up the stairs, knocks Charlie down, and carries Eadie to the shower, to supposedly help sober her up. They have a reconciliation, Tone again talking marriage. Incongruously, Paige Sr shows up, claiming that she was framed by his political enemies(She knows this isn't true). Anyway, this time, he approves of the marriage, for a happy ending. This climactic last portion of the film plays more like a silent film melodrama!
I should go into the relationship between Eadie and Kitty(Patsy) a bit more. They seem like an odd pair to be bosom friends. Previously, Patsy had been paired with another knockout platinum blonde: Thelma Todd, in a successful series of comedy shorts. Thus, being paired with Jean didn't seem so unusual. Whereas Eadie looks like she should have had extensive experience in romantic encounters with men, it's the plainer-looking Kitty who is always on the lookout for a good-looking man to date, and presumably isn't up tight, like Eadie, about petting and possibly vaginal sex. Thus, every now and then, Eadie has to pull Kitty away from flirting with a man, even though she claims that Kitty is supposed to be her chaperone.
I see that "Red-haired Woman" has a higher mean IMDB rating than this film. Also, there are many more reviews, suggesting that most viewers prefer Jean as a sexually-liberated gold digger, rather than an up tight virginal one. Personally, I enjoyed the present film, and can't imagine liking Jean with red-dyed hair(which shows up as light brown or brunette in B&W). Also, I suspect that most women will like the handsome Yankee blue blood Franchot Tone, with the infectious grin, as her fiancé.
At only 75 min. Long, this would ordinarily be considered a 'B' or programmer film. It's currently free at You Tube, also having DVD for purchase.
I should go into the relationship between Eadie and Kitty(Patsy) a bit more. They seem like an odd pair to be bosom friends. Previously, Patsy had been paired with another knockout platinum blonde: Thelma Todd, in a successful series of comedy shorts. Thus, being paired with Jean didn't seem so unusual. Whereas Eadie looks like she should have had extensive experience in romantic encounters with men, it's the plainer-looking Kitty who is always on the lookout for a good-looking man to date, and presumably isn't up tight, like Eadie, about petting and possibly vaginal sex. Thus, every now and then, Eadie has to pull Kitty away from flirting with a man, even though she claims that Kitty is supposed to be her chaperone.
I see that "Red-haired Woman" has a higher mean IMDB rating than this film. Also, there are many more reviews, suggesting that most viewers prefer Jean as a sexually-liberated gold digger, rather than an up tight virginal one. Personally, I enjoyed the present film, and can't imagine liking Jean with red-dyed hair(which shows up as light brown or brunette in B&W). Also, I suspect that most women will like the handsome Yankee blue blood Franchot Tone, with the infectious grin, as her fiancé.
At only 75 min. Long, this would ordinarily be considered a 'B' or programmer film. It's currently free at You Tube, also having DVD for purchase.