It's cute, my dad has developed kind of a liking for Jean Harlow after we watched the new DVD releases of Libeled Lady and Dinner at Eight a few weeks ago. "I wouldn't mind seeing more of her movies, if you have them," he said, "Do you have Red Dust"? Well, no I didn't, so we watched Bombshell (as previously mentioned) a few weeks ago, and for Easter this past Sunday we had another JH double feature: Hold Your Man and Wife vs. Secretary. I think they're my two favorite Harlow movies, although I probably would be in the minority about that.
Hold Your Man starts out with a lot of funny and snappy dialogue between Ruby Adams and Eddie Hall (Clark Gable) as two con artists who meet when Eddie runs into Ruby's apartment, on the run from the police. Flirtation ensues, and the romance heats up pretty quickly (Ruby and Eddie obviously spend the night together after their second meeting -- it's only implied, of course, since this was 1933, but unmistakable). Eddie goes to jail for 90 days for trying to use a stolen car in a heist, and Ruby has moved into his flat by the time he gets out at Christmas. Eddie accidentally kills a drunk (whom he, Ruby, and his friend Slim were planning to blackmail) on his way out get a marriage license for himself and Ruby. She gets arrested when they come back, but Eddie gets away. While in the reformatory (and here's where most people think the movies goes wrong) Ruby discovers she's pregnant (it's remarkable how many ways they convey this without ever actually saying the word); Eddie hears about this and comes out of hiding to not only go see Ruby to tell her he loves her, but to hide out in the chapel and marry her (thanks to a handy parson) so their child won't be illegitimate. The wedding takes place with a flood of cops trying to break down the door, and ends with Eddie getting hauled off in cuffs. In the end, Eddie, Ruby and their son are reunited after Eddie serves his sentence for the accidental killing.
Most reviews I've read of the movie think it turns much too sappy and maudlin after Ruby is arrested; the site of Gable crying and begging the preacher to marry them, one person wrote, is almost too silly to bear. Yet I love the movie as a whole, even the mushy parts. The beginning is in fact a lot of fun; Gable and Harlow as a team are at their most enjoyable when they're kidding around. I'll admit that the mush has on occasion brought a little tear to my eye; when Ruby clings to Eddie, sobbing, after they're married and the cops are starting to drag him away, I find myself moved. Perhaps it is the power or Harlow's acting that manages to raise what most people call "sappy" to a level for me that I don't find it so. Plus, I'm a sucker for a happy ending, even if you do have to put up with a little mush to get there.
What I also found interesting were the scenes in the reformatory. Ruby's "cellmates" are sympathetic, believable and even entertaining characters, from Bertha, who gives Ruby her mother's ring for the wedding, to Sadie, who will start trumpeting her socialist beliefs at the drop of a hat. During a scene in the chapel, the movies attempts to show the diversity (for lack of a better word) of the inmates by showing a woman who is obviously Jewish, and one who is Asian. An unusual move at the time, when most minorities played maids (such as Louise Beavers does in this film) or other such characters. I've heard some praise for the movie's (mostly) realistic portrayal of reformatory life. Also interetsing is one of Sadie's diatribes about the class differences of the time: society debutantes aren't put in jail for the offenses that lower-class women such as themselves have committed, she says, yet there they are, serving time for public drunkenness, cavorting with sailors, and other "crimes" that are laughed off when committed by the wealthy. Sadly, not much has changed since 1933 in that regard.
Well, I went on longer about that movie than I intended. Moving on...
We also watched Wife vs. Secretary, which is probably the first JH movie I ever saw, and I bought it because of Myrna Loy and Clark Gable; I'm not sure I was much familiar with Harlow at the time. It's a movie I enjoy because it has a little bit of everything: comedy, romance, drama, and so on.
Jimmy Stewart plays Jean's boyfriend Dave, who gets fed up by her attention to her job and her crush on Gable, her boss. Myrna also gets jealous (goaded on by her mother-in-law, May Robson) and leaves Gable when she suspects that Jean has flown down to Havana to join Gable on a trip for romantic purposes. As matter of fact, it is for legitimate business reasons, and all above board, something which Jean eventually convinces Myrna of by using a little reverse psychology: Jean urges Myrna not to go back to Gable, because if his wife leaves him, he'll turn to her, his secretary, for comfort, and she won't turn away. Myrna says at first that she's still going; Jean responds, "You're a fool, for which I'm grateful," which I think is a great line, especially the way Jean says it. She's not gloating that she'll get Gable, she's merely stating the fact, and also mentions that of course he won't be as happy with her as he would with Myrna, but she doesn't mind taking him second-best. A very well done scene, by both actresses.
Naturally, Myrna comes back, the husband and wife are happily reunited (with a big smooch) and Jean walks out alone, in a scene that is rather poignant; Jimmy is waiting outside, and he tells her he loves her, and he's learned not to look for trouble, "because if you don't find it, you'll make it." Presumably engaged once again, they drive off into the night. Fade to black.
On a final note, Myrna said in her autobiography that the role of Helen "Whitey" Wilson in Wvs.S was the role of Jean's that was most like her in real life: a modest and decent person with a good heart, who didn't speak in a squawk or wear dresses cut down to her navel.
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