Saratoga

Corny? Sure. Dated? A big part of this movie's charm. Of course, the fact that this was Harlow's last movie makes it worth watching for this reason alone but the fascinating repartee between Gable and her throughout the film is hugely entertaining. For racing fans, the scenes of old Hialeah and Saratoga race tracks shows the days when having a bet on a horse race was the only legal way to gamble. In those days, next to baseball, horse racing was the most popular sport in America and the scenes of huge crowds are a testimonial to that fact. In fact, this movie is a chronicle of American sporting history and unlike the recent horse racing films, "Seabiscuit" and "Secretariat", it is able to show the real glory of horse racing and the elite who were able to own and breed these most noble of animals.

'Saratoga' was Jean Harlow's last picture, and indeed suffered from a large amount of patching-up after her death mid-way through shooting (notice the scenes where her character is only present with her back to the camera, or is missing altogether). This serves to distract the viewer from the good points of her last movie (especially the scene where Harlow has to explain away the presence of a large cigar in her room; Gable of course hiding under the bed!). In the scenes which she did manage to shoot she is fabulous, although clearly not looking her best.

Jean Harlow was probably the best sexy blonde comedienne of Hollywood's Golden Age, as testified by her marvellous work in Dinner at Eight, Libeled Lady, Riff Raff, and Bombshell. She lit up any scene she was in, and this movie is no exception. We can at least be grateful it wasn't ditched or recast, and that we have the snippets of her greatness within this fairly good movie.

Ordinary comedy would have been a cinematic footnote and a stop gap for Gable and Harlow before their next scheduled pairing on loan to Fox for the much more worthwhile In Old Chicago if not for Jean's sudden death. Instead it ended up becoming the second most profitable film of 1937 and a notorious cash grab for Metro.

Not really a bad film but hardly the best film on any of the actors resumes. Other than the ghoulish, rather easy, game of spotting the scenes filmed after Jean's passing with a stand-in the film is packed with great character actors and actresses doing good work. Of particular note is Una Merkel, sassy and smart as an old crony of Gable's. Jean's part is one that's far away from her more famous early persona as a brassy good time girl but in line with the more refined lady-like roles Mayer was moving her towards after Irving Thalberg's death and which she had been transitioning to nicely. Considering the fact that it's an incomplete performance she is fine in her role, she looks weary and a bit bloated throughout not surprisingly since unbeknownst to all her kidneys were failing.

Her death actually caused great upheaval in many films that were in development at the time changing the course of many careers. She and Gable were to head over to Fox for In Old Chicago which proved a boon to Alice Faye and Tyrone Power. For their services Shirley Temple was to be loaned to MGM for the Wizard of Oz, when that fell through of course Judy Garland was cast pulling her out and Ann Rutherford in to the small part of Carreen in GWTW. Also among many other planned projects Maisie, originally planned as an A production but moved to the B unit after the loss of Jean, was allocated to Ann Sothern so successfully that it started her on a series that ran, between other films, almost ten years.

Not a great movie, it doesn't have the expected chemistry between Gable and Harlow, but many bits of trivia connected with it. It was released as I understand it after public pressure for another look at her. It ended up being her most financially successful film. I think that the cigar scene is one of her best, most understated comic moments.

I don't know of another film finished after its star's death like this. For that alone it is a curiosity. The added footage is very obvious, comical yet macabre. And the ongoing bit about her being sick is equally macabre.

As for the trivia, you have one of Lionel Barrymore's last ambulatory roles; longtime MGM contractee Walter Pidgeon in his first MGM role; Hattie McDaniel singing; The Wizard of Oz having breakfast with the Wicked Witch of the West; and Clark Gable playing probably the only nice bookie in the history of the movies (sort of nice, to Harlow's father at least).

For Harlow at her best, go with Personal Property, Red Dust or Bombshell, but watch this for the trivia.

Yes, the film is not great. The scenes when Jean doesn't appear or her double appears make the film lackluster and dull in those spots. However, the film gives glimpses of the "Forties" flavor and what great things Miss Harlow could have done had she only lived. Hattie McDaniel's singing in the club car is great (as far as the racist times would allow for that talented woman) and the scene where Miss Harlow smokes Gable's cigar while he hides under the sofa as Pigeon (as her fiancé) unexpectedly arrives at her room to speak to her is a fine bit and a few other moments in the film where Miss Harlow appear simply make the viewer all too aware of the great loss of the great comedic talent and the delicate beauty of the remarkable Jean Harlow. It would have been better to have her last film an excellent comedy (in the vein of "Topper" for which she was slated), but this film without her in it would have been totally forgettable- so it stands as a fair tribute to a great star.