Three Wise Girls

Bored with her small-town job as a "soda jerker," sexy platinum blonde Jean Harlow (as Cassie Barnes) moves to exciting New York City. For obvious reasons, Ms. Harlow is treated like a sex object. Propositioned by boss number three, Harlow is rescued by drunken Walter Byron (as Jerome "Jerry" Wilson). After sobering up, Mr. Byron seems like the perfect mate for Harlow. He's wealthy, proper and attentive. Unfortunately, Byron is also married. Harlow is soon reacquainted with childhood friend Mae Clarke (as Gladys Kane), who models underwear (and other clothing). She is having a relationship with a married man. Harlow's roommate Marie Prevost (as Dot) is looking for a man...

"Three Wise Girls" focuses on one Jean Harlow, but the other women have the better roles. Harlow commands the screen when she undresses - and director William Beaudine gets in several scenes with Harlow and Ms. Clarke in stages of undress. Harlow's figure is generously displayed. A "silent" star said to be victimized by the microphone, Ms. Prevost is noteworthy in a character role. Able to command the screen without taking off her clothes, Prevost sounds fine. She's looking for a plumber, but will settle for chauffeur Andy Devine. Clarke's subplot is the dramatic highlight. Unfortunately, Harlow's figure and her scene-stealing supporting cast don't make the main story more engaging.

***** Three Wise Girls (1/11/32) William Beaudine ~ Jean Harlow, Mae Clarke, Marie Prevost, Walter Byron

THREE WISE GIRLS (Columbia, 1932), directed by William Beaudine, is early Jean Harlow, vintage Columbia, and routinely made story dealing with three young girls (usually three) attempting to make good in the Big City, and the men who take part in their personal lives. Adapted from the story, "Blonde Baby" by Wilson Collison, there's nobody legally blonder than the platinum blonde baby herself, Jean Harlow (1911-1937), making her second and final feature presentation for Columbia. Though PLATINUM BLONDE (1931), her initial film for Columbia, is known mostly as an early Frank Capra directed comedy, THREE WISE GIRLS offers nothing really outstanding for Harlow except the opportunity in handling a leading film role for the first time.

Of the THREE WISE GIRLS, the story introduces Cassie Barnes (Jean Harlow), a small town girl living at home with her mother (Lucy Beaumont) and earning a living as a soda jerker for Lem (Robert Dudley) at the Chillicoale Drug Store. Finding that her good friend, Gladys Kane, has found success away from the town they grew up in, Cassie decides to follow suit by quitting her job and moving to New York City. Sharing an place with Dot (Marie Prevost), who supports herself addressing envelopes in their apartment, Cassie, soon meets Jerry Wilson (Walter Byron), a drunken millionaire, at the drug store. After quitting her third soda jerking job since moving to the city, Jerry, in good faith, takes Cassie home in his limousine. Later, Cassie comes to meet with Gladys (Mae Clarke), whom she hasn't seen in three years, at her place of work. Learning of her unemployment situation, Gladys arranges her employer, Andre (Armand Kaliz) to use Cassie as one of the models at $60 a week. As Cassie becomes romantically involved with Jerry, her situation soon patterns that of Gladys' courtship with Arthur Phelps (Jameson Thomas), a rich banker with eyes on Cassie, while Dot takes an interest in Jerry's chauffeur, Barney Callahan (Andy Devine). Complications soon take its toll for one of the "three wise girls."

Brief (67 minutes), and to the point, THREE WISE GIRLS limits itself of character introduction and plot development by presenting what it needs to be addressed without any drawn-out scenes. For Jean Harlow's first starring role, she's not bad. Her acting technique would improve greatly following her move to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio where all her future films were made, with comedy being her finest contribution to the motion picture industry. Harlow's Cassie is sometimes sassy, but mostly on the serious side. She's unlucky when it comes to men as evidenced in the opening scene that has her walking home alone from a date she abandoned some miles down the road. She later loses her jobs due to some overly aggressive bosses. Regardless of setbacks, Cassie will not give up her dream to make it on her own. As for the co-stars, Mae Clarke, the secondary character living in a luxurious penthouse, comes off best with her natural flare of acting, with advise of not ending up "behind the eight ball"; while Marie Prevost, the third "wise girl," with little to do except being the funny member of the trio with the most common sense. Andy Devine, the one in chauffeur's uniform, is almost unrecognizable here, speaking only a few lines of dialog, none which have that recognizable trademark raspy voice for which he's known. Walter Byron, sometimes classified by film historians as a poor man's "Ronald Colman," does satisfactory work as a millionaire with his distrust for women, but would drift to uncredited parts by the end of the decade. Others in the cast include Natalie Moorehead (Rita Wilson), Katharine Clare Ward (Mrs. Kane), and Marcia Harris as the no-nonsense landlady.

With the exception of sporadic reissues in revival movie houses in New York City during the 1970s and 80s, THREE WISE GIRLS remains a seldom seen Harlow product. Though this time filler made its way on cable television's Turner Classic Movies July 10, 2009, one can only hope for revivals of other extremely rare Harlow finds as THE Saturday NIGHT KID (Paramount, 1929), GOLDIE (Fox, 1931) and THE IRON MAN (Universal, 1931) to become part of a television broadcast package. (**)

Is Three Wise Girls a high point of spectacular American cinema? No, but that's not was I was expecting. I was expecting an entertaining movie and that's exactly what I got.

I'm a huge Jean Harlow fan and was so excited to see a new (to me) movie of hers. I was not disappointed. While I don't think she sparkled on screen like she did in her later films, she gave a solid and completely believable performance.

The plot was predictable, but well executed. I thought the character development was a bit thin, but that's to be expected from a movie that clocks in at just over one hour. (I actually love the short running times of some classic movies: that means you can watch more of them in an evening.)

Three Wise Girls tells a story that's been told many times (small town girl moves to the city and has a rough time), but it tells the story well. And, most importantly, it tells the story with Jean Harlow.

It's early Harlow in a role that doesn't require her signature sparkle. Still, there's enough shine to get noticed. The movie itself is nothing special, reminding me a bit of a cut-rate Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Here shapely working-class girls Clarke and Harlow try to satisfy their hearts' desire by marrying well; at the same time, they must dodge the inevitable mashers. Seems however their rich gentlemen already have wives, so that becomes a problem. Still, we get to see Harlow wiggle in and out of costumes in what would become part of her appeal. Have to say I didn't recognize the familiar Andy Devine under all that chauffeur's uniform. Too bad he didn't get more screen time. Then there's Marie Provost, the wise-cracking third girl, whose rather chubby figure presaged an eventual tragic end (IMDB), cutting short a promising Patsy Kelly-type career.

There's one really jolting scene that's sneaky as heck. Broken hearted, Gladys (Clarke) peers down from stories above street level. We think we know what she's planning, but as it turns out, we don't. Anyway, it's a really well thought-out sequence in an otherwise unexceptional screenplay. All in all, the 60-some minutes amounts to a good look at a pre-celebrity Harlow, along with Mae Clarke, who at least doesn't have to eat grapefruit courtesy Jimmy Cagney.

THREE WISE GIRLS has long been, with GOLDIE (1931), the rarest Jean Harlow starring film. For decades the few Harlow fans that had seen it basically only had access to a washed out, rather unwatchable print which made the whole cast look like ghosts. When Turner Classic Movies starred airing rare Columbia Pictures talkies in 2008, Harlowheads had their fingers crossed that one day they just might get around to this elusive film and that day finally aired on July 10, 2009 with a near-excellent print revealing this modest little programmer is one of Jean Harlow's best pre-MGM performances and one of her all-time most appealing characters.

Jean stars as Cassie, a virtuous small town girl who supports her mother on her salary as a soda jerk. Mom is proud of her daughter but can't help but be a little envious of her friend whose daughter Mae Clarke sends home big bucks from New York. When the whole town notices the automobile Mae's mom gets, Jean decides check out the big city herself. Reunited with her friend Mae, Jean is still very much a small town innocent ("I think she still believes in Santa Claus", a warm, amused Mae quips to her beau) but soon learns about the perils of metropolitan life for a sexy young woman as she is pursued by wealthy Walter Byron who isn't quite divorced from his chic socialite wife Natalie Moorhead , and well as having to fend off advances from the married man Mae is supported by. A regretful Mae advises Jean not to take "the easiest way" to financial comfort but Jean's plump, work weary roommate Marie Prevost tells her to go for it.

As you might presume by my IMDb moniker, I can hardly be unbiased about Jean Harlow but I am rather level-headed and I think she was a sensational screen personality and an quite an excellent movie actress and this little picture shows she could deliver the goods even before the big MGM buildup later that year. For a young woman who was hotly publicized as the most erotic sex siren on the screen, she is totally credible and believable as this good girl who does not want to give in to immorality. Jean is outstanding. Mae Clarke has a unusually glamorous role for her as the chic model who couldn't quite be so pure and is is equally excellent in a sympathetic part as an intelligent young woman who made bad decisions. Marie Prevost, once a silent movie glamour girl, plays the character part of the wisecracking man-hungry plump and plain girl of the type that would later be a Patsy Kelly specialty. The two male leads are acceptable albeit totally locked into the era with their oiled-up hair and pencil mustaches although Walter Byron is rather appealing as Jean's married man, a good guy who lives to regret his abandoned marriage to Natalie Moorhead. Moorhead is always a treat to see in early talkies where she was typecast as a wealthy, often amoral, clotheshorse, her part in this movie is quite small but she's still good.

The title THREE WISE GIRLS is perhaps deliberately ironic as only one of our heroines truly has her head on straight but all three actresses shine in this film, most especially the beautiful and bewitching iconic film legend Jean Harlow.