Red-Headed Woman

For those, like myself, who heard about Jean Harlow before viewing any of her pictures, the expectation was to see a glamor girl with somewhat limited performing skills, not unlike Marilyn Monroe at a later time. Not to take anything away from Marilyn, but Jean Harlow proved herself to be a very adept performer, an appealing combination of brazen sexuality and shameless manipulation, always with a comic touch. While sometimes getting her comeuppance (and appearing to enjoy it) at the hands of strong characters played by the likes of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, in "Red-Headed Woman" the men in her life are pushovers for her wily charms. Chester Morris earnestly tries once, twice, three times to resist her, and apparently comes THAT close to succeeding, but her persistence ultimately renders him helpless. The wealthy and distinguished (and elderly) Henry Stephenson doesn't have a chance: when Jean's pal Una Merkel suggests that she's aiming too high this time, that her plans have no chance of success, Jean replies, "He's a man, isn't he?"

This is the prototypical Jean Harlow character, done to the hilt by a very skilled performer who, in the final analysis, probably has more in common with Mae West than with Marilyn Monroe. If she played virtually the same character in almost every picture, she wasn't the first to do so. Her reputation as an actress deserves to be greatly enhanced.

Watching this today will give you a quite different impression than it gave its original audience.

Today we will see a film with strong sexual notions that we will note because such things all went away with the censors a year later.

We'll see — and you can check it by the comments here — a story about a golddigger who uses sex to exploit one poor guy after another. The sexy bitch here is Jean Harlowe in one of the roles that made her the template for Monroe, who is the one we remember. Today, we might even note that she isn't punished for her sins.

But the audience it was made for was deep in a depression. They would have noted that the rich men in this story got their money through coal. They created nothing; they invented nothing. All they had was a government-backed deed that said they could pull stuff out of the ground with virtual slaves and sell it. They are the victims as seen today where monopolists are celebrated. But in its time, these guys were fair targets. The "society" folks would have all been repulsive, and much of that carries over today.

Even though the first guy seems likable enough, its the violent sex that wins him over every time. Its only when he discovers she has moved on that he is able to break the spell. The fact that the story is different in a different context is incidental to my main point, which is about redheads.

Now Jean and Marilyn were blonds, both artificially. But THIS movie starts with the character's new campaign to catch a rich husband. And to start, she dyes her blond hair red. This interests me because I have a small study of redheaded women in film, how they are used and how we reason about them.

Its a relatively simple thing to trace. My interest began when stumbling upon someone in a Disney character research lab who was tied to some spooky government research I was sponsoring. Look at the recent Disney animated women heroines. All but the Arabian princess are red. Now why is that? I am preparing a web site on this topic alone.

Anyway, if you are interested in this, Clara Bow was our first fully sexual movie woman and every moviegoer would have known she was red. Even though the films were black and white, the movie magazines tinted hair color. Red is easier to make look good with those dyes. And later you will see the same effect with hair color and Technicolor. Judy was dyed red for Oz and St. Louis, for instance.

For some reason. Redheads were tied to overt sexuality and explosive tempers. Whether you think film makes or reflects society, you might find a visit to this movie interesting. And yes, the redhead wins against the monied doofuses.

Incidentally, if you follow how memes jump from movie to movie, watch this, then "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," for a redhead newly in monied society in a small town, who wants a party and is snubbed.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Jean Harlow as a home-wrecker of the worst kind delivers her first great performance in Red-Headed Woman.All the men in her lives are pushovers easily manipulated by the films central character. Made before censorship came into effect in Hollywood, this movie is able to shock viewers even today.The greatest entertainment value of this movie is how naughty all the principal characters are.Sex is out in the open and immorality is the name of the game. Harlow seduces and wins Chester Morris.The sucker has not a chance and which man has when a beautiful woman pursues you.Henry Stephenson is quite good as the moral hypocritical businessman. Nice to see him play such a part. Even a young Charles Boyer has a small important part in his Hollywood bow.The ending is really the biggest surprise.

Most films made for prohibition era audiences painted the poor as virtuous and the rich as those who were keeping them down. This one turns that mainly Warner Brothers model on its head. Here it is the poor but beautiful office worker, Lillian (Jean Harlow), who sets her cap for her rich married boss, Bill Legendre (Chester Morris). She is persistent, because Bill is hard to break down. He has known his wife, Irene (Leila Hyams), since they were kids, and is really in love with his wife.

Bill caves a few time to Lillian's sexual heat, but he would never have left his wife for her. Lillian gets that, and is counting on the wife's pride to do the rest. It works, Irene leaves Bill and leaves the field to Lillian. But Lillian's undoing is that she cannot leave well enough alone, even after she is the second Mrs. Bill Legendre.

Harlow just fills this screen with her presence. She had been in other MGM productions for the last year or so, but this was her star making role. It's more than her beauty. This girl has "It" as much as real red head Clara Bow had it in the silent era. Una Murkel plays Jean's pal who seems content to sit on the sidelines and watch, but you get the feeling if she could pull something like this off she would. Henry Stephenson has a great comical role in this film. And look for Charles Boyer in a very small but important role as Stephenson's chauffeur.

I can't help but notice how similar this plot is to the production code film "The Women" - rich man loves his wife but likes sex with poor social climbing homewrecker with a plot that turns on the pride of the wife. I wonder if there is any connection?

At any rate, highly recommended plus it has a great hummable theme song that is even performed by a crooner at its midpoint - "Red Headed Woman".

Jean Harlow is the star of "Red-Headed Woman," a precode film about a golddigger men can't resist. Irving Thalberg thought the audience didn't catch onto Harlow's character immediately, so the scene at the beginning, when Harlow asks if the dress she tries on is see-through, is his. And yes, it certainly does establish her character: Finding out that the dress can be seen through, her character, Lillian, announces, "I'll wear it." Lillian is a riot - completely obvious, with her tight-fitting, low-cut clothing, cupie-doll voice, and swinging hips - everything about her says "trash," and she makes sure she follows the perception up with action by showing her garters (one of which has a picture of the boss inserted) and not hesitating to remove them and everything else if the situation calls for it. It's in this way that she breaks up the marriage of the boss, the hapless Bill Legendre, Jr. (Chester Morris) and gets into the big money. When that doesn't give her the social standing she wants, she seduces the fabulously successful Charlie Gaerste and then blackmails him into making the socially acceptable crowd attend a party at her home. She continues from there.

This is precode, so don't look for any type of punishment or for the character to take the moral ground. The ground she's on is too lucrative. Harlow is a delight -- pretty, vivacious, sexy, and always likable as the outrageous Lillian. A great loss to the world that she died so young. No matter what type of role she played, there was something very lovable about her, as demonstrated by her tremendous popularity. She has been compared to Monroe for obvious reasons, and both left lasting legacies as sexy, funny, vulnerable stars.

Una Merkel gives Harlow good backup as her roommate, and Charles Boyer appears in a small role. Though it's not my favorite Harlow - I love her in films like Libeled Lady, Wife vs. Secretary, and Suzy, where she sparks more with the other actors - this is very good and a great example of a precode film.