Suzy

In London, sexy blonde American chorus girl Jean Harlow (as Suzy Trent) has trouble finding work and paying the rent. Producers balk when Ms. Harlow refuses to trade sexual favors. Hoping to change her fortunes, Harlow resolves to marry a wealthy Count and walks into a moving Rolls Royce. Charming Irish inhabitant Franchot Tone (as Terry Moore) turns out not to be the vehicle's owner, but offers Harlow a place to live, with no strings attached. He's a promising inventor and seems devoted, so they tie the knot. Neither know it, but Mr. Tone's workplace ("Schmidt & Co") is, apparently, a front for German spies. After a frightening incident, Harlow relocates to Paris. The Great War (WW I) breaks out and French playboy pilot Cary Grant (as Andre Charville) joins the cast...

There is more care in having Harlow look attractive than authentically from the year 1914, and the automobile she walks into looks like a 1930s model. You'll also have to check your brain at the door a couple of times during the plot. Harlow gets two A-list leading men, as well as good support from stalwart Lewis Stone and duplicitous Benita Hume. The dubbed song "Did I Remember?" became a contemporary hit. Recalling her memorable "Dinner at Eight" (1933) exchange with Marie Dressler, Harlow is given the comic line, "Been reading a book," and disrobes early in the running time. Reportedly, the popular box office star wanted to move away from the sexpot roles and "Suzy" appears to be a compromise. Harlow is so vivacious and appealing in this neatly-produced melodrama; it's difficult to believe she would soon pass away, from kidney disease. MGM and director George Fitzmaurice showcase their star well.

****** Suzy (6/26/36) George Fitzmaurice ~ Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Cary Grant, Lewis Stone

Watching Suzy it's hard to believe that a year later Jean Harlow would be no more. She seems so witty and so bright in her performance as this American showgirl on the other side of the pond before World War I.

In the title role of Suzy, Harlow is down and out and about to be evicted from her not so palatial digs in London. She's not quite willing to go the casting couch route for a part. But things are becoming desperate. She meets young inventor Franchot Tone and they fall in love and marry. But they also discover a nest of German spies and the femme fatale of the nest, Benita Hume, shoots Tone and casts blame on Harlow. Jean flees to Paris where she gets involved with playboy aviator Cary Grant and then they marry. Wouldn't you know it Tone turns up alive and as it were he and Grant are friends.

I know I could be describing a comedy and Suzy does have its funny moments, but instead it's a well done drama with Harlow front and center in a typical part for her, a good natured dame who's learned life's answers from bitter experience. Her two leading men are clearly in support of her.

Franchot Tone did a few films at MGM with Harlow, but this was Cary Grant's one and only pairing with Jean. He was just leaving his original studio of Paramount to freelance and this might have been his first film with MGM. Notice the billing with Grant clearly number three as it was Harlow and Tone's home studio. Twelve year later Grant and Tone would be together in Every Girl Should Be Married with poor Jean dead eleven years and Grant clearly with the star billing.

Suzy received an Oscar nomination for Best Song which was won by Jerome Kern's The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time. Jean sings Did I Remember with her voice dubbed on screen and Cary does an obbligato which gained some immortality in That's Entertainment. I have a recording of it by Dick Powell. Highly unusual because it's not a song introduced by Powell nor is it from a Warner Brothers film. So I'm guessing Powell must have liked the song to insist Decca record him doing it. It's a nice ballad by Walter Donaldson and Harold Adamson.

I won't give away the ending, but bear in mind those words from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance about when the legend becomes fact. A legend gets protected in Suzy.

Both on screen in the story and in the cinema legend of Jean Harlow, Suzy is a great example of the actress in a role tailor made for her talents.

An entertaining, well-made WWI-era romance, SUZY features a standardly-scripted but winningly-executed love triangle, with some espionage and spy action thrown into the mix. In the title role, Jean Harlow (who was arguably MGM's biggest female star at the time) gives a refreshingly natural and totally believable performance, and really carries the film with her considerable charm and screen presence. Franchot Tone and Cary Grant may draw some criticism for utilizing improper accents, but both actors contribute solid performances as the men in our heroine's life – Tone is touching as the idealistic charmer who truly loves Suzy, and Grant is shockingly effective cast against type as smooth-talking but treacherous heel. The movie is further enhanced by the quiet strength of Lewis Stone, whose genteel toughness as Andre's father creates a moving relationship with Harlow as his neglected daughter-in-law.

As a WWI period piece, the studio faced the obvious challenge of redressing the soundstages to reflect the 1914 setting, and the MGM artisans contribute their usual high standard to the film. SUZY features the typical MGM gloss, although the budget does appear to be a bit more limited than the studio usually lavished upon a vehicle for one of their biggest stars. The sets and costumes are up to the usual MGM standard for the time, with Harlow's stunning figure showcased in several beautiful Dolly Tree gowns (even if the style is unarguably more 1936 than it is 1914). The film makes extensive use of various stock footage, notably Howard Hughes' 1930 classic HELL'S ANGELS, most of which is reasonably incorporated into the finished film and succeeds in enhancing the film's scope.

The film is based on Herbert Gorman's novel (which I haven't read), and the film's characters are very well-developed by the strong performances of the cast – which gives the central love triangle more tension and pathos when compared to many similar and also leaves Suzy's relationship with the Baron as poignant as that of the love affair with either suitor. The film only wobbles a bit in the final third as too many coincidences involving the espionage subplot begin to pile up, and a slightly preposterous conclusion prevents the film from being a total classic (with four credited screenwriters, perhaps there were too many cooks in the kitchen). SUZY is absolutely terrific when it's focus remains on it's strong characterizations and the relationships of it's leads. Director George Fitzmaurice does an expert job of keeping the whole film on track, and provides us with many breathtakingly beautiful moments – my favorite of which is a particularly lovely scene with Grant singing a few lines of the Oscar-nominated song "Did I Remember" to Harlow.

SUZY (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1936), directed by George Fitzmaurice, stars Jean Harlow in the title role not taken from some comic strip character nor anything from a children's story, but one taken from a novel by Herbert Gorman set during the Great War. Stressing more on melodrama than comedy, it's a mix of romance, espionage and war related theme with aerial battles thrown in.

As for the story, Suzy Q, actually Suzy Trent (Jean Harlow), whose philosophy being "blondes never go broke," happens to be an American chorus girl stranded in England. Upon completion in the final performance of "Melodies of 1914," Maisie (Inez Courtney), Suzy's closest her friend, invites her to come with her to Paris, but prefers staying in England hoping to meet some millionaire. She thinks she's met one during a foggy evening after getting nearly run over by a Rolls Royce driven by Knobby (David Clyde), with Terry Moore (Franchot Tone), in the back seat. Making amends for the near accident, Terry takes Suzy home and arranges meeting her again the next day. Hearing the honking sound of his car, she sees Terry awaiting for her in a jeep. Learning the Rolls Royce from the night before was actually borrowed, she also finds Terry is not rich but only an stabilizer inventor working at Schmidt and Company, an engineering firm owned by Mrs. Schmidt (Greta Meyer). Announcing plans on returning to New York, Terry, not wanting to lose Suzy, proposes. After getting married, Terry takes his new bride to the factory showing off his accomplishments. As they embrace, Suzy notices a mysterious woman, with face half covered, approaching from behind Terry, shoots him and disappears. As the sounds of police sirens come nearer, Suzy, afraid of being blamed, runs away, heading for Paris at the very moment the war has started. Maisie gets Suzy a job singing at the Cafe De Anges where she encounters Andre Charville (Cary Grant), a French aviator whom she soon marries. While away at war, Suzy remains at the estate of Andre's father (Lewis Stone), who grows fond of her, but keeps secret of his son's infidelity. When Suzy visits the wounded Andre in the hospital, she encounters his friend, Captain Terry Moore, very much alive. Accusing her as a title-hunter, regardless of her explanations, Terry wants nothing to do with her. About to confess her past to Andre, Suzy catches him in a romantic embrace with Madame Diane Eyrelle (Benita Hume), his mistress who happens to be the woman who shot Terry.

Returning Harlow to World War setting for the first time since her breakthrough performance in HELL'S ANGELS (United Artists, 1930), she's come a long way since then, from self-sufficient, tough talking, immoral and/or sometimes conniving young blondes. Harlow's Suzy comes across as softer, kinder, considerate and most of all, loyal, particularly to her two husbands. During those 94 minutes, Suzy acquires fast relationships before marrying, two weeks with love with Terry (Tone); and five hour courtship with Andre (Grant) following an air raid. The screenplay divides the two in half hour intervals before uniting the trio for its final portion of the story. Cary Grant, third billed in his MGM debut, is surprisingly more secondary performance than Tone. Not quite Academy Award winning material, SUZY did earn a nomination for best song. Not quite "If You Knew Susie," but a new one, "Did I Remember?" by Walter Donaldson and Harold Adamson. Vocalized twice by the dubbed Harlow, first at a cabaret, reprized by Grant, surprisingly effective using his own voice, and once more by Harlow in sentimental form while playing the piano at her father-in-law's home.

Contrived story is basically helped along by with the moral support of her male co-stars. British born Cary Grant seems surprisingly miscast as a French aviator, though fortunately never attempts a French accent, neither does Lewis Stone looking more British with his white mustache than French, if his role required him to be French. Grant's byplay with Harlow during their courtship is quite amusing, almost to a point of becoming a comedy. Although Tone might have assumed the French ace role instead, he might not been able to put off the humor as convincing not believable playing the unfaithful husband. Harlow, better known for comedy, does what she could as a serious actress. She's not so convincing with her outburst to her two men as the female spy (Hume) enters the room, "There she is. She's the one that shot him." Another drawback for Harlow is having her gowned in modern head-dress and costumes for a story set in and after 1914. Inez Courtney as the comedic friend disappears early while Una O'Connor as Mrs. Bradley, the kindly landlady of the boarding house, makes the most of what she's given. Stanley Morner, better known as Dennis Morgan, can be glimpsed briefly as one of the soldiers at the cabaret.

The stranded show-girl loved by two men theme must have been the inspiration for one called MAISIE (1939) that soon prospered into a film series starring another MGM blonde, Ann Sothern, As with both characters in a line summed up in SUZY, "there's no end to your loyalty." Maisie was loyal, too.

SUZY, distributed to home video in the 1990s, should be acceptable viewing for Harlow fans whenever it turns up on Turner Classic Movies. (**1/2)

In my mind "Suzy" is one of the best performances by Jean Harlow, who is in virtually every scene, and who manages to underplay her role as America's sex goddess. She isn't helped by the ridiculous Irish accent of Franchot Tone nor the so-called French aviation ace played by Cary Grant with his normal British accent. Not withstanding the problems with the accents, Grant is as delightful as he always was in these 30s comedies, although this particular film is a mix of comedy, romance, and drama. Perhaps this is the only real problem with the film – in an attempt to be comedy, romance, and drama the writers give short shift to each of the elements. The comedy isn't all that funny, the drama doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat, and the romance won't win your heart. But what this film does deliver is a great performance from Harlow in one of her last films.