A Mulher Parisiense dos Cabelos de Fogo

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 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.

Harlow was about 21 years old when she made this film but she certainly seems older. In real life, she eloped at 16 and didn't have much of an education. Her accent here is flimsy. But her white skin was perfect for the period's bright lights and slow film. We see and understand well her expressions.

This film shows garters and a surprising morality. The gold-digger gets her gold, conniving and finagling all the way. It seems that a beautiful young woman, who confidently knows what she is, can get anything she wants from a man. Classic Jean Harlow (and I guess Anita Loos). Harlow's act is not ditzy coquette - she knows exactly what she's doing and so do we. It's fun to watch the story unfold.

The men are props but acquit themselves well. Charles Boyer, accent and all, plays the apparently genuine love interest. Watch for the scene where his character is accused of having an affair with a woman already having an affair. Only Boyer could get the right pause before answering matter-of-factly. This was one of his first American films.

Lillian, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, knows exactly what she wants & how to get it. Right now, she wants her young, handsome, rich & very married boss. Using her considerable - one might almost say ostentatious - physical charms, Lillian lets few obstacles stand in her way for long. After all, she's THE RED-HEADED WOMAN, and she always gets her man...

Jean Harlow was a sensation in this immoral tale, which practically shouts its pre-Production Code status. This film solidified her stardom and helped define her screen persona for generations of viewers to come. She not only had the looks, but she proved herself to be a fine actress, as well.

While the plot revolves around Harlow, the rest of the cast acquit themselves very well: Chester Morris, stern-jawed but very vulnerable as Jean's conquest; Leila Hyams, quietly sympathetic as Morris' wife; canny old Lewis Stone as Morris' father - one of the few men able to see through Harlow's tricks; Henry Stephenson as a millionaire who falls easy prey to Harlow's wiles. The story is helped considerably by the addition of two tart-tongued character actresses, Una Merkel & May Robson, whose lively lines help spark the fun. That's Charles Boyer, not quite yet a star, as Jean's chauffeur/boyfriend at the end of the story.

Movie mavens will recognize Henry Armetta in an uncredited bit as a comic waiter.

Notice that for all her outrageous behavior, Harlow's character remains unpunished & unrepentant - a situation not allowed a couple of years later with the adoption of the Code.

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.