3 Garotas Ladinas

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 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.

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.

In her last film before she signed her MGM contract, Jean Harlow starred in Three Wise Girls along with Mae Clarke and Marie Prevost for Columbia. If this sounds familiar Warner Brothers was also doing Three On A Match around the same time and it had some similar plot elements.

While Prevost seems to have a really good deal working at home sending out letters with advertisements for various companies both Harlow and Clarke get themselves involved with married men, for one of them it turns out really bad. Prevost seems to have the right idea.

Playing opposite Harlow is Walter Byron who had a run of minor popularity in silent films, but whose career gradually petered out in sound films. He sounds like George Brent in his speech pattern and voice, but looks like Charley Chase. I'm betting that's why he didn't succeed in sound.

This film was filled with tragedy with both Harlow and Prevost dying way too young within six years. Three Wise Girls is far from the best work of these fatally star crossed actresses.

Jean Harlow plays a nice girl who is not willing to sell herself to get ahead. When her bosses try to sexually harass her, she quits--she's just not that sort of girl. So, in light of this, it's surprising when she meets and dates a nice guy--only to discover that he's already married and his estranged wife won't give him a divorce. At the same time, Harlow's friend (Mae Clark) is in a similar situation but her married boyfriend is less than honorable.

The idea of a girl dating a married man is something you just wouldn't have seen two years later--after the Production Code was strengthened and eliminated plot elements such as adultery, premarital sex or extreme violence (among others). However, despite the film trying to justify Harlow's dating a married man, the film is not nearly as salacious as some of the more notorious Pre-Code films, such as Harlow's RED-HEADED WOMAN--a film you just need to see to believe.

Overall, this is a pretty good little film despite the less than stellar and inconsistent message about morality that the film delivers. Good acting, a decent story and enough twists and turns to keep it interesting make this a good Pre-Code film.

By the way, the other "wise girl" is Marie Prevost who was included mostly for comic relief. Also, if you really care, Chillocothe is a small town in rural southern Ohio. It's best known today as a town with prisons!