Dans tes bras

I always loved Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner, but not so much Jean Harlow. Me = dumb. I'd only seen clips of her films here and there. I always thought she was a hot one-liner, a glamour girl. But after seeing this, my first full length Jean Harlow experience, I admit that Miss Harlow was a truly great screen artist with the gift of creating rich characters. I simply fell in love with her, not because she was the first blonde bombshell or because she died young and became a legend. In this film, Miss Harlow's character is multi-dimensional beyond the traditional 1930's moll. She starts out one place and travels an arduous journey to end up on the other side of life. I loved her tough exterior. I loved her smile. I loved her song at the piano. My God, she was stupendous, she made me burst into tears when she sang her sad song. Most of all, I loved the HAPPY ENDING, Hollywood style. One other thing I was thrilled about was the African American inmate and her preacher father. Anita Loos was SO ahead of her time. She wrote 2 characters who were so lovely and so real. The inmate girl and her father brought such harmony to their scenes with all the white folk. A REVELATION for me. I hate stereotypes.

Hold Your Man (1933)

*** (out of 4)

MGM tearjerker has a couple con artists (Jean Harlow, Clark Gable) falling in love but after an accidental murder they're separated. Gable takes off and Harlow ends up in a reform school where she learns she's pregnant but fears that she'll never see her man again. I really wasn't sure where this thing was going as it blends a strange mix of comedy with drama but in the end I found it quite touching. The first half plays as a comedy and gets a lot of laughs including a hilarious scene where Gable tries hiding from the police by getting in a tub and putting soap all over himself. There are plenty of pre-code moments mixed in with most of them coming from Harlow showing off various limbs. Gable is as good as always but it's Harlow who really steals the show. This is the first time I've seen her take on a dramatic role and she nails it perfectly. She's given several emotional scenes and she comes off very well. The ending is very dramatic and contains a beautiful message that comes across very well. It's also worth noting that there's a black preacher in the film and I think this is the nicest role I've seen a black actor play in this era of Hollywood. The stereotypes we normally see in this type of film are thrown out the window and this must have been one of the earliest films to show a black man in such a nice form.

Love conquers all. That includes reality as defined in this pre-Code tearjerker. I would sympathize with the moral if the end weren't exaggerated into such a pile of mush. As others point out, the first half is sprightly as Gable and Harlow work the shady side of life. But then Gable accidentally kills a guy, while Harlow gets nabbed for a con job. So it's off to the hoosegow for both. Actually Gable drops out, while we follow Harlow's jaunt in a military- type slammer for women. Babes behind bars it ain't. The girls get to wear shapeless smocks, presided over by a bunch of long black crows (Patterson, et al.). One thing this segment proves—women can march from here to there in lockstep as well as men.

Some pre-Code highlights—Harlow in a gown unruffled by underwear; an actual socialist loudly denouncing the "system"; an unmarried Harlow with-child after an undisguised night with Gable; a peek-a-boo with Harlow in the bathtub. And though it's not pre-Code, the black minister and his inmate daughter rise above stereotype of the day. In fact, Theresa Harris is so winning as daughter Lillie Mae, she nearly steals the show. I can see why she had such a long career, even if mainly as menials.

The movie's a good look at MGM's golden twosome in their prime. And if the material falters, the stars manage to shine. So fans should be happy, despite the soggy ending.

Jean Harlow plays a streetwise dame who falls for charming con man Clark Gable. After Gable accidentally kills a guy, he takes off and leaves Harlow to take the rap. She winds up in a women's reformatory where she discovers she's pregnant. Mix of romantic comedy and drama helped a lot by the immense likability and sublime chemistry of its two leads. Harlow is terrific. One great scene has a floozy slapping Jean, only to get a punch in the kisser in return. The floozy tries it again later and gets the same results! Gable is as roguish as ever. It's hard to dislike him, even when he plays a cad. Love the girls at the reformatory. They're fun characters with some great lines. The sweet ending will please everybody but cynical types. Harlow fans should love this one.

One of the great mysteries of life, suffered from daily, is why nice girls so often are more interested in the jerks and heels than in the nice guys.

Worse, when the nice guys even want to marry those girls, the girls STILL prefer the jerks and heels, even after the jerks and heels have shown their contempt, have shown they're just interested in using the girls.

Stu Erwin is the nice guy, who continues to be nice after being lied to and cheated and even after losing the girl completely.

Clark Gable is the jerk, and he is perfect in the role, rather a sad note to his fans.

Jean Harlow comes across as a more slender Mae West, even sounding like La West in some of her cynical throwaway lines.

Somewhat puzzling is that so many of the other characters, intended to be bad guys -- I mean, heck, they're locked up, so they must be -- are so obviously nice people.

In fact, there are lots of nice people here, people who, in a lesser film or story, would be snarling and back-stabbing but here go out of their way to help someone else.

So, maybe the story is rather clichéd, at least by modern standards, but ultimately the viewer will be glad to have watched.

The biggest complaint I have is that so many really good actors are not given credit. Once again, we can say a fervent "Thank You" to IMDb.com.