Harlow

Shot in only 8 days on video tape, this version of the story of Jean Harlow didn't set the world on fire any more than the big screen big budget version of Harlow that Paramount put out with Carroll Baker.

No true story of Jean Harlow could possibly be filmed. Too many people were still alive, most importantly William Powell, William Mansfield in this version of Harlow. Powell in retirement then saw both films and said that the Jean he knew was nothing like what was shown on screen. One of her contemporaries in her memoirs Rosalind Russell said that Harlow of all the people at MGM when she was just starting was the most thoughtful and kind to a young player looking to succeed.

The story of how she was a meal ticket to her stage mother mother and her second husband played here by Ginger Rogers in her farewell screen performance and Barry Sullivan is well known. They actually named Louis B. Mayer in this Harlow and he's played with a certain verisimilitude by Jack Kruschen. There's also a good performance by Hermione Baddely as Marie Dressler who did co-star with Harlow in Dinner At Eight. Other than Hell's Angels none of her films is given a title here.

The issue of her the impotency of her second husband Paul Bern is dealt with most delicately. Irving Schulman's biography of Harlow on which the Baker film is based goes into that throughly. Hurd Hatfield really never develops his character with what he's given to work with.

Two beautiful blondes named Carol played Jean Harlow in 1965 in different films. Both films were trashy and exploitive with little difference save in budget.