1/5/2024 0 Comments Gladys powellBeyond the scenes with Harlow and Powell themselves, the film just never gels the way it should. It’s got Harlow and Powell, obviously, it was directed by Victor Fleming, it’s got songs by Jerome Kern, and it’s got Rosalind Russell. It’s a shame, and something of a mystery, that Harlow and Powell’s first film, “Reckless” (1935), isn’t better. Bill and Gladys have a delightful time together, and I spent a few minutes hoping that the screwball turn of events would be the two of them falling in love, and Warren would end up with Loy’s sensible heiress, who might also improve his behavior. (Who could be disgusted by William Powell, though, seriously?) Once Warren is out of the way, she cools off a little, invites Bill to dinner and engages him in conversation-something one imagines would be impossible with Warren. Largely out of pique at Warren, she has acted as though she is disgusted by Bill. Even Bill succumbs to that charm when he and Gladys are forced to cohabitate. As a star, Harlow was reputedly as popular with women as with men. But it’s bittersweet, given the way life turned out.Ī great deal of Jean Harlow’s charm is her ability to be both a “blonde bombshell” and “one of the guys.” While her characters were often home-wrecking vamps, it’s impossible not to like her. So at the end of the film, Harlow has to pull off making Gladys admit she still loves Warren. It’s no wonder she eventually decides she’s in love with Bill, who will actually give her the time of day.īecause it’s a screwball comedy and Bill has to end up with Connie, Gladys is, according to the narrative logic, stuck with Warren. He is continually putting her (and their marriage) off. Tracy and Harlow work well together, but at the beginning of the film, Warren stands Gladys up, not for the first time, and at the altar. The relationship between Spencer Tracy’s Warren and Gladys is something of a mystery. Nonetheless, it’s a shame she didn’t have the opportunity to play against type. Nobody throws an onscreen tantrum like Harlow, so casting her as Gladys was a smart choice. The sham marriage between Gladys and Bill means that when Bill is alone with Connie, Gladys can burst in as the outraged wife, forcing Connie to drop the libel suit. Meanwhile, Harlow is Tracy’s inexplicably long-suffering fiancee, Gladys. As former reporter Bill (Powell) tries to maneuver Connie into a compromising position, however, he falls in love with her. The newspaper has reported, inaccurately, that Connie is a husband-stealing home-wrecker. The marriage is part of a con attempting to manipulate Myrna Loy’s heiress, Connie, into dropping the libel charges against Spencer Tracy’s newspaper. Though they spend the bulk of the plot married to each other, their characters, Bill and Gladys, aren’t meant to be together. The film both does and doesn’t pair Powell and Harlow. (There’s lots of fishy double-entendres in honor of one character’s love of fly-fishing.) Conway does a fine job, but one wonders what a director who had a particular gift for screwball, Billy Wilder or Howard Hawks, say, might have done with it. Directed by studio stalwart Jack Conway, it’s full of the witty repartee and amorous confusion you’d expect. Their second film, “Libeled Lady” (1936), is a beloved screwball comedy, also starring Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. While Powell and Myrna Loy made a classic screen couple in no fewer than 14 films together, including six “Thin Man” outings, it was Harlow and Powell that were in love. Unfortunately, it’s a treat we only got to see twice, as Harlow died terribly young, at 26, and at the height of her career. Watching two stars as gifted and likeable as Willam Powell and Jean Harlow together is always a treat. A contribution to the very cool Duo Double Feature Blogathon, brought to you by the Flapper Dame & Phyllis Loves Classic Movies! Jean Harlow and William Powell “pretend” to be in love at Spencer Tracy’s behest, in “Libeled Lady” (1936).
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