'Platinum Blonde' doesn't showcase fully the good-time girl with the baby voice groomed by MGM shortly afterwards; this was Jean Harlow post-Howard Hughes, a year after 'Hell's Angels' and cutting her teeth on roles that weren't quite right at Columbia.
Still, she gets a chance to be flirty and shirty throughout this film, and it's always good to see her on the screen. Loretta Young is first billed lady in the cast but her character, Gallagher the newspaper woman, is strictly second banana. But she looks glamorous when attending a ball, and she's memorable.
The male lead is Robert Williams, rarely seen or remembered nowadays, having made only a handful of films before his early death shortly after the release of his best role in this. As newspaperman Stew Smith he is boisterous, chirpy, and reminded me of both Lee Tracy and Cary Grant (both of who also appeared on screen with Harlow). In this tale of a Cinderella man made good, he is just perfect.
'Platinum Blonde' is also an early outing for director Frank Capra, and if it doesn't stand up as well as his later work ('Mr Deeds Goes To Town', 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', 'It's A Wonderful Life'), it sparkles as one of the best films of the first few years of the talkies.
Still, she gets a chance to be flirty and shirty throughout this film, and it's always good to see her on the screen. Loretta Young is first billed lady in the cast but her character, Gallagher the newspaper woman, is strictly second banana. But she looks glamorous when attending a ball, and she's memorable.
The male lead is Robert Williams, rarely seen or remembered nowadays, having made only a handful of films before his early death shortly after the release of his best role in this. As newspaperman Stew Smith he is boisterous, chirpy, and reminded me of both Lee Tracy and Cary Grant (both of who also appeared on screen with Harlow). In this tale of a Cinderella man made good, he is just perfect.
'Platinum Blonde' is also an early outing for director Frank Capra, and if it doesn't stand up as well as his later work ('Mr Deeds Goes To Town', 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', 'It's A Wonderful Life'), it sparkles as one of the best films of the first few years of the talkies.