Red-Headed Woman is a 1932 film of the Pre-Code era based on a novel by Katherine Brush. Though originally developed as a project for Greta Garbo, the film stars Jean Harlow as Lil "Red" Andrews, an unapologetic homewrecker who lacks "moral" sensibility. The sexually promiscuous Lil is determined to rise up the business ladder even if it means sleeping her way to the top. Chester Morris stars as Lil's boss 'Bill'/'Willie' Legendre Jr. and is successfully seduced, manipulated with sex and persuaded by the disobedient Lil to divorce his lovely wife, Irene, who's played by the sparkling green-eyed blonde ingenue Leila Hyams. Hyams, an attractive and always likable actress, implies a noticeable beauty but in a warm and endearing way as the innocent wife. Lil soon grows bored of Bill and plunges into an affair with a well-heeled businessman played by Henry Stephenson.
With marital infidelity; lots of implicit sex, violence, sadism and a plentiful of bare female flesh, Red-Headed Woman conforms absolutely to the description of the type of film that simply couldn't be made a few years later. Though far and wide from a great actress, Jean Harlow's overtly sexual portrayal and stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing is amongst one of her finest performances. Also here is Una Merkel in her trademark wisecracking best friend of the heroine and in one of his earliest Hollywood roles, Charles Boyer as the French chauffeur. Red-Headed Woman is a fast-paced, vulgar, humorous and excitingly appealing film that exemplifies the entertainment Hollywood could offer before the angry and offended moralists and the Production Code dropped a net of censorship over the studios.
With marital infidelity; lots of implicit sex, violence, sadism and a plentiful of bare female flesh, Red-Headed Woman conforms absolutely to the description of the type of film that simply couldn't be made a few years later. Though far and wide from a great actress, Jean Harlow's overtly sexual portrayal and stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing is amongst one of her finest performances. Also here is Una Merkel in her trademark wisecracking best friend of the heroine and in one of his earliest Hollywood roles, Charles Boyer as the French chauffeur. Red-Headed Woman is a fast-paced, vulgar, humorous and excitingly appealing film that exemplifies the entertainment Hollywood could offer before the angry and offended moralists and the Production Code dropped a net of censorship over the studios.