Platinum Blonde (1931)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Harry Chandlee (story) and
Douglas W. Churchill (story) ...

Release Date:

31 October 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

She Was Gorgeous - He Was A Man . . . So, the other girl had to wait !

Plot:

A young woman from a very rich family impulsively marries a reporter, but each assumes the other is the one whose lifestyle must change.

Plot Keywords:

Socialite | Newspaper | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Loretta Young	...	Gallagher
Robert Williams	...	Stew Smith
Jean Harlow	...	Anne Schuyler
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Smythe, The Butler
Reginald Owen	...	Dexter Grayson
Edmund Breese	...	Conroy, The Editor
Don Dillaway	...	Michael Schuyler (as Donald Dillaway)
Walter Catlett	...	Binji Baker
Claud Allister	...	Dawson, The Valet
Louise Closser Hale	...	Mrs. Schuyler

Also Known As:

Gallagher (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

During its 1950 reissue it was double-billed with "Gilda."

Goofs:

Continuity: When Stew Smith is married, his colleagues make fun of him in the press room. At that moment his wife calls and he walks over to the phone with his pipe in his mouth. However, when he picks up the phone, the pipe disappears.

Quotes:

Stew Smith: Say, I interviewed a swell guy the other day: Einstein. Yeh, swell guy. Little eccentric, but a swell - doesn't wear, doesn't wear any garters. Neither do I, as a matter of fact.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "SexTV: On Blondes/Walter Kundzicz/The Art of Flirting (#6.13)" (2004)

Primitive, pleasant Capra

Robert Williams plays the kind of role Spencer Tracy did time and again at Fox and MGM--the brash, likeable working man--and, in fact, the picture suggests a dry run of Tracy's "Libeled Lady." There's a breach-of-promise suit, a roomful of reporters cracking wise, a rich-rich Long Island clan existing to be mocked, and the kind of farcical complications that made the newspaper comedy one of the '30s' most endearing genres. Unfortunately, the dialogue isn't as snappy as it thinks it is, and Jean Harlow is as miscast as a society dame as Loretta Young is as a world-weary reporter -- the whole thing might have made more sense if they switched roles. The compensations, though, are many: Capra giving his actors brilliant bits of business (the "puttering" scene is an unsung classic), a roster of swell character actors, and some pre-Production Code naughtiness, including two very sexy love scenes between Williams and Harlow. Capra's pace is slower than usual, and his later works had cleverer plot twists. His handling of actors, though, is as beautiful to behold as ever. And in Williams' irresistible performance, we have a glimpse of a star that might have been.