Platinum Blonde (1931)What a weird film. Ostensibly a star vehicle for Jean Harlow, the titular blond bombshell is made about as unappealing as you could make your female lead without making her overtly evil. Jean Harlow was supposedly cast as the sexy bad girl but I just don't find her particularly seductive or charming. I guess I think of bad girls more in the sense that she's morally transgressive in a way that is exciting but Jean never does anything morally wrong she's just petty, shallow, and manipulative. The movie is much more about Robert Williams character, a poor reporter who is smitten by her and does a good turn that ends up leading to the two getting married. And while he's convinced marrying up won't change him, it's not long before he finds himself trapped at rich galas and socialite parties and completely miserable.
His old office buddy at the newspaper (a lovely Loretta Young) is the steadfast friend who wants the best for him even if it means repressing her unrequited love for him and let him live a married life with a nasty woman. The beats from there are pretty route for this style of film, you basically know where this is all going once they couple gets married, it's just watching it all unravel and it's a snooze of a film.
The dialogue is tired, Jean Harlow is just a black hole of a presence that tends to suck all the energy out of the scenes she is in. Jean and Robert have way more chemistry together and a sort of teasing way that is much more fun to watch. I'd rather watch a His Girl Friday style news reporter team-up story with those two than have to endure a film that banks on the name of Jean Harlow and a sex symbol that really hasn't held up to the march of time.
I have lots of other thoughts on this film, none of them particularly insightful, just notes on how tired and boring this film feels. I keep watching more Capra in the hopes that I finally find a winner, but it seems even his biggest fans rate this one rather low so I maybe should have known better. It was on Criterion, disappearing this month and honestly, that's fine.
I've seen It's a Wonderful Life a couple of times since I made my initial list, and I've come to appreciate it. Not a film I love, there's some weird structural and pacing issues I have with the movie, mostly how long it takes to get what feels like to be the high concept of the film, but I enjoy watching it at Christmas once a year.
It Happened One Night
It's a Wonderful Life
You Can't Take It with You
Arsenic and Old Lace
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Platinum Blonde