t in the Howard Hughes production of Hell’s Angels (1930), the film that would launch her ima
ge as a “sex symbol”. (The slinky wardrobe she wore, throughout her career, further enhanced that image.) The Secret Six, with Clark Gable; Public Enemy, with James Cagney; and Pl
atinum Blonde, with Loretta Young would follow in 1931. In 1932, she signed a contract with and made her first film for MGM Studios. That film was Red-Headed 
Woman, with Chester Morris. After that, the sky was the limit for the little girl from Kansas City, Missouri.With her “peroxide blonde” hair, Cupid’s bow lips, and pencil-thin eyebrows, Jean Harlow’s “look” was imitated by many women, both on screen and off. Though often cast as “laughing vamps” in her early pictures, she quickly developed into a very fine comedienne. As Harlow’s roles changed, so did her appearance. Her “look” was softened, her hair color changed to a darker, more natural shade. By the mid-thirties, Jean Harlow had become such a box-office sensation that many credited her popularity with saving MGM Studios from bankruptcy, a common occurrence for many studios during the Depression.
Jean Ha
rlow’s many classics include all six films with Clark Gable (listed in our previous post); Bomb
shell (1933), with Lee Tracy; Riffraff (1935), with Spencer Tracy; Suzy (1936
), with CaryGrant; and Libeled Lady (1936), with William Powell, to whom she had been engaged for two years, but never married.
1937’s Saratoga, with Clark Gable, was her last film and a very good one about horseracing. During the filming she became quite ill and she definitely looks unwell if you’ve ever seen the picture. Jean Harlow died of uremic poisoning due to kidney failure before the film was completed. Rather than recast her part, MGM used what footage of 
Harlow they had, wrote her character out of some scenes, and used a body double for long shots and a voice double when needed. The studio was unsure of the movie’s reception when it was released, but fans turned out in droves, making Saratoga MGM’s highest grossing film for 1937.Dinner at Eight (1933), from the Kaufman-Ferber play, is the Jean Harlow classic in the spotligh
t today. It is a comedy/drama classic that showcases Harlow in one of her top comedic roles as 
Kitty Packard, the brassy, rather ditzy wife of crude mining magnate, Dan Packard (expertly played by Wallace Beery). She is hilarious as the bored, over-indulged woman who lies in bed all day in various negligees, eating chocolates, and waiting for her doctor-boyfriend to pay house calls. Her wise-cracking dialogue, baby-talk, and facial expressions are priceless. The main story revolves around an ill-fated dinner party that is being given by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke) and the gues
ts that are invited to the party. We are given a glimpse into the private lives of those guests prior to and during the party. Some of those glimpses are amusing, some tragic, but all are entertaining. The superb cast also includes John Barrymore, Marie Dressler, and Lee Tracy. Directed by George Cukor and produced by David O. Selznick, Dinner at Eight is a gem of the silver screen and one of Jean Harlow’s best performances. See it sometime soon.**Trivia Question for Today: In Dinner at Eight, what does Kitty (Harlow) tell Carlotta (Dressler) that she’s recently been doing as they go into dinner and what is Carlotta’s startled reply?
Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Clark Gable’s third wife, actress Carole Lombard (33), was killed, along with her mother, in a plane that crashed on Mt. Potosi in Nevada on January 16, 1942. She was returning home from a war bond rally in Indiana at the time.
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