“So gentlemen prefer blondes, do they? Ha!”
The second stop on our tour of Hollywood’s pre-Code naughty neighbourhood is a racy rendezvous with the Red-Headed Woman (1932). Jean Harlow (formerly the “platinum blonde”) plays the lustfully liberated “Red” who turns on her titillating allure for advancement in upper society. MGM got away with this hysterically salacious scenario, which became a critical and box-office hit — although not in the UK, where it was banned.
In the pre-screening talk, Michael looks at the fabulous force of nature that was Jean Harlow, the work of screenplay writer Anita Loos, and the trouble this ribald romantic comedy encountered with the censors.
Sexy, racy, bristling with snappy dialogue, funny, [Red-Headed Woman] is loaded with dynamite.
Motion Picture Herald
2:00 pm
2:30 pm
Michael van den Bos
Jack Conway
Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Una Merkel
USA
1932
English
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Credits
Screenwriter
Anita Loos
Cinematography
Harold Rosson
Editor
Blanche Sewell
Art Director
Cedric Gibbons
Also in This Series
SIN! SEX! SHOCK! SCANDAL! Welcome to the sordid cinema of Pre-Code Hollywood! Classic film scholar Michael van den Bos is your tour guide on a 5-part trek through the seamier, steamier and sinister side of Hollywood movies from the early 1930s.