Red-Headed Woman (1932)

Red-Headed Woman
Directed by Jack Conway
Written by Anita Loos from the novel by Katherine Bush
1932/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Man Outside Pool Hall: There’s a dame. Strictly on the level, like a flight of stairs.[/box]

Jean Harlow has sex appeal to spare. But her character is pretty unappealing in this one.

Lil Andrews (Harlow) has a great body to go with her bright red hair and she knows it.  She goes on a single-minded campaign to bed and wed her boss Biill (Chester Morris).  Bill is the son of the company president and is very much in love with his wife (Leila Hyams), his childhood sweetheart.  Through pure unmitigated gall, Lil manages her homewrecking mission but is disappointed when Bill’s crowd refuses to have anything to do with her.

Eventually Lil sets her sights on a much-older tycoon that disapproves of her mightily.  She initially wins him over.  Can Lil’s wicked ways succeed forever?  With Una Merkel, wonderful as usual, as Lil’s wise-cracking friend.

I like it better when Harlow is the one doing the wise-cracking.  I found her character just plain annoying in this.

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