Red Headed Woman
Jean Harlow was never sexier than in this pre-Hays Code comedy, risque even by today's standards.
Reviewed by Jerry Renshaw, Fri., May 25, 2001
RED HEADED WOMAN
D: Jack Conway (1932); with Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Una Merkel, Charles Boyer.
Jean Harlow was never sexier than in this pre-Hays Code comedy. With her trademark platinum hair dyed an unlikely shade of red (breaking the first of many Thirties taboos), Jean plays Lil, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who's determined to climb the business (and social) ladder even if it means sleeping her way to the top. Jean sets her sights on her boss Bill (Morris) and refuses to take "no" for an answer; the problem is, though, her boss is a married man (she also has a go at the chauffeur, played by Boyer). The shameless homewrecker uses every trick in the book to snag him until her behavior borders on what would be considered "stalking" in today's lexicon. Red Headed Woman wavers wildly between comedy and weighty melodrama, with Harlow showing great comic flair as well as pathos in her portrayal of Lil. More significant, though, is the plot; more than a little risqué, this is an example of the type of film that simply couldn't be made a few years later. With marital infidelity, lots of implicit sex, violence, sadism (when Bill finally slaps Lil out of frustration, she says, "Hit me again! I like it!") and plenty of bare female flesh, this is thoroughly adult fare, even by today's standards. Morris was usually cast as a square-jawed, rather boring hero type, which makes him perfect opposite the amoral Harlow. Fast-moving, funny, sexy, and ribald, Red Headed Woman is a great example of the type of movie entertainment that came from Hollywood before outraged moralists and the Production Code dropped a net of censorship over the studios. What's more, Harlow's character winds up unrepentant and unpunished at film's end, something that the Hays Code could never have tolerated.
