PLATINUM BLONDE (1931) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Frank Capra
Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, Robert Williams,
Halliwell Hobbes, Reginald Owen, Edmund Breese
Walter Catlett, Claud Allister, Louise Closser Hale
A newspaper reporter played by Robert Williams marries a society dame, which only confirms what he already knew: He doesn't like wearing garters or living in a gilded cage. Jean Harlow plays the rich girl (the "platinum blonde"). Loretta Young plays a fellow reporter the newsman didn't realize he was crazy about all along. Frank Capra keeps things moving, and there's some pre-Code wit in the script. Young and Harlow are the names everybody's heard of, but the real standout is Williams, who has the nonchalant manner of Bing Crosby and an easy way with a line that makes you wonder what he might've done if he hadn't died of peritonitis four days after the picture's release.
