I am glad Harlow's body of work is bringing you so much joy. My interest in Harlow was initiated through Marilyn Monroe, who, as you might know, was a huge fan of Harlow when she was a child in the 1930s. She even copied Harlow's trademark platinum hair color.
I believe the first movie I saw Harlow in was DINNER AT EIGHT, the 1933 dramedy where she plays Kitty Packard, the selfish and adulterous young wife to the roaring Wallace Beery. Harlow and Beery's scenes in that movie are nothing less than spectacular. The two worked together previously in THE SECRET SIX (1931), and would repair two years later in CHINA SEAS (1935). Both those films also featured Clark Gable.
Harlow is truly one of cinema's finest on-screen comediennes. She's right up there with the likes of Carole Lombard and Irene Dunne. Of course, Harlow's sense of comedy was often brassier... well, until MGM decided to soften her "bimbo" image once the Production Code began cracking its whip for Hollywood to clean up their films. Even in her later movies, such as LIBELED LADY (1936) and PERSONAL PROPERTY (1937), Harlow still echoes a fine sense of comedic timing. She was consistently maturing in that genre, and might've even surpassed Lombard and Dunne as the "Queen" of the screwball comedy has she lived longer. She would've definitely found an easier transition into the 1940s at MGM, while the studio's other big-name stars -- Garbo, Crawford, Shearer, and Rainier -- were slowly edged out.
I wish someone out there would do a good restoring of Harlow's films. The 100th anniversary-of-her-birth collection that was ushered out back in 2011 contains some fine films, but the audio and video quality leaves a lot to be desired. In hindsight, I shouldn't be complaining really. Considering the age of Harlow's movies (her "newest" film is SARATOGA, and as of 2022, it is 85 years old), it's quite surprising she even got a box set issued.
Scrolling through these pages dedicated to Harlow gets me sentimental. One of these days in the near future I might just dust off my Harlow DVDs and pop one into my laptop. Perhaps I'll try and introduce my wife to DINNER AT EIGHT or CHINA SEAS.
For Harlow to be considered the first sex symbol of the talkies, it's interesting to note that she didn't even want a movie career. Her desire was to marry, settle down, and raise a family. But her mother, the real Jean Harlow, always had ambitions to be a movie star. When "Mama Jean" -- as she was often called -- went to Hollywood in the 1920s, she was casually shown the door. At a time when many mainstream film stars were young girls in their 20s, there wasn't any room for a 30-something trying to find her spot in the sun. Mama Jean later turned her attention towards turning her daughter into an actress. When a teenage Harlean Carpenter finally decided to apply for work as a film extra, she did so under her mother's name -- Jean Harlow. It wasn't until right before her passing in 1937 -- well, maybe two years before -- that Harlow finally started enjoying the career she never even wanted. Many scholars point to her romance with film star William Powell as the turning point in her life to desire a Hollywood career.
Another interesting tidbit: Many commentators -- then and now -- found Harlow's mother, the affectionately dubbed Mama Jean, to be more attractive than Jean Harlow herself.
