Platinum Blonde
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.97 You Save: $8.02 (54%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.68 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Platinum Blonde
Movie Review: PLATINUM BLONDE
Summary: 5 Stars
Platinum Blonde (1931) is a delightful movie. I agree with you S.A. Alukonis "susansqueezy." I too just LOVED Robert Williams. He was so wonderful in his role. He was also on his way to becoming a great actor! In Platinum Blonde, Robert Williams is hilarious with his dry humor. He took the movie! It was so much fun to watch. A few minutes into the movie, I couldn't help but wonder who is this guy? I've never seen him before. I rewound to the opening credits and thought "Robert William" I've never heard of him. Who is he? My curiosity got to the better of me so of course, I just had to look him up. To my great sadness, I learned why I had never heard of him. In 1931, four days after the premiere of Platinum Blonde, Robert Williams died of a ruptured appendix at the age of 34. How incredibly sad! In 1931, Robert Williams made three other movies, i.e., The Common Law; Rebound; and Devotion. But, I could not find a single one of these movies anywhere. I do hope that one day these movies with Robert Williams will find their way on to DVD. I'm excited to see more of Robert Williams work. Jean Harlow was only 20 years old and Loretta Young was only 18 years old when they made Platinum Blonde with Robert Williams. It was fun to see Jean Harlow and Loretta Young at such young ages. To see actors and actresses grow up before the screen is one of many reasons I like old movies. I knew that Loretta Young had been around for quite some time, in the day, but I never thought so young. However, Loretta Young seemed quite mature for her 18 years old. She pulled her character off magnificently! I know many think that that Jean Harlow and Loretta Young were miss casted in Platinum Blonde that they should have switched characters but Loretta Young's character as a young, sweet, intelligent, woman was true to the kind of roles I've been use to seeing her play. The long flowing white dress Gallagher (Loretta Young) wore to the Schuyler's party was gorgeous. Jean Harlow was very curvaceous and had a sassy walk to go along with it. I highly recommend the movie! Also, the Schuyler's lawyer Dexter Grayson (Reginald Owen) bothered me as well because I had a hard time figuring out what movie I had seen him in. Finally, it hit me. He played the restaurant keeper Bernard Dalvik in A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford and Melvyn Douglas. Another great movie! One of many Joan Crawford's movie's I play regularly on rotation! Human Bondage with Bette Davis is another must see movie.
Movie Review: An Early Capra Gem!
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoy this Frank Capra film very much and it deserves to be on DVD. Robert Williams is the real star of the film and he was a brilliant actor who died shortly after this film was made. His death was due to appendicitis. He would have gone onto stardom being a quick comic actor. I cannot see how anyone can find this film dull! The script and the pacing are superb. Capra put the newcomer Jean Harlow at ease and the result is a fine performance from the twenty year old actress. It is the best performance she gave prior to her contract with MGM in 1932. Capra toned down her make-up and let her real beauty shine through. Jean Harlow proved that she had a knack for comedy and appears very comfortable with Robert Williams. Harlow is marvelous as is the even younger Loretta Young who was a mere eighteen year old. Harlow and Young balance the film out superbly. It is not a competition between them but a challenge for Rober Williams to realise who he really loves. Jean as Ann Schuyler sees him as a project to make him into an upper class gentleman. Loretta Young pines for him and loves him as the down-to-earth reporter Stew Smith. The film works on all levels and I highly recommend it. Robert Williams, Jean Harlow and Loretta Young are all superb and aided by great direction, a tight script, superb sets, and a marvelous supporting cast. This may not be "It Happened One Night" or "It's A Wonderful Life", but it is a film that shows that Capra was a marvelous director with a unique style that is his alone. One can tell a Capra film and it is evident in "Platinum Blonde". The title wasn't his choice--he wanted to call it "Gallgher" but Columbia was cashing in on the Harlow popularity. Whatever the title, Jean Harlow deserves credit for proving that she was already a fine actress while working with the right director. I recommend this film highly. Don't miss out on a fine comedy!Movie Review: Platinum Blonde
Summary: 5 Stars
Any B&W fan will appreciate this film. I LOVED Robert Williams--I thought he was refreshingly original and had great chemistry with both of his female co-stars, two stunningly beautiful and very different women. The scene with the the song about the garters is priceless, and one of the sexiest scenes ever filmed(and there are many other breathtakingly sexy scenes as well). Although it should have been called "Cinderella Man", in captures it's time period in every way. I would have loved to see Robert Williams in other roles after this one, but he died very shortly after filming. You'll also love the scene where Stew follows Ann into the library! Don't miss this cool and sexy film.Movie Review: Platinum Blond
Summary: 5 Stars
A very amusing tale of role reversal. A wealthy woman involved with an "average joe" who still wants the
independence to live his life without the yoke of high society's false "airs."
Movie Review: An Eagle In A Gilded Cage
Summary: 4 Stars
Almost no one today knows the male star of PLATINUM BLONDE, Robert Williams. This screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra gave top billing to Loretta Young and Jean Harlow, both of whom were on the fast track to superstardom. Williams steals the show with many scenes of one who could charm the audience with his tough guy approach that would later catch on with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. Stew Smith (Williams) is a hard-nosed reporter whose specialty is delivering the scoop that others couldn't. He is assigned to cover a major scandal over a breach of promise suit with rich snobgirl Anne Schyler (Harlow). Smith meets Schyler and sparks fly. Naturally her family is aghast at the prospect of a working class stiff as an in-law. Williams has a co-worker Gallagher (Young) who loves him madly but he can't see her as anyone but one of the boys. Part of the comedy is that a beautiful woman like Gallagher (Young was 18 at the time) could possibly ever be taken as such. The rest of the humor lies in Smith as a fish out of water. When the Poor Man marries the Rich Girl, the Rich girl naturally assumes that the Poor Man will be more than happy to move from his dumpy apartment into her ritzy mansion while the Poor Man feels the same only in reverse. Director Capra uses the Schyler family as a cinematic straw man. With the possible exception of the butler and the son, everyone else in the Schyler clan is snooty, arrogant, and totally clueless in their collective belief that everybody has a price. Before Smith marries Anne, she tries to buy him off with a bribe of five thousand dollars to kill a story that would reflect unfavorably on her family. After their marriage goes predictably sour, she tries to buy him off again, this time with a big alimony that he manfully rejects. Harlow plays Anne as a woman who is so thoroughly entrenched in her family's arrogance that when she falls in love with Stew, that love cannot withstand her social prejudices. Some of the scenes that highlight these differences are not of the screwball type. In one revealing scene, Stew tries to tell her that he invited his hard-drinking friends to visit him in his new home. Anne can't stand them and retorts, "Your home?" Capra ensures that all of a Depression-afflicted America could look at the Schylers as social buffoons, totally unworthy of their riches and hence a legitimate target for ridicule. Williams is the true star and Young is effective in her role as one who loves a man who loves another woman. The inner tragedy is that Robert Williams died of a burst appendix just a few days after PLATINUM BLONDE was released in October 1931. He is justly remembered as a star in the making who was not permited to grow into more roles like this one.