The USPS has issued a set of four stamps honoring great film
directors and the films for which they are most remembered. The four selected
are: John Ford (The Searchers), John Huston (The Maltese Falcon), Frank Capra
(It Happened One Night), and Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot). We will be
exploring the lives and work of these directors over the next several weeks. In
this post LR Simon discusses Platinum Blonde (1931).
In Platinum Blonde, one of his early romantic comedies, Capra continues to work on
themes that would intrigue him throughout his career. Class relations, sex
relations, right and wrong, and the news industry all play roles in the story.
Robert Williams plays Stew Smith, a newspaper reporter with
a scoop on a scandal involving Michael Schuyler (Don Dillaway), who is being
sued by a chorus girl for breach of promise. The Schuyler’s attorney tries to
bribe Smith not to write anything, which the reporter refuses. When Smith
returns to the Schuyler’s lavish estate to return Michael’s love letters to the
chorus girl, who had planned to use them to extort more money from the
Schuylers. Michael’s sister Anne (Jean Harlow) offers him $5,000 for the
letters, which Smith refuses—he’ll print news, but he won’t facilitate
blackmail. Smith’s sense of ethics infuriates his editor, but intrigues Anne.
Anne’s interest in Smith evolves into romance, which
displeases Anne’s mother (Louise Closser Hale), especially when the romance
leads to marriage. Smith’s sudden elevation to the society pages results in his
being teased mercilessly by his former co-workers, the exception being his best
pal, Gallagher (Loretta Young), who has hidden romantic feelings of her own for
Smith.
The class humor still seems relevant, especially regarding
the marriage of a wealthy woman to a poor or middle class man. The way the
rival newspapers give nicknames (e.g., Cinderella Man) to Stew Smith after his
marriage and the way he responds to the ribbing would feel at home in a modern
romantic comedy.
The sex-relations humor, on the other hand, is dated. At one
point, Smith tells Gallagher “Don’t turn female on me,” a line that today would
not be given to a romantic lead who is treated as sympathetically as Smith is.
Jean Harlow represents a rare example of miscasting in a
Capra film. She looks fantastic in her wardrobe, but she doesn’t fit with her
on-screen family, and it’s difficult to believe her as coming from old money.
Add to that the strong chemistry between Williams and Young, and it becomes
increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief in order to accept Stew’s interest
in Anne.
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