Platinum Blonde (1931) - film review

When a chorus girl threatens to sue playboy Michael Schuyler for breach of promise of marriage, the newspaper hacks soon scent a scoop.  Reporter Stewart Smith breezes into the Schuyler household and manages to have the story confirmed, which pleases his boss but puts him squarely into the Schuylers’ bad books.  This is a shame because Stewart has taken a liking to Michael Schuyler’s platinum blonde sister, Anne.  In fact he likes her so much that he makes a return visit and somehow manages to win her over to his way of thinking, which is that they were made for one another.  But Stewart soon realises that he and Anne come from completely different worlds, and if he joins her world he will have to live in her mausoleum of a home and wear garters.  Can marriage, even to someone as lovely as Anne, really be worth this sacrifice?

This early Frank Capra comedy sparkles with wit and has a lightness of touch which is less noticeable in the director’s subsequent films.  It may lack the deeper moral and political angle of Capra’s later films, but there is still a keen satirical edge to its light-hearted critique of the class barrier – understandable when you consider that the film was made at the height of the Great Depression..

Although Loretta Young received top billing, the star of the film is undoubtedly Robert Williams.  A hugely talented actor who made a name for himself on Broadway when in his early twenties, Williams appeared in around half a dozen films before his big break came, with this very film.  Platinum Blonde was the film that was going to make him a Hollywood star.  Tragically, he died from peritonitis, just four days after the film was released.  He was 34.  Had he lived, Williams would undoubtedly have become one of the biggest screen actors of his generation.  He was the amalgam of so many other great talents - James Cagney, Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant.  And he was funny.  There is hardly a scene in this film where he doesn’t make you laugh.

Williams’ co-star, Jean Harlow, was another potential Hollywood legend who was struck down at a tragically early age.  Platinum Blonde made Harlow an overnight star, the Marilyn Monroe of her era, but she did not live long to enjoy her newfound fame.  Six years and fifteen films later, at the height of her popularity, she died from uremic poisoning, aged just 26.

As for Loretta Young, she went on to have a long and successful Hollywood career, although she is best known for her scandalous affair with Clark Gable, which led to her becoming pregnant.

By this stage, with twenty or so films under his belt, Frank Capra was getting well and truly into his stride, although his best work was still to come...

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