THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI (100 PERCENT PURE)
(director: Jack Conway; screenwriters: Anita Loos/John Emerson; cinematographers: Hal Rosson/Rasy June; editor: Tom Held; music: William Axt; cast: Jean Harlow (Eadie Chapman), Lionel Barrymore (Thomas Randall ‘T.R.’ Paige), Franchot Tone (T.R. ‘Tom’ Paige Jr.), Lewis Stone (Frank Cousins), Patsy Kelly (Kitty Lennihan), Hale Hamilton (Charlie Turner), Henry Kolker ( Senator Titcombe), Alan Mowbray (Lord Douglas), Nat Pendleton (Lifeguard), G. Pat Collins (Father); Runtime: 71; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Bernard Hyman/Jack Conway; MGM; 1934-B/W)
“This light drama was Jean Harlow’s first film under the Production Code.“
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This light drama was Jean Harlow’s first film under the Production Code. It’s apparent when any risque situation crops up it never develops because of the censors. Jack Conway (“A Tale of Two Cities”/”Libeled Lady”) efficiently directs through the sexual hurdles, letting Harlow be herself, shooting more for the comedy than drama. It’s based on the smart screenplay by Anita Loos and her hubby John Emerson. Eadie (Jean Harlow) is a good looking chorus girl who is forced by her money-grubbing stepfather to work in his Missouri saloon to lead on the men patrons. In the middle of the night the chaste gold-digger sneaks out with her man-crazy chorus girlfriend Kitty and they catch a train to New York. Determined to catch a millionaire as a husband, the floozy, gets a gig to entertain at a lavish party thrown by the millionaire Frank Cousins (Lewis Stone), that’s attended by his rich friends. At the party Cousins begs T. R. Paige (Lionel Barrymore), a self-made millionaire, for a loan but is turned down because he once turned down a loan he asked for. Eadie crashes his study and tries to hook Cousins, and he astonishingly gives her his valuable cufflinks as an engagement present. When she leaves to perform in the show, he kills himself with his revolver. The police suspect she stole the missing cufflinks, but the sympathetic Paige helps her hide them from the cops. Eadie is now after Paige, even after he rebuffed her, and follows with Kitty in tow to his estate in Palm Beach, Florida. There she meets Paige’s son Tom (Franchot Tone), who falls in love with her despite knowing she’s a gold-digger. To marry Tom she must overcome his father’s objections, her troubled past and a manipulative script that goes soft on her.
REVIEWED ON 8/10/2017 GRADE: C+