Topic: PLATINUM BLONDE (1931)

[falsealarms]

I saw this tonight and was left with a favorable impression. Has anyone else seen this, and if so, what did you think?

Robert Williams stole the show... it's fascinating to wonder what he would have become if he didn't die so soon after this film premiered. He was only 34, and if this film was any indication, he could have become a major star. An 11/11/31 column in the PITTSBURGH PRESS called Williams the most promising young actor since Gable and the critic wrote Williams was a better actor. Another article dubbed Williams' showing in the film as "one of the season's prize performances."

Harlow was another tragic figure, dying a few years later at 26. But I wasn't crazy about her here, much preferring Loretta Young's adorable "Gallagher" character. Louise Closser Hale was great as a snobbish socialite.

Not as good as the other Capra I've seen (IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT) but still more than solid. The final 25 minutes may have been the best slice of the film.

[Rich Finegan]

Robert Williams stole the show... it's fascinating to wonder what he would have become if he didn't die so soon after this film premiered. He was only 34, and if this film was any indication, he could have become a major star. An 11/11/31 column in the PITTSBURGH PRESS called Williams the most promising young actor since Gable and the critic wrote Williams was a better actor. Another article dubbed Williams' showing in the film as "one of the season's prize performances."

Thanks for the links to those articles.
I totally agree about Robert Williams (this actor obviously not to be confused with the Robert Williams who appeared in a few Stooges shorts in the mid-1940's). He is excellent in this movie and it was so tragic that he died just a few days after it was released.
Robert, seemingly effortlessly, stole the show from his two beautiful female co-stars and the always rambunctious Walter Catlett not by doing anything spectacular, but by acting and speaking so naturally that he never appeared to be acting. And still one can't stop watching him, even with Jean & Loretta in the movie.
Great definitive butler role, too, for typecast movie butler Halliwell Hobbes.
Highly recommended!

[metaldams]

Never saw this one, but I've liked Jean Harlow in the few films I've seen her in.  She was quite the hottie.   

I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember liking BOMBSHELL.