On Jean Harlow, "Beauty", Screen Presence & Short Lives
Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 9:02AM 75 years ago today Jean Harlow died. The Platinum Blonde superstar, arguably the ur blonde bombshell that Marilyn Monroe gets the bulk of the credit for being, was only 26 years old. She'd been a sensation since the age of 19 when Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930) premiered. I loved the Scorsese-directed Hughes bio The Aviator (2004) when it premiered because of its handsome snapshot of Old Hollywood Glamour but I never quite understood what Gwen Stefani was doing playing Harlow. I couldn't see the resemblance beyond hair color and anyone can have that; Platinum Blonde does not normally occur through natural means!
When I was a baby cinephile and more familiar with Old Hollywood giants from their still photos than their actual work, Jean Harlow's huge fame and legendary sex appeal confused me. I thought she looked... odd and weirdly masculine (maybe it was the nose and chin? or maybe just my youth). Definitely not "beautiful". But I learned quickly that traditional beauty, both the male and female variety, is often flat onscreen. Screen presence always trumps beauty. Even the most famously beautiful movie stars are famously beautiful because their screen presence augmented their beauty, permanently burning it into the collective consciousness.
Leo & Gwen as Hughes & Harlow in THE AVIATOR (2004)
That's a lesson that unfortunately many casting directors and studio executives have never learned. This is especially true on television where entire shows are populated with "beauties" but you can instantly forget what everyone looks like by the time the credits are rolling in the sidebar as commercials for the next whatever play. It's especially true on networks like the CW and for whatever reason it always reminds me of those legendary stories about the casting of X-Files. Many executives didn't want Gillian Anderson because she wasn't "hot" enough but an interchangeable pretty blonde that would be easy to imagine doing photoshoots for men's interest mags, would never have seized the public imagination like Gillian did as Agent Scully. But I digress!
Seeing the pre-code movie Red Dust (1932) cured me of all Harlow doubts, since her carnality still reads as so immediate, unwithered by the passage of time.
Doesn't it feel sometimes as if being a Movie Star was more of an Occupational Health Hazard in earlier cinematic decades. So many film stars died young: James Dean (24), Jean Harlow (26), Rudolph Valentino (31), Carole Lombard (33), Marilyn Monroe (36), John Gilbert (38), Natalie Wood (43), Monty Clift (45), Stephen Boyd (45), Judy Garland (47), etcetera. Or is it merely that those who die young stick in the memory, filed under What Could Have Been.
10|25|50|75|100, Actressexuality, Jean Harlow, The Aviator, casting
Reader Comments (8)
"Harlow, Jean... Picture of a Beauty Queen"
-Vogue, Madonna
If you get a chance to see Platinum Blonde, it's a terrific little film. Harlow is kind of miscast as the blue blood heiress but she's fabulous as is the rest of the cast.
If some of those stars hadn't died at the height of their youth and beauty, one has to wonder whether anyone would care as much. Probably not. I mean, look at Paul Newman. If he had passed while he was still young and beautiful...he'd probably be as worshipped as Dean. He's remembered, sure, but he's not obsessed over.
I forgot about John Gilbert...the only thing I know about him is that Garbo left him at the altar and he couldn't transition to talkies. It makes you wonder whether Garbo got out of the business when she did because she saw how it could turn on its stars.
With Jean Harlow it wasn't just the raw carnality, although that burned right through the screen, but also a tremendous comedic talent which showed up clearly first in Red Dust and came fully out in Dinner at Eight. From that point on for the few brief years she had left she was one of the most reliable actresses to bring the humor out in her films. Watch her in Libeled Lady she's loose, unafraid to look ridiculous for a laugh as in the beauty shop scene and wicked with a quip.
Part of the early ending for so many stars, not counting the ones who passed through accidental means, is that creative people are also often highly strung and sensitive which helps them relate emotions well but plays havoc on their own psyches. Back in the golden age that was combated by the studios with doling out drugs that they didn't fully understand the dangers of so they ended up for example turning their top musical money earner Judy Garland into a suicidal junkie . Or by the artists themselves with alcohol to either dull their pain or control their stage fright as was the case with Gail Russell a lovely 40-50's actress who ended up a blackout drunk who drank herself to death at 36. Plus those problems were hidden at the time and not talked of in polite society, there being no culture or network of real help at the time.
I once had a roommate who didn't like "Strictly Ballroom" because she thought Fran was too ugly a heroine, even after her makeover. I think casting directors worry that audiences are full of foolish people like my former roommate. I think that in the end, the greatest stars end up being the interesting, unique beauties and not the conventionally pretty ones. If you think about the history of film stars, it becomes obvious: The public adores the idiosyncratic girls with killer screen charisma.
Harlow's iconic bombshell status seems to make people - assuming they know her name in the first place - completely overlook her fabulous comic talent. In this sense there are lots of parallels between her and Marilyn.
Dinner at Eight, Red Headed Woman, Libeled Lady - all electric performances (and fabulous films too).
Standards of beauty (for women mostly) change over time too. Curvy comes and goes, symmetry is sometimes in, full lips, short hair v. long hair, etc. But yes, and absolutely, charisma trumps all. Look at Streisand for heaven's sake.
Jean Harlow holds up because she was a sexy comic actress. Someone who is as "luscious" as she was, and could deliver comic lines? As rare then as it is now.
Jean Harlow was not just a great comedic actress. Watch "Wife vs Secretary", particularly the scene in which she tells Myrna Loy she's a fool. It's a serious scene and Harlow is amazing.