Sexbombe (1933)

Sexbombe: Directed by Victor Fleming. With Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone. A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.

“In the mid u0026#39;30u0026#39;s, Myrna Loy penned (ostensibly) an article for Photoplay titled, u0026quot;So You Want To Be A Movie Star,u0026quot; which went into grim detail about the grind that is the real life of a star studio player both on and off the soundstage. BOMBSHELL takes this conceit and runs with it as brilliant and lacerating satire. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJean Harlow is at her best as Lola Burns, the at-once pampered and put-upon star in question. Depicted are the constant demands for Lolau0026#39;s attention, time, energy and money, and the film has fun with all of it, from fatuous fan-mag interviews and staged photo ops to Hollywood politics and trouble with household and studio staff. Though awakened at the crack of dawn, Lola gets breakfast in bed – but with sauerkraut juice instead of orange juice. u0026quot;There are are no oranges,u0026quot; apologizes the butler, to which Lola retorts, u0026quot;No oranges?! This is California, man!u0026quot; Before sheu0026#39;s even out of her boudoir, Lolau0026#39;s had to contend with the pandemonium created by last-minute schedule changes, fussing and bickering from hair and makeup people and the inconvenient attention of her outsized dog. Finally ready to leave the house, she laments, u0026quot;Well, here goes for another day; 7:00 AM and Iu0026#39;m already dead on my feet!u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso driving Lola to distraction with his constant headline-grabbing stunts is the scheming studio publicity director played by the irrepressible Lee Tracy, who always gave co-stars a run for their money when it came to on-screen dominance. Harlow more than holds her own with him.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAppearing in able support are reliable players such as Franchot Tone as an apparently blue-blooded suitor unaware of Lolau0026#39;s fame, Pat Ou0026#39;Brien as her understanding director, Una Merkel as a less-than-reliable personal assistant and Louise Beavers as maid Loretta, who is deferential to Lola but takes no prisoners otherwise (responding to Merkelu0026#39;s early-morning crabbiness, she warns, u0026quot;Donu0026#39;t scald me witu0026#39;cher steam, woman…I knows where the bodies is buried!u0026quot;). As Lolau0026#39;s bombastic father and neu0026#39;er-do-well brother, respectively, the usually-lovable Frank Morgan and the never-lovable Ted Healy are ultimately rather tiresome, but thatu0026#39;s what their roles require.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn a good-natured way, the film throws in some weirdly biographical elements of Harlowu0026#39;s real life, in which she coped with familial hangers-on in the persons of her domineering stage mother and somewhat sleazy stepfather, and Lolau0026#39;s reference to her palatial home as a u0026quot;half paid-for car barnu0026quot; is reported to have been uttered by Harlow herself about her own ostentatious digs. Thereu0026#39;s even a scene depicting Lola doing retakes on u0026quot;Red Dust,u0026quot; a hit for Harlow the prior year.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn addition to snappy dialog and a mile-a-minute pace, the picture is enjoyable for its time-capsule look at the Ambassador Hotel and Coconut Grove in their heyday, as well as the grounds of the MGM lot itself, all used as locations.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough bordering on farce at times (but in a good way), BOMBSHELL gives the impression of an only slightly exaggerated look at what the u0026quot;realu0026quot; life of a top-name contract player might have been like at the height of the studio system, with Harlow giving perhaps her most genuine (and least mannered) comic performance.”