Harlow

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

Leslie Nielsen, Martin Balsam, Red Buttons, Angela Lansbury, Carroll Baker, Mike Connors, Peter Lawford, and Raf Vallone in Harlow (1965)

A screen adaption of the blistering best-seller which examines the story of platinum blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (Carroll Baker) who rose to fame in the reckless Hollywood of the 1930s.

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Biography Drama Romance

A screen adaption of the blistering best-seller which examines the story of platinum blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (Carroll Baker) who rose to fame in the reckless Hollywood of the 1930s.A screen adaption of the blistering best-seller which examines the story of platinum blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (Carroll Baker) who rose to fame in the reckless Hollywood of the 1930s.A screen adaption of the blistering best-seller which examines the story of platinum blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (Carroll Baker) who rose to fame in the reckless Hollywood of the 1930s.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Trivia
This film neglects to mention any of Jean Harlow's actual movies by name, or even that she was under contract to MGM (she works at the fictitious "Majestic Studios" in this account of her life). None of her real-life co-stars is named or depicted, nor are her unsuccessful first and third marriages mentioned. She is said in the film to have died from pneumonia, but, in actuality, it was uremic poisoning which killed her. The only characters given their real names are Harlow, her second husband Paul Bern, her agent (as well as the source of this movie), Arthur M. Landau, and her mother and stepfather. The fictitious studio boss "Everett Redman" is a fairly blatant caricature of Louis B. Mayer, who was also the obvious basis for the similar character the same actor, Martin Balsam, played the previous year in "The Carpetbaggers". This movie's claim that Paul Bern committed suicide because he was impotent has been widely questioned - some, such as his close friend, director Henry Hathaway, have suggested he was murdered by gangsters, and that the studio covered this up to avoid bad publicity. Another (highly feasible) explanation is that Bern was murdered by his former mistress Dorothy Millette, a woman with a history of mental illness who is known to have left Connecticut for Los Angeles two days before Bern's death, and who committed suicide two days after it.

Goofs
Although all of Jean's earlier movie roles depicted here were in silent films, primitive microphones are always seen on sets and in one scene a musical number is even being rehearsed.

Quotes
Jean Harlow: A bedroom with only one person in it is the loneliest room in the world.

Connections
Featured in Mad Men: The Forecast (2015)

Soundtracks
Lonely Girl
(theme from Harlow)
Words by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
Music by Neal Hefti
Sung by Bobby Vinton

User reviews46

Review

Featured review

Inaccurate but mildly entertaining

This is one of two films released at the same time about the tragic, original blonde bombshell. Carrol Baker is certainly beautiful in the role, but the strange mixture of 1930's dresses and 1960s spike heels and hairdos undermine the attempts at any accurate 1930's atmosphere. The music in the background would be more at home on an episode of "Pete and Gladys" than in a story of old Hollywood. Leslie Nielsen's character has a bachelor pad that would be the envy of Hugh Hefner. There are no true references to any of Harlow's work. She never (to my knowledge) ever took a pie in the face or was sprayed with seltzer water. (She did have an impressive walk-on in an early Laurel and Hardy short). Her earliest film appearances were as a film extra in such pictures as "The Love Parade", 1929. Her breakthrough role was in the Howard Hughes 1930 epic, "Hell's Angels". Her performances got better and better as she went under contract to MGM and made some truly classic films there including "Dinner at Eight." None of this is shown in "Harlow." The character of the Mother is shown to be pretty much sympathetic as played by Angela Lansbury. What is glossed over is the fact that Jean Harlow's real Mother was a Christian Scientist who forbade her daughter real treatment for her "illness", reportedly caused by the beatings she suffered at the hands of Paul Bern, until it was too late to make any real difference. The inaccurate facts presented in this film could be due to the fact that many of the principals involved in Jean Harlow's life were still living in 1965, the year that both of these "biopics" were released. If you want an accurate biography of Jean Harlow, see some of her actual films and read one of the many decent books about MGM. On it's own, the film "Harlow" is mildly entertaining in a "Valley of the Dolls" sort of way. The Carol Lynley version of this story is only slightly more accurate than this glossy, Technicolor version. I haven't seen it in years, and therefore cannot give an accurate review of it.