Suzy

talisencrw

2016-08-12T18:30:13Z

I greatly enjoyed this--the second of seven films from my 'Jean Harlow: The 100th Anniversary Collection' put out by Warner Archives, unfortunately not with anything in the way of DVD extras (except for a cool, unadvertised set of postcards), and only three of the films were remastered. So it was as if they were perhaps celebrating her, say, 99th birthday and not going all-out like they could and should have, since she DID single-handedly save the studio from bankruptcy three years prior. I like the way filmmakers back then didn't care if a French actor was playing an Irish inventor and an English actor was portraying a French pilot. THESE days, there'd be sheer, unadulterated hell to pay. It was a really strange mix of genres, to get absolutely everybody into the seats. I could just see the pitch at the board meeting now: '1914 period piece romantic-comedy mixed with wartime spy thriller and musical'. But Harlow knocked it out of the ballpark, just like she always did. Supertrooper right to the very end.