A Girl Like That! "Red Headed Woman" (1932)

"So gentlemen prefer blondes do they?" 

This famous opening line is delivered with more than a little irony by our leading lady, the lethally funny Lil Andrews, in today’s film: MGM’s 1932 pre-Code classic “Red Headed Woman”. After all, the woman saying it is cinema’s most celebrated platinum blonde—Jean Harlow—who trades peroxide for provocation and proceeds to set the screen ablaze as a redhead whose morals are negotiable but whose style is impeccable.  Marriages go smash, reputations take a nosedive, and even murder gets a crack at the spotlight—all served up with a wink and a wicked little laugh by Harlow in her star-making turn as the gold digger to end all gold diggers.

Even in glorious black and white, “Red Headed Woman”  crackles with the fiery havoc Jean Harlow unleashes—and it is easy to see why the film caused such a stir in 1932. We look at what makes this MGM pre-Code lightning strike so distinctive: its glossy style, wicked humor, and gleeful refusal to punish bad behavior on cue. Along the way, we explore the film’s ties to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Anita Loos, Lil Andrews’ ruthless ambition, its blunt view of sex and power, and the Paris ending that pointedly dodges a tidy moral lesson.  We also explore the popularity and prevalence of these morally questionable characters during the depths of the Great Depression, examining why audiences embraced their defiant, anti-establishment attitudes and how the enforcement of the Production Code in 1934 brought their era to an abrupt end. 

If you love classic film history, pre-Code cinema,  and Hollywood’s Golden Age deep dives, hit play, then subscribe, share the episode with a fellow movie lover, and leave us a rating and review so more listeners can find the show.

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