Stubs - Bombshell

Bombshell (1933) Starring Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone, Pat O'Brien. Directed by Victor Fleming. Produced by Hunt Stromberg. Screenplay by John Lee Mahin, Jules Furthman. Based on the unproduced play Bombshell by Caroline Francke and Mack Crane. Run time: 98 minutes Black & White. USA Pre-Code, Romantic Comedy

It’s rare that an actor will play a character that so closely seems to mirror their own lives. While not a biography, much of Bombshell seems to be based, at least in part, on the life of its star, Jean Harlow.

However, the film is really based on an unproduced play, Bombshell, by Caroline Francke and Mack Crane. It was in a story conference at MGM that the idea to make the play into a comedy was born.  Screenwriter John Lee Mahin had the inspiration to turn the tale into a comedy, ­ an idea seized by Fleming when he realized Bow's story was ripe for satire. "She used to be my girl," Fleming explained. "You'd go to her house, and there'd be a beautiful Oriental rug with coffee stains...and her father would come in drunk, and her secretary was stealing from her."

The parallels to characters in the film and in people in Bow’s real life: "Lola Burns" – Clara Bow, "E. J. Hanlon" – B. P. Schulberg (head of production at Paramount), "Pops Burns" – Robert Bow (Clara’s father), "Mac" – Daisy DeVoe (Bow’s personal secretary), "Gifford Middleton" – Rex Bell (an actor and Bow’s husband). As Bow was known as the "It Girl," the fictional Lola becomes the "If Girl."

But Bombshell would also contain parallels to Harlow’s life as well. Script clerk Morris Abrams would recall that Harlow also worked hard, only to have her own family take her money, "just like the girl in the movie. She would come in at 6 a.m. each morning for makeup and hair and wardrobe and rehearsal, then shoot till dinner or later ­ and in they'd stroll in the middle of the day, dressed to the nines and riding high. They were parasites."

Some of the story was rewritten to fit Harlow’s own life and her own career at MGM. Lola has an all-white house similar to Harlow's own, which had been designed to complement her pale skin and platinum hair. Lola's movie career is illustrated with clips from Harlow's own films, and she is shown doing retakes for Red Dust (1932), in which Harlow had starred with Clark Gable under Fleming's direction.

Shot from early August to mid-September 1933, the film opened on October 13, 1933.

Lola's personal maid Lorretta (Louise Beavers) wakes her at 6 am.

A typical morning in the life of movie star Lola Burns (Jean Harlow), known to her fans as the "Blonde Bombshell," is hectic, to say the least, from the moment her personal maid Lorretta (Louise Beavers) wakes her. She is besieged by the demands of both her free-loading family and her studio's publicity department, which is headed by the incorrigible E. J. "Space" Hanlon (Lee Tracy). Her household staff is in change mode and her new butler, Winters (Leonard Carey), brings her sauerkraut juice instead of orange juice. Not the best way to start the day.

Miss Carroll (Ruth Warren) is there to interview Lola (Jean Harlow), but Pops (Frank Morgan) takes over.

It's 6 o’clock and she is already running late for a location shoot in Riverside, so much so that her hair and makeup are put on while she is still in bed. Finally dressed and ready to leave, none of her three cars are available to her. A studio car is called, but in the meantime, a reporter, Miss Carroll from Photoplay Magazine (Ruth Warren), is there for an interview. Lola’s father Pops (Frank Morgan), a ne’er-do-well, sits in, but the reporter takes nothing he says seriously and makes notes with facts already known about Lola rather than anything new.

But before Lola is out the door, there is a change in her schedule. Her secretary, Mac (Una Merkel), notifies her of the change in plans.

Mac: Lola, the Studio car just arrived with this new script. You'll have to get right over there.

Lola Burns: Studio? Well, what about location?

Mac: It's raining out in Riverside...

Lola Burns: Oh, new scenes, new lines everything.

[Looks at the script]

Lola Burns: Well, what's this? I don't recognize it?

Mac: Retakes on "Red Dust". The Hayes Office censored something and the picture's got to open Monday in New York. Come on, we'll have to hurry.

Lola Burns: But I don't know these lines. Gosh, that means a different make-up and I have to have my hair changed again. I ask you, Miss Carroll, as one lady to another - isn't that a load o' clams?

Lola is mobbed by adoring fans outside the studio.

Arriving at the studio, Lola is mobbed by fans outside the gates of Monarch Studios. In amongst the crowd of autograph seekers is a Man Claiming to Be Lola's Husband (Bill Dooley). He is pulled away by security.

E. J. "Space" Hanlon (Lee Tracy) comes in through the window when Lola won't let him in her dressing room.

Inside her dressing room, there are the usual hangers-on, her agent (Tenen Holtz), who wants to discuss a contract extension; a car salesman; Loretta; her make-man, Monte (Donald Kerr); Lola’s hairstylist (Martha Sleeper); etc. While all of this is going on, Lola is trying to learn her new lines for the scene. Space, who has a crush on her, is not welcomed in the room because of the stories he’s been placing in the newspapers which make her sound like a wild child. Undeterred, Space sticks his head in through her window. He asks her out that evening to an event happening at the Coconut Grove, but she tells him she’s going with someone else, her current flame, Marquis Hugo di Binelli di Pisa.

On the sound stage, Lola is to be directed by Jim Brogan (Pat O’Brien). Recently divorced and still in love with Lola, he is anxious to get reacquainted with her.

Jim Brogan: Hiya, babe!

Lola Burns: They just told me you'd come back on the lot. Gee, you look swell.

Jim Brogan: So do you, Lola.

Lola Burns: I was sorry to hear about your divorce.

Jim Brogan: Oh, don't be. Maybe that's why I'm looking so good.

Meanwhile, Marquis Hugo (Ivan Lebedeff) shows up at the front gates. The security guard stops him. Per Space’s orders, he can’t let him on the lot without a pass and there is no pass for him. Marquis insists that he call Lola and she demands that he be allowed in.

Director Jim Brogan (Pat O'Brien) doesn't like that Lola can't concentrate on the scene.

Marquis Hugo’s presence on the set keeps Lola from concentrating, much to the consternation of Jim. He wants her boyfriend thrown off the set.

Lola Burns: Jim, now what are you mad about?

Jim Brogan: [about Hugo] Listen, will you kindly tell that glorified barber to get off my set?

Lola Burns: He's not a barber. He speaks French and Spanish and Italian.

Jim Brogan: I don't care if he speaks Eskimo. I don't like him. Tell him to get off.

Lola Burns: He's got royal blood in his veins.

Jim Brogan: I don't care if he's got a royal flush in his kidneys. Tell him to scram! I can't stand him, I tell you. Tell him to get off!

Lola Burns: You can't talk that way about Hugo.

Jim Brogan: Yeah? They told me you'd fallen for that gigolo, but I didn't believe it.

However, Marquis Hugo refuses to go. Things almost come to blows when Space arrives. By pretending to be both Hugo's and Brogan's supporter, Space ends the conflict, temporarily dispelling Lola's disapproval. Space ushers Marquis Hugo off the set under false pretenses; to help with European marketing.

That night at the Coconut Grove nightclub, while Marquis Hugo and Lola are dancing, immigration officers come on the floor and arrest him for overstaying his passport by two years. Lola tries to keep them from taking him, but Space, who has arrived at the same time, tries to pull her back as they take Marquis Hugo away. Unbeknownst to Lola, Space has arranged for arrest. Space jumps into Lola’s cab and tries to convince her that he was not involved in the affair.

However, as they’re stuck in traffic, Lola overhears a newsboy hawking his paper with the headline about the arrest. Over Space’s objection, she buys a paper and deduces Space's subterfuge. Despite his spin about the press being on top of the story, she once again denounces him.

Anxious to get Hugo out of jail, Lola, whose alcoholic father and gambling brother Junior (Ted Healy) regularly deplete her money supply, telephones Brogan and, without revealing her true intentions, asks him for a $3,000 loan. He, of course, is anxious to help her, but can only have a check for her.

Lola then sits down and writes a letter to the studio head H.E. Gillette (Morgan Wallace) demanding that Space be fired. To placate the star, Space rushes to her house the next morning and, while feigning shame, tells her that as his last publicity act, he has brought a writer from the Ladies Home Companion to interview her. Touched by Space's gesture, Lola notifies the studio head to ignore her letter, then gives a "girl-next-door" interview to the matronly Companion writer.

When the writer suggests that she might be more fulfilled if she were a mother, Lola becomes instantly obsessed with the idea of motherhood. She tells Brogan that she wants to marry and have babies when he stops by. Brogan has stopped payment on the Hugo's bail check after he learned for whom the money was intended.

Lola decides to become a mother and finds a baby she wants to adopt.

Terrified by the suggestion, Brogan snidely advises Lola to adopt a baby from the orphanage on a thirty-day trial basis. Lola takes his recommendation to heart and picks out a baby boy from the local orphanage.

When reporters ask Space about the rumor that Lola is pregnant, the publicist rushes to her house in a panic.

Winters (Leonard Carey) serves Lola and the women from the
 orphanage committee, including Mrs. Ward (Ethel Griffies).

Meanwhile, Lola is trying to appear normal in front of the women from the orphanage committee, who are there to decide if she’d be able to take care of a baby.

In his effort to thwart the adoption, Space arranges for a gang of reporters as well as Marquis Hugo and his lawyer, who are suing Brogan, to converge on Lola's house at the same time that the orphanage women are to conduct their interview with the actress.

Things go from bad to worse when Junior returns from Tijuana with a girl, Nellie (Isobel Jewell). They get even worse when a brawl breaks out between Brogan and Hugo. In the chaos, the representatives from the orphanage leave.

Lola reads everyone the riot act after they ruin her chance to adopt a baby,
including Elsie, Pops, Junior (Ted Healy) and Nellie (Isobel Jewell).

When she chases after them outside, Lola overhears Space consulting with the reporters about the scandal and how to play it up in the papers. in her fury, Lola condemns not only Space, but her family and secretary as well.

Lola Burns: Get away from me, all of you! You're nothing but a pack of leeches!

Pops: Leeches?

Lola Burns: Yes, leeches! At least he

[motions to Space]

Lola Burns: was right; I don't know how I expected to bring a baby in here with an old fool for his grandfather who's half-drunk all the time!...

Pops: After the way I've worked to handle your affairs...

Lola Burns: Well, what about my affairs! Where are they? Why aren't my bills paid? Where does my money go? I never see any of it!

Mac: Lola, you're exciting yourself...

Lola Burns: Well, what are you doing about you? Don't think I don't know about your stealing and all the cuts you get from the stores! And you

Elsie, Hanlon's Secretary: Aw, listen, Sis...

Lola Burns: And you who never had a job to your name for three years and bringing her in here like it was a hotel for traveling salesmen! I've only stood it because it's the only home and family I've got. But I'm getting sick of it, you understand? There's only Loretta and the dogs that ever do a single thing for me. All the rest of you are just out for what you can get and I'm getting pretty tired of being a golden goose or whatever you call it!

Space Hanlon: Atta girl, Sugar!

Lola Burns: Don't "atta girl" me! I never want to see you again as long as I breathe. You're worse than all the rest of 'em!

[starts quoting Space]

Lola Burns: "Stone-Age Stuff!" "Mad with Desire!" "Lovers' Brawl!" Is that the way you prove you just more than care for me? Treating me like a strip act in a burlesque show! A glamorous Bombshell, eh? A glorified chump, that's what I've been! Well, I'm through, do you understand? With the business, with everybody! You can get another "It Girl," a "But Girl" or a "How, When and Where Girl." I'm clearing out - and you can all stay here in this half-paid-for car barn and get somebody else to pull the apple cart! I'm going where ladies and gentlemen hang their hats and get some peace and quiet... and if any of you try to interfere with me - I'll complain to the authorities!

Several days go by since Lola disappeared and her new picture is in limbo without her. Space is under pressure to bring her back. Lola is eventually found at a desert resort and Space goes to reclaim her. She is not happy to see him, but he tells her that he’s been fired after she left. He tries to convince her to come back to the studio, suggesting she’s missing out on a great part.

Lola Burns: As if, Gillette ever thought of *me* in connection with "Alice in Wonderland".

Space Hanlon: Well, there's the item right there. I released it myself on his own memo. You were to do it next. He finally got wised up to the kind of parts you ought to play.

Lola Burns: Well, it's too late now.

Space Hanlon: Swell part though, I hear that, eh, Alice Cole is gonna do it.

Lola Burns: Just because her name is Alice, I suppose.

Space Hanlon: Oh, no, no, no. She's a perfect Janet Gaynor type. You know, sweet and untouchable.

Lola goes horseback riding.

Unmoved, Lola goes for a horse ride. While she’s out in the desert, Lola is once again attacked by the Man Who Claims to be Her Husband. Gifford Middleton (Franchot Tone), a fellow rider, comes to her rescue. Gifford is a Boston "blue blood" and oblivious to her movie star status. He tells her that his parents will be joining him tomorrow before they go on an around the world trip.

Meanwhile, Gifford speaks very romantically to Lola.

Gifford Middleton: Oh, Lola, my dearest, your mouth is like a gardenia open to the sun. Your lips...

And when he asks her to marry him, she accepts.

Gifford Middleton: We'll be married, dear heart, and go together to Utopia.

Lola Burns: You mean, around the world?

Gifford Middleton: Around the universe! To the moon! I'll put the ring of Saturn on your finger. We'll sleep on Venus. The Milky Way shall be our coverlet.

Lola Burns: Oh, not even Norma Shearer or Helen Hayes in their nicest pictures were ever spoken to like that.

The next day, she’ll meet his parents (Mary Forbes and C. Aubrey Smith).

The families meet. From left to right, Mrs, Middleton (Mary Forbes),
Pops, Mr. Middleton (C. Aubrey Smith), Lola, Gifford (Franchot Tone), and Junior.

Her father and brother come to the meeting. The Middletons act very upper crust and when a little girl (Dorothy DeBorba) asks Lola for her autograph, they act shocked to find Lola is an actress and “the actress” around whom so much scandal has been circulated. The Middletons find her unfit for their son.

Angry and hurt by the rejection, Lola tells Space she is returning to Hollywood to resume her career, unaware that the Middletons are stage actors who were hired by Space.

Mr. Middleton: I can't understand why Lewis Stone gets all these parts.

Mrs. Middleton: I've always been compared to Alice Brady.

Space Hanlon: Yes. Yes. I know. And you know everybody thought I was Jackie Cooper until Greta Garbo took me on her lap one day. Well, I'll be seein' ya!

Back at the studio, Lola figures out what Space has been up to.

Back at the movie studio, Lola embraces Space and is about to confess her love for him when she overhears the Middletons arguing about their acting careers outside her dressing room. She is also once again approached by the Man Who Claims to be Her Husband, who it turns out is working for Space as well.

Lola storms out and gets into a car to go to the set. Space jumps on the running board and climbs in through the window. Space endures Lola's loving wrath as he rides with her to the set.

No word on box office, but the film was considered a success and led Harlow to be thought of as a “Blonde Bombshell.”

The reviews were generally positive overall. The Motion Picture Herald called the film "a comedy wow of the first water," and "one of the funniest, speediest, most nonsensical pictures ever to hit a screen." The Daily News Standard from Pennsylvania gave praise to the film, saying that "Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy together for the first time as co-stars are said to have provided the biggest truckload of laughs to roll out of Hollywood in the hilarious picture."

The New York Times’ Mordaunt Hall was a little less glowing. He starts off positive with “The fractious conduct of a film star, portrayed by Jean Harlow, and the sensational stunts inspired by a studio publicity expert, acted by Lee Tracy, generate no little hilarity in "Bombshell….” But he also is critical, “Although there are moments when the comedy is too rambunctious and scenes which are not precisely convincing, it is for the most part a merry, fast-paced diversion. Victor Fleming, the director, sometimes mystifies one with noise, which apparently cannot be heard in another part of the house, but he does his share to sustain the wild fun.”

The star of the film is obviously Jean Harlow. Even if she is playing a version of her own life, she is captivating on the screen. As Hall wrote, “Miss Harlow is thoroughly in her element as Lola. For the greater part of the time, she is a fiery platinum blonde, but when she hopes to be entrusted with an infant, she, as Lola, assumes a strangely quiet and sympathetic mood.” Richard Watts, Jr. in the New York Herald Tribune called the film "the first full-length portrait of this amazing young woman's increasingly impressive acting talent."

At this point in her career, Harlow was given superior movie roles to show off her looks and nascent comedic talent. Though her screen persona changed dramatically during her career, one constant was her sense of humor. It is her humor and comedic timing which is on full display here.

The dialogue is fast and furious and sprinkled with Hollywood-talk mentioning actors of the time, including Clark Gable and Janet Gaynor. I do not believe the Alice Cole they mention in the talk about Alice in Wonderland is a real person. Hall, in his review, also pointed out, “There are plenty of bright lines in the dialogue, especially in the desert hotel episode, but now and again both Mr. Tracy and Miss Harlow have to cope with speeches which are too long for this type of feature.”

Also, sometimes it comes so fast that it is hard to understand. Some of that, I put at the feet of Lee Tracy. According to a July 1933 Hollywood Reporter news item, Lee Tracy asked to be released from this picture because he felt his role was too small in comparison to Harlow's. Perhaps at the time, the two stars were on a somewhat equal status in Hollywood. Norman Krsna was credited in the Hollywood Reporter for "last minute" writing on Tracy's part.  In his review, Hall wrote “Mr. Tracy is excellent as the imaginative press agent who so often pops up unexpectedly. One never knows quite what is in his mind until his plan comes to fruition. Hanlon is never baffled and he knows so well how to play upon a star's sympathy.”

However, if you ask me, there is a little too much Tracy in the film. He continually pops up and several times comes in through the window to harass the star. And the fact that he wins her heart after all he does to manipulate and ruin her life, maybe what Hall referred to as “scenes which are not precisely convincing“. While neither Marquis Hugo or Jim Brogan are better offers, you would think that there must be another option for Lola to find happiness.

Pat O’Brien shows some comedic chops, which was not always something that was highlighted during his career. He was better known for playing priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters. Interestingly, he would play the character Hildy Johnson in the first film version of The Front Page, even though Lee Tracy originated the role on Broadway. Here, he’s more a fast-talker than a real character.

Franchot Tone was new to Hollywood, having arrived in 1932 after being a founding member of the Group Theatre, along with Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Clifford Odets. He was the first member of the Group to be offered a contract in Hollywood. His role as Gifford Middleton is over the top romantic, so much so that it might have been funnier with another actor in the role. He has always struck me as a likable actor, but one that never really won me over.

Everyone else seems to have very one-dimensional parts in the film. Frank Morgan, as the parasite father, at least has more to do than say Ted Healy, Lola’s parasite brother. The others, Una Merkel, Ivan Lebedeff, C. Aubrey Smith and Mary Forbes, are good, but have very limited roles in the film.

The sole reason for me to watch this movie was Jean Harlow and she does not disappoint in a role that almost seems written from her own life. There is so much potential in her that it is a shame it never would be fully achieved. But for someone who died at age 26, she has left a legacy that few actors will ever achieve and Bombshell goes a long way towards establishing that legacy. If you’re a fan of Harlow’s, then this is a not to be missed film.