Red-Headed Woman (USA; Jack Conway, 1932)

  
    I don't understand what's so hard to resist about Jean Harlow. Her conniving intentions are loud & clear, visible from miles away and she's kinda weird-looking too; and she's more whiny than sutlry. In fact, this pre-code Hollywood classic seems to highlight men's total lack of sexual restraint over that of loose women's wrecking
powers, its ultimate contention being that to fall for a girl like that can eventually be life-threatening, as the flim's climactic attempted murder demonstrates. The thing is, I don't see Jean Harlow as being worthy of self-destruction. As the plot closely resembles that of Babyface (Alfred E. Green, 1933), it was hard not to compare the two; and made me long for Barbara Stanwyck instead. Watchin Woman, I kept hoping for James Cagney to come along and slam a grapefruit in her face, but alas it was the wrong movie. While controversial for the glimpsed nudity in the clothes-swapping scene between Lil (Harlow) and her only friend Sally (Una Merkel), the film is also noteworthy in its distinction between lust and love, at one point having Lil joyfully exclaim that she's so happy to be in love and getting married, just not both with the same man. Furthermore, while her fanatic drive for wealth almost kills the man whose life she's wrecked, she actually gets away with it, ending up in France to bilk foreign rich men instead. The failure of men to stand up to such a woman is even more solidly confirmed when her intented victim spots her without confronting her, leaving her free to continue swinging her masculine wrecking ball. This lack of punishment for her behavior may also be responsible for making this film a prime target for indecency attacks leading up to the production code.