Box notes: This 1932 pre-Production Code melodrama is sensational fun, and more than a little risque. It shows off Harlow's sensual charms with no holds barred as she preys on boss Chester Morris and any other male who can give her what she wants. And it's the picture that made her a star. "From the moment Lil Andrews (Jean Harlow) discards her shadowproof petticoat, fastens the boss' picture on her garter and goes out to trap a silver fox, it's just too bad for the men and their faithful wives." (Mirror)
The screenplay, based on a popular novel by Katherine Brush, was written by Anita Loos, noted as the first American writer ever to make fun of sex (and one of my personal heros!)
Click here to listen to Lil's infamous fashion tip!
It is widely reported that Jean Harlow, in her first decidedly non-blonde role since gaining initial fame in Howard Hughes' "Hell's Angels," won the part due to heavy lobbying by her soon-to-be-second and ill-fated husband, MGM executive Paul Bern. However, Anita Loos writes in her 1977 memoirs, Cast of Characters, that Jean had a little something to do with landing the part herself:
Jean didn't seem at all nervous in the presence of the man who was about to skyrocket her into fame; she had that sort of gently sardonic attitude that comes from having gone through the many ups and downs of any budding career in the studios.
Irving, being self-removed from life, dearly loved gossip and he began by asking Jean "How did you make out with Howard Hughes?" "Well, one day when he was eating a cookie he offered me a bite." When we laughed, Jean interrupted. "Don't underestimate that," she said. "The poor guy's so frightened of germs, it could darn near have been a proposal!"
"Do you think you can make an audience laugh?" asked Irving.
"With me or at me?"
"At you!"
"Why not? People have been laughing at me all my life."
As Jean breezed out of the office, she stopped at the door to give us a quick, bright nod; a gesture I wrote into the script and still look for every time I see that old movie.
On Jean's departure, Irving said to me, "I don't think we need worry about Miss Harlow's sense of humor."
On the day of Irving's first meeting with Miss Harlow, he asked me to his office to help make an appraisal of her. Jean's own tawny hair had been bleached to a "platinum" blonde, but she'd been ordered to the make-up department to be fitted with a red wig. She looked about sixteen, and her baby face seemed utterly incongruous against that flaming wig.
Miss Loos goes on to give her impressions of Jean Harlow's outlook on her image:
Jean and I had time during that filming to develop a warm friendship. I found that underlying her raffish sense of humor was a resignation unusual for one so young. Nothing would surprise Jean. She knew exactly how people were going to react to her; if men were stupid they'd fall for her; if they had good sense, they'd laugh her off. That women were invariably catty toward Jean was largely through a noblesse oblige on her part. Jean agreeably supplied them with the shocks they expected.
Additionally, Miss Loos writes about the success and notoriety of Red-Headed Woman:
When Red-Headed Woman was released, it instantly catipulted Jean Harlow into stardom. The picture enjoyed all sorts of fringe successes. It won the award of Vanity Fair magazine as the best film of the year; and the London office of MGM reported that the Royal Family kept a copy at Buckingham Palace for entertaining guests after dinner. Among its many distinctions, Red-Headed Woman made film history because it brought on stringent censorship and caused massive difficulties to the industry for years to come. It outraged ladies' clubs throughout the land, but not because of any episode which might be termed salacious. It was because our heroine, the bad girl of whom all good husbands dreamed, ended her career as many such scalawags do -- rich, happy and respected, without having paid for a single sin.
Loos, Anita. Cast of Characters, Grosset & Dunlap: New York, © 1977
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