''Bombshell'' is a 1933 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

romantic

screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...

film directed by Victor Fleming and starring

Jean Harlow Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...

Lee Tracy William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawye ...

Frank Morgan Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound ...

C. Aubrey Smith Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937) ...

Mary Forbes Mary Forbes (born Ethel Louise Young; 1 January 1883 – 22 July 1974) was a British-American film actress, based in the United States in her latter years, where she died. She appeared in more than 130 films between 1919 and 1958.

and

Franchot Tone Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known ...

. It is based on the unproduced play of the same name by Caroline Francke and Mack Crane, and was adapted for the screen by

John Lee Mahin John Lee Mahin (August 23, 1902, Evanston, Illinois – April 18, 1984, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter and producer of films who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known as the favorite writer of Clark Gable an ...

and

Jules Furthman Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Biography Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he wr ...

Plot

Movie star Lola Burns (

) is angry with her studio publicist E. J. "Space" Hanlon (

), who feeds the press with endless provocative stories about her. Lola's family and staff are another cause of distress for her, as everybody is always trying to take her money. All Burns really wants is to live a normal life and prove to the public that she's not a sexy vamp, but a proper lady. She attempts a few romances and tries to adopt a baby, but Hanlon, who secretly loves her, thwarts all her plans. Burns decides she can't stand any more of such a life, and flees. Far from the movie fluff, she meets wealthy and romantic Gifford Middleton (

), who hates the movies and therefore has never heard about Lola Burns and her bad press. They soon fall in love, and Gifford proposes marriage. Burns is to meet her fiancé's parents, but everything collapses when her family finds her, and the Middletons find out she is a movie star. Burns feels hurt by the rude way Gifford and his parents dump her, and accepts Hanlon's suggestion to return to Hollywood with no regrets. She does not know that the three Middletons were all actors hired by Hanlon himself. At the studio, Burns and Hanlon are kissing when the “Middletons” walk by her dressing room. They have been given jobs on the next Barrymore picture as a reward for helping to bring Lola back to the fold. Infuriated, Burns flees. Hanlon jumps into the moving car. They are about to kiss when the supposed lunatic who has been pursuing her throughout the film, claiming to be her husband, sticks his head in the window. He greets Hanlon and asks “How’m I doin’?” Fade out on the battling couple.

Cast

as Lola Burns *

as E.J. "Space" Hanlon *

as Pops Burns *

as Gifford Middleton *

Pat O'Brien Pat O'Brien may refer to: Politicians * Pat O'Brien (Canadian politician) (born 1948), member of the Canadian House of Commons *Pat O'Brien (Irish politician) (c. 1847–1917), Irish Nationalist MP in the United Kingdom Parliament Others *Pat O'Br ...

as Jim Brogan *

Una Merkel Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress. Merkel was born in Kentucky and acted on stage in New York in the 1920s. She went to Hollywood in 1930 and became a popular film ...

as Mac *

Ted Healy Ted Healy (born Charles Ernest Lee Nash; October 1, 1896 – December 21, 1937) was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. Though he is chiefly remembered as the creator of The Three Stooges and the style of slapstick comedy th ...

as Junior Burns *

Ivan Lebedeff Ivan Lebedeff (born Ivan Vasilyevich Lebedev ( rus, Иван Васильевич Лебедев), 18 June 1894 – 31 March 1953) was a Russian film actor, lecturer and writer. He appeared in 66 films between 1926 and 1953. In 1940, his no ...

as Hugo, Marquis Di Binelli Di Pisa *

Isabel Jewell Isabel Jewell (July 19, 1907 – April 5, 1972) was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some of her more famous films were '' Ceiling Zero'', ''Marked Woman'', ''A Tale of Two Cities (1935 film), A Tale ...

as Lily, Junior's Girl Friend (as Isobel Jewell) *

Louise Beavers Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress. From the 1920s until 1960, she appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows. She was most often cast in the roles of a maid, servant ...

as Loretta *

Leonard Carey Leonard Carey (25 February 1887 – 11 September 1977) was an English character actor who very often played butlers in Hollywood films of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He was also active in television during the 1950s. He is perhaps best known f ...

as Winters *

as Mrs. Middleton *

as Mr. Wendell Middleton *

June Brewster June Brewster (August 8, 1913 – November 2, 1995) was an American film actress of the 1930s. Selected filmography * ''The Sport Parade'' (1932) * ''Goldie Gets Along'' (1933) * ''Meet the Baron'' (1933) * ''Headline Shooter'' (1933) * '' ...

as Alice Cole

Critical reception

Critical reviews were generally positive. ''

Motion Picture Herald The ''Motion Picture Herald'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1931 to December 1972.Anthony Slide, ed. (1985)''International Film, Radio, and Television Journals'' Greenwood Press. p. 242. It was replaced by the ''QP Heral ...

'' 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". However,

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said ''Bombshell'' has moments where "the comedy is too rambunctious and scenes which are not precisely convincing". He did say it is merry for the most part, and said that Jean Harlow was thoroughly "in her element" as the character Lola Burns.

Production

''Bombshell'' is a

pre-code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

. The story satirizes the stardom years of

Clara Bow Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...

: "Lola Burns" –

, "E. J. Hanlon" –

B. P. Schulberg B. P. Schulberg (born Percival Schulberg, January 19, 1892 – February 25, 1957) was an American pioneer film producer and film studio executive. Biography Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from the ...

, "Pops Burns" – Robert Bow, "Mac" – Daisy DeVoe, "Gifford Middleton" –

Rex Bell Rex Bell (born George Francis Beldam; October 16, 1903 – July 4, 1962) was an American actor and politician. Bell primarily appeared in Western films during his career. He also appeared in the 1930 movie '' True to the Navy'', starring Clar ...

. Director Victor Fleming was Bow's fiancée in 1926.''Bombshell: the Life and Death of Jean Harlow'' by

David Stenn David Stenn is an American television writer-producer, biographer, and film preservationist. His television credits range from ''Hill Street Blues'' to '' Boardwalk Empire''. He is known for his biographies of Hollywood stars Clara Bow and Jean ...

, page 150-152 The ''Laredo Times'' from Laredo, Texas, quotes Harlow in an interview about filming saying, "Thank goodness, it was not necessary for me to get in the rain barrel in Bombshell. I had to pick too many splinters out of myself the last time", referring to the 1932 film ''Red Dust'', in which Harlow takes a bath in a rain barrel. The success of the film led to Jean Harlow being widely known as a "Blonde Bombshell". Early in the film, Lola Burns is told she has to shoot re-takes of '' Red Dust'' — the title of an actual Harlow/Gable vehicle from the year before. In fact, there's a brief kissing scene with Gable, in the frenetic opening sequence of photos, scenes, and shots of fans, taken from ''

Hold Your Man ''Hold Your Man '' is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by an uncredited Sam Wood and starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, the third of their six films together.Landazuri, Margarit"Hold Your Man" (TCM article)/ref> The scre ...

'' (1933). According to the Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, scenes in ''Bombshell'' were shot at MGM studios in Culver City. The nightclub scene was filmed at Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in mid-town Los Angeles. It was demolished in 2006.

References

External links

* * * * {{Norman Krasna 1933 films 1930s romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films American black-and-white films Films about actors Films about filmmaking American films based on plays Films directed by Victor Fleming Films produced by Irving Thalberg Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman 1933 comedy films 1933 drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films