Hold Your Man (1933)

hyped garbage

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Jean Harlow and Clark Gable provide high-wattage star power in this film filled with classic images of both. Ah, the 1930's, when you could elude the law by waltzing into a young woman's unlocked apartment, find her taking a bath, and then have her come out and not only cover for you, but iron your clothes. The pair have great chemistry and repartee, and sparks fly. Dorothy Burgess is a firecracker as Gable's old girlfriend who drinks a little too much, and Stuart Erwin is solid as his sidekick in grifting. Overall, the film has that playful, pre-Code joy to it, naughty as it is. The screenplay by Anita Loos and Howard Emmett Rogers is delightful, and the direction from Sam Wood includes some wonderful shots. The final 45 minutes drag a bit, as Harlow is sentenced to a reformatory school, though it was nice to see the shenanigans of her fellow inmates, which included the lovely Theresa Harris, and Harlow singing at the piano to them. It's interesting to see the reaction to Harlow being pregnant, which leads to some over-the-top melodrama in the form of Gable pleading for a preacher to perform marriage services. You can see the ending coming a mile away, but an entertaining film throughout.

This pre-Code box office success pairs Clark Gable with Jean Harlow. Gable plays Eddie, a purveyor of the short con who, after taking advantage of his mark (or his women) quickly moves on. Harlow is Ruby, a platinum blond with common tastes who gets around and knows how to handle herself. She's the wiser of the two and she knows the odds are stacked against Eddie due to his criminal myopia.After Eddie does a stint in jail, their relationship changes, but the consequences of past crimes derail the couple. Some reviewers have said that the film changes tone at this point and suffers from the change in focus. But this is when the viewer realizes this is Ruby's story. Eddie is the one who goes through the greatest transformation, but the tale is told from Ruby's point of view and we follow her ordeals.Fortunately, Ms. Harlow is up to the challenge, delivering a touching performance that is multi-dimensional and deeply touching.

It's 1933 in a unnamed city and prohibition is still in effect. People are still drinking homemade. "Scotch, eh? Glasgow or Brooklyn?" In fact, some of the most impressive features of this unimposing drama are in the snappy dialog. Not TOO snappy, even though this was shot pre-code, but just snappy enough.Jean Harlow is a tough urban babe, seduced by the reckless and cocky Clark Gable. A mix-up puts Harlow in a reformatory, convicted of having something to do with a crime of which Gable was the sole author. Most of the movie takes place within the confines of the reformatory. It's not nearly as depressing a milieu as those we see in period movies about men in the penitentiary. Harlow is ensconced in what seems more like a particularly strict boarding house or maybe a loose-limbed convent. She has four roommates, whose characters are nicely limned in.It's the depths of the Great Depression, see, and one of them is a communist who launches into ideological tirades against their damned sewing machines. Another was Harlow's rival for Gable on the outside. A third functions as a lumpy observer. The fourth is a sympathetic and helpful young black girl, Lilly Mae, without a hint of political correctness but also without screen credit. She's the most likable person in the movie, played by Theresa Harris, who was the affable waitress in "Cat People" and a maid in "I Walked With A Zombie".Harlow shortly turns out to be pregnant and when Gable learns of her predicament he's stricken with guilt. Gable manages to wangle a marriage while visiting Harlow in the reformatory and is arrested for his crime. Last shot, Gable and Harlow are released, happy to be with their little kid, kissing on the public street. The end.It's not bad actually. Gable is unbelievable while sobbing with guilt, but other than that the characters are pretty well drawn and the story involving. Harlow's performance is unusually subtle, for Harlow.

The first scene is pretty good when Clark Gable tries to con a guy out of 50 bucks but the movie just goes downhill from there. The guy Gable tried to con finds he's a fake and chases after him with a cop. Gable runs into an apartment building and hides in Jean Harlow's apartment. Harlow agrees to hide him out even though she doesn't know who he is. He leaves and she wants to see him again so she's always hanging out at his restaurant. They meet again and begin going out but Gable is arrested in a con gone bad and pretty soon Harlow gets arrested too. Right before Gable was arrested they were about to be married. Both Gable and Harlow are pretty good and they worked several times together.