Though this story of three girls on the lookout for rich men inspired How to Marry a Millionaire, the gals in this pre-Code original hardly hold out for marriage! Sugar daddies will do as well as husbands, and even better in the case of one who prefers an illicit good time to a rich husband. Joan Blondell, as the good sport, doesn't have enough screen time but is quite effective when she does--the catfight in the beauty parlour, with its mudpacks and a hair-waving machine that looks like a giant squid, is a riot. Madge Evans is the sweet one who nevertheless forsakes her sweet boyfriend for wealthy Lowell Sherman's offer of musical training, which clearly includes some very intimate private tuition. Ina Claire is the wildly unscrupulous one, who cheats, steals, and tells outrageous lies to keep herself in champagne and chinchilla. The clothes are gorgeous--slinky evening gowns that look like lingerie--and the wisecracks are as sharp as the diamonds the girls crave (remember that this was the era of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). A man, asking for the men's room, is told "It's the door that says Gentlemen--but don't let that stop you." When the two other girls meet Ina Claire returning on an ocean liner, one says, "Look, she doesn't have a man--you'd think she'd be afraid of catching cold." There's no plot to speak of, just a series of incidents, which gets a bit wearying, and it's bizarre that the other two keep reconciling with the treacherous, bitchy Ina Claire character. But for a frivolous, glamorous, unsentimental look at love and money, this is hard to beat.
Review of The Greeks Had a Word for Them
