The early 30s were a trying time for actors. There were silent stars who disappeared into obscurity, stage veterans ill at ease with the medium, and genuine talents slumming it in bit parts and B-movies who would wait years for superstardom. Amongst all this was the tragically meteoric career of one Robert Williams, who dropped dead of appendicitis days after the opening of his sensational first leading role in Platinum Blonde.
The most popular stars of this period were warm, earthy types, most at home in gentle comedies - people like Will Rogers, Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. But a breed of younger, sophisticated wise-crackers such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy were starting to emerge, and it with this new generation whom Williams could have belonged. He is quite astonishingly good here, bringing out his character with every gesture and movement he makes, continually using his hat and tie as expressive props. He delivers dialogue in a naturalistic comical style, one that makes you feel as if he is actually thinking the lines as he goes along.
Platinum Blonde is among the first really mature pictures from Frank Capra, whose earliest directorial efforts had been egotistically showy. He now demonstrates the sensitivity to romantic situations with which he would make his name. In the scene where Williams first meets the Schuylers everything is filmed in mid-shot, and Jean Harlow - who has no dialogue for the most of the scene - has her back to the camera. However when Harlow does get up and speak, Capra gives significance to the moment by showing her in close-up, and in opposing angles with Williams. In their scene in the garden at the party he frames them softly behind the fountain, while the voice of the opera singer is heard offscreen - a manner of shooting love scenes that is something of a Capra trademark. Meanwhile he keeps the alternate romance with Loretta Young bubbling away by focusing on her reactions while Williams is shot in profile.
Also worth noting is Capra's camera placement. Early cinema was presentational, like watching a show in a theatre. Then the point-of-view shot allowed us to "become" a character by seeing what they see. Capra however often picks a third way, placing his camera passively amongst the action in group scenes, not taking the place of an actual character, but nonetheless as if it were a person on the set. This is very obvious in the opening scene, when the camera is right among those desks and reporters, but also subtly in the aforementioned first meeting with the Schuylers. You have Harlow and two other Schuylers seated on chairs around the room. The camera is placed at waist height between Harlow and her brother, as if it occupied an imaginary fourth chair. This technique, which does not demand we become one with the characters, but still makes us feel like we are there with them, can be seen in almost all Capra features, and contributes greatly to the feeling of warmth and humanism with which he is most associated.
An even bigger contributing factor to Capra's reputation is his long association with screenwriter Robert Riskin. Capra and Riskin had first worked together on The Miracle Woman. This was their second collaboration, and Riskin was at this point only writing the dialogue. However Riskin's dialogue is bigger than the admittedly trite storyline of Platinum Blonde, just as Robert Williams's performance is bigger than the character of Stew Smith. Riskin's crackling lines tread the border between realism and outrageous wit, as does Williams's performance, and the two of them are the X-Factor in what would otherwise be a rather routine romantic comedy. Williams's death would be a great loss, and we can only imagine what he would have gone on to achieve had he lived. Riskin on the other hand would rise to the top as writer of many of Frank Capra's greatest pictures.
The most popular stars of this period were warm, earthy types, most at home in gentle comedies - people like Will Rogers, Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. But a breed of younger, sophisticated wise-crackers such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy were starting to emerge, and it with this new generation whom Williams could have belonged. He is quite astonishingly good here, bringing out his character with every gesture and movement he makes, continually using his hat and tie as expressive props. He delivers dialogue in a naturalistic comical style, one that makes you feel as if he is actually thinking the lines as he goes along.
Platinum Blonde is among the first really mature pictures from Frank Capra, whose earliest directorial efforts had been egotistically showy. He now demonstrates the sensitivity to romantic situations with which he would make his name. In the scene where Williams first meets the Schuylers everything is filmed in mid-shot, and Jean Harlow - who has no dialogue for the most of the scene - has her back to the camera. However when Harlow does get up and speak, Capra gives significance to the moment by showing her in close-up, and in opposing angles with Williams. In their scene in the garden at the party he frames them softly behind the fountain, while the voice of the opera singer is heard offscreen - a manner of shooting love scenes that is something of a Capra trademark. Meanwhile he keeps the alternate romance with Loretta Young bubbling away by focusing on her reactions while Williams is shot in profile.
Also worth noting is Capra's camera placement. Early cinema was presentational, like watching a show in a theatre. Then the point-of-view shot allowed us to "become" a character by seeing what they see. Capra however often picks a third way, placing his camera passively amongst the action in group scenes, not taking the place of an actual character, but nonetheless as if it were a person on the set. This is very obvious in the opening scene, when the camera is right among those desks and reporters, but also subtly in the aforementioned first meeting with the Schuylers. You have Harlow and two other Schuylers seated on chairs around the room. The camera is placed at waist height between Harlow and her brother, as if it occupied an imaginary fourth chair. This technique, which does not demand we become one with the characters, but still makes us feel like we are there with them, can be seen in almost all Capra features, and contributes greatly to the feeling of warmth and humanism with which he is most associated.
An even bigger contributing factor to Capra's reputation is his long association with screenwriter Robert Riskin. Capra and Riskin had first worked together on The Miracle Woman. This was their second collaboration, and Riskin was at this point only writing the dialogue. However Riskin's dialogue is bigger than the admittedly trite storyline of Platinum Blonde, just as Robert Williams's performance is bigger than the character of Stew Smith. Riskin's crackling lines tread the border between realism and outrageous wit, as does Williams's performance, and the two of them are the X-Factor in what would otherwise be a rather routine romantic comedy. Williams's death would be a great loss, and we can only imagine what he would have gone on to achieve had he lived. Riskin on the other hand would rise to the top as writer of many of Frank Capra's greatest pictures.