Poor Mae Clarke - her Nemisis must have been Jean Harlow. In "The Public Enemy", she is remembered as the girl, squashed in the face by a grapefruit - but Jean, as Cagney's new mistress got all the attention. In "Three Wise Girls" Jean Harlow not only got top billing but also starred as the girl who stayed on the straight and narrow. Poor Mae had to be content with critical praise for her acting. The year before Jean had made a film for Universal ("Iron Man"), Warner Brothers, ("The Public Enemy"), Fox ("Goldie") and Columbia ("Platinum Blonde") but it was MGM who really developed her personality. In "Three Wise Girls" it was Mae Clarke who was predicted for instant stardom and she deserved it. She had always been praised for her acting ("The Front Page", "Waterloo Bridge") but stardom eluded her - maybe she just wasn't flashy enough.
After walking home, yet again, from a "too fresh" date, Cassie (Jean Harlow) talks to her mother about Gladys, a home town girl made very good. Cassie compares her wage of $15 a week that she earns soda jerking, to the $200 Gladys earns in New York. When Gladys's mother drives up in a new car, that is all the incentive that Cassie needs to throw in her job and head for the city. Catching up with Gladys (Mae Clarke) she is surprised to hear that Gladys is only making $60 a week from her modeling job - Cassie is also hired as well. Unknown to Cassie, Gladys is the mistress of Phelps, a big banker (hence the presents to her mother) and not being able to marry him is turning her into a nervous wreck. When Cassie meets him he immediately makes a pass at her so she is instantly disillusioned (well Jean, it's Jameson Thomas, so what can you expect). Cassie has met and fallen in love with a charming playboy Jerry Dexter (Walter Byron) - unfortunately, he, too, is married to - Natalie Moorehead (uh oh, she'll put a spanner in the works) and when she finds out, Cassie is heartbroken. Walter Byron was breezy and charming as well as good looking, why didn't he have a bigger career?
The third "wise" girl (wise is not the word I would use for them) is Dot (Marie Prevost), Cassie's stay at home room-mate, who eventually finds love with Jerry's chauffeur (Andy Devine) but not before she has given the other two girls some free advice about reeling in a rich man - if you happen to be beautiful like Cassie. Gladys is wise - she just doesn't practice what she preaches and when Phelps reconciles with his wife, Gladys commits suicide. Apart from that it is a pretty conventional film about a girl trying to keep her virtue in the big city. Cassie seems to know the score when she is fending off would be "wolves" but is pretty simple around Phelps. I don't think Jean really pulls it off but she is just so gorgeous - she doesn't have to. Mae Clarke acts everyone off the screen and she is just so much better than her material. Who would have thought Marie Prevost would have been washed up by the early thirties. A decade before she one of the brightest young talents in the movies - she starred in "The Beautiful and the Damned" but by 1930 a weight problem saw her relegated to playing tough dames with hearts of gold and she was good (in "Paid" and "Ladies of Leisure") but her film days were numbered.
Highly Recommended.
After walking home, yet again, from a "too fresh" date, Cassie (Jean Harlow) talks to her mother about Gladys, a home town girl made very good. Cassie compares her wage of $15 a week that she earns soda jerking, to the $200 Gladys earns in New York. When Gladys's mother drives up in a new car, that is all the incentive that Cassie needs to throw in her job and head for the city. Catching up with Gladys (Mae Clarke) she is surprised to hear that Gladys is only making $60 a week from her modeling job - Cassie is also hired as well. Unknown to Cassie, Gladys is the mistress of Phelps, a big banker (hence the presents to her mother) and not being able to marry him is turning her into a nervous wreck. When Cassie meets him he immediately makes a pass at her so she is instantly disillusioned (well Jean, it's Jameson Thomas, so what can you expect). Cassie has met and fallen in love with a charming playboy Jerry Dexter (Walter Byron) - unfortunately, he, too, is married to - Natalie Moorehead (uh oh, she'll put a spanner in the works) and when she finds out, Cassie is heartbroken. Walter Byron was breezy and charming as well as good looking, why didn't he have a bigger career?
The third "wise" girl (wise is not the word I would use for them) is Dot (Marie Prevost), Cassie's stay at home room-mate, who eventually finds love with Jerry's chauffeur (Andy Devine) but not before she has given the other two girls some free advice about reeling in a rich man - if you happen to be beautiful like Cassie. Gladys is wise - she just doesn't practice what she preaches and when Phelps reconciles with his wife, Gladys commits suicide. Apart from that it is a pretty conventional film about a girl trying to keep her virtue in the big city. Cassie seems to know the score when she is fending off would be "wolves" but is pretty simple around Phelps. I don't think Jean really pulls it off but she is just so gorgeous - she doesn't have to. Mae Clarke acts everyone off the screen and she is just so much better than her material. Who would have thought Marie Prevost would have been washed up by the early thirties. A decade before she one of the brightest young talents in the movies - she starred in "The Beautiful and the Damned" but by 1930 a weight problem saw her relegated to playing tough dames with hearts of gold and she was good (in "Paid" and "Ladies of Leisure") but her film days were numbered.
Highly Recommended.