Outside of a kennel!
So said Joan Crawford in "The Women", and for these three gold diggers of 1932 (or at least 2 1/2...one of them prefers to marry for love, preferably a rich man...), that word is totally apropos. These three women band their money from their work in burlesque, the Follies, Earl Carroll's Vanities, the Music Box Revue, or whatever Broadway chorus they were lucky enough to have a part in. The three women are Joan Blondell (an expert on these parts), Ina Claire and Madge Evans, and they are all a total contrast. While Blondell was part of the four Gold Diggers of 1933, her character there had more to do than she does here. She's sort of a den-mother, trying to keep peace between the other two who are total contrasts. Evans is the total good girl-think Ruby Keeler without tap shoes, and when she falls in love with David Manners, she's willing to take him even if his wealthy papa disowns him. On the other hand, Claire is the definite feline of the group who will find a man with money no matter whom she has to eat up and spit out. When first seen, she's convincing a rich man on the cruise ship about to arrive in New York to pay her alcohol bill, and as she tells Manners' wealthy pop later on, "Oh, I never forget a yacht" when recalling him in a newsreel on wealthy business men.
Director Lowell Sherman, veteran lothario from the early 30's, also appears here (as he did in a string of forgotten RKO films) but the focus for once is on the girls. He's just one of the wealthy men caught in the girl's trap, and for once, less of him is more. The three beauties are decked out in the finest of early 30's fashions and Claire gets a brief Medusa look as she is connected to all sorts of contraptions through her tresses. They also strip down to their slips and bras here, showing off their fabulous figures, so this is a pre-code comedy of the highest sort that would soon be pulled out of circulation thanks to that nasty Hays code. Unlike the sin and suffering films of such stars as Kay Francis, Ruth Chatterton and Tallulah Bankhead, this film shows the women having fun and only paying for their sins through some ironic comedy.
Acting honors go to Claire for her bodacious performance as one of the most outlandish gold diggers on stage or screen. This character isn't above framing Evans for taking a pearl necklace just so she can get introduced to Manners' papa. But the tables turn on her as Evans and Blondell get her outrageously drunk and while schnockered, Claire begins to show a human side and reveal where her true loyalties lie, making her all the more realistic and identifiable, yet still a lot of fun. A fun musical score in the background adds to the incredible art deco sets and the fun-loving attitude of the young girls working the Big Apple must have brought some relief to depression weary audiences of the Hoover era which had swept the country's finances under the rug.
So said Joan Crawford in "The Women", and for these three gold diggers of 1932 (or at least 2 1/2...one of them prefers to marry for love, preferably a rich man...), that word is totally apropos. These three women band their money from their work in burlesque, the Follies, Earl Carroll's Vanities, the Music Box Revue, or whatever Broadway chorus they were lucky enough to have a part in. The three women are Joan Blondell (an expert on these parts), Ina Claire and Madge Evans, and they are all a total contrast. While Blondell was part of the four Gold Diggers of 1933, her character there had more to do than she does here. She's sort of a den-mother, trying to keep peace between the other two who are total contrasts. Evans is the total good girl-think Ruby Keeler without tap shoes, and when she falls in love with David Manners, she's willing to take him even if his wealthy papa disowns him. On the other hand, Claire is the definite feline of the group who will find a man with money no matter whom she has to eat up and spit out. When first seen, she's convincing a rich man on the cruise ship about to arrive in New York to pay her alcohol bill, and as she tells Manners' wealthy pop later on, "Oh, I never forget a yacht" when recalling him in a newsreel on wealthy business men.
Director Lowell Sherman, veteran lothario from the early 30's, also appears here (as he did in a string of forgotten RKO films) but the focus for once is on the girls. He's just one of the wealthy men caught in the girl's trap, and for once, less of him is more. The three beauties are decked out in the finest of early 30's fashions and Claire gets a brief Medusa look as she is connected to all sorts of contraptions through her tresses. They also strip down to their slips and bras here, showing off their fabulous figures, so this is a pre-code comedy of the highest sort that would soon be pulled out of circulation thanks to that nasty Hays code. Unlike the sin and suffering films of such stars as Kay Francis, Ruth Chatterton and Tallulah Bankhead, this film shows the women having fun and only paying for their sins through some ironic comedy.
Acting honors go to Claire for her bodacious performance as one of the most outlandish gold diggers on stage or screen. This character isn't above framing Evans for taking a pearl necklace just so she can get introduced to Manners' papa. But the tables turn on her as Evans and Blondell get her outrageously drunk and while schnockered, Claire begins to show a human side and reveal where her true loyalties lie, making her all the more realistic and identifiable, yet still a lot of fun. A fun musical score in the background adds to the incredible art deco sets and the fun-loving attitude of the young girls working the Big Apple must have brought some relief to depression weary audiences of the Hoover era which had swept the country's finances under the rug.