As a gossip column in The Hollywood Times put it after Harlow was spotted with red hair, her blonde look had been her “crowning glory.” This is no small detail for a pre-Code starlet, as very few women had hair that colour at the time since there was no commercially available dye that could accomplish it. So little surprise that it almost immediately became key to Harlow’s identity, as Howard Hughes’ publicity director dubbed her the “Platinum Blonde”—Hughes even launched a contest to award $10,000 to any stylist that could recreate Harlow’s iconic sheen. Going redhead wasn’t just a playful meta moment in the film, it was also like a dare to the audience. You’ll love me as I am, it suggests, not as you imagine me.
Red-Headed Woman tells the story of Lil Andrews, a secretary intent on making her way up in the world. The film’s 79 minutes encapsulate the essence of the pre-Code Hollywood film, as Lil manages to break up a marriage, commit adultery, engage in premarital sex, and attempt murder—all in a day’s work! Her weapon of choice, as you might expect, is her sex appeal, and it is remarkably easy for her to manipulate the various bumbling men in her life. She isn’t quite a femme fatale, but something like it, perhaps with a little more human vulnerability and a clearer idea of her motivations. Femme fatales weren’t quite an archetype in this period, as they would become culturally significant through the rise of film noir in the 1940s. They are deliberately shrouded in mystery and desire, whereas women in many pre-Code films are granted more of a perspective, even if certain moralising tendencies would weigh on them regardless. Lil Andrews, on the other hand, sees it, wants it, gets it.
In real life, Harlow was surrounded by scandal. Thanks in part to tabloid coverage, many believed that Harlow, shortly after Red-Headed Woman’s release, was responsible for the death of her second husband, Paul Bern. Bern had helped to launch Harlow’s career, landing her key roles, taking her on a hugely successful personal-appearance tour across the East Coast, and coaxing MGM producer Irving Thalberg to sign her, which he did on her 21st birthday. When Bern was found dead in their home, Harlow was blamed, seemingly having used him for her own gain and then disposing of him—his death was ruled a suicide. Soon after, Harlow had an affair with the boxer Max Baer, and MGM concocted a scheme for her to marry cinematographer Harold Rosson to avoid further scandal.
In some ways, this mirrors her role in Red-Headed Woman; Lil Andrews does all that and more, a bonafide maneater who will rest at nothing to make a name for herself—gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss for the Depression era. For 1932, this characterization wasn’t particularly uncommon for a pre-Code Hollywood flick, as they were regularly populated by lascivious or otherwise driven female characters, played by actresses like Mae West and Joan Blondell. Still, even in the vast majority of these films, the woman almost always ends up punished in some way (death is not unusual), or instead “cured” of her old ways and properly domesticated.
"[…] gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss for the Depression era."
In Red-Headed Woman, though, Harlow breaks the musty mould. Despite her prowess at manipulating men, she struggles throughout the film to be accepted by high society, which continues to look down not only on her low-class origins, but also the desperation they seem to find in her eyes. Unafraid to brazenly, even viciously wield her sexuality, her vulgarity had her shunned, even if it appealed to an audience feeling especially powerless in the years following the stock market crash on Black Tuesday. Regardless, in the end, Lil proves her singularity even further as she nimbly avoids the prescriptive expectations placed on her—she not only ends up unpunished, but indeed rewarded for her unabashed pursuit of, well, everything. After impulsively shooting the man whose marriage she had destroyed in order to build her way up (she’d found him back with his ex-wife), he can’t seem to deny her insistent and unstoppable rise, and refuses to press charges against her. Years later, we see her happily living the good life with an elderly Frenchman, and, it is implied, carrying on a secret romance with her driver. She is rich and romantically fulfilled, because the world, and the audience, know that she is undeniable.
"She is rich and romantically fulfilled, because the world, and the audience, know that she is undeniable."
Harlow demonstrates what a remarkable period the early 1930s were in Hollywood cinema, a brief era within which filmmakers, actors, and producers experimented as though they knew a crackdown was coming. In retrospect, Harlow similarly seemed to have been living life to its fullest in every sense and in every performance, as though she knew her own time was running out. Like Lil, Harlow was cast in a certain light, but even the tightly-controlled media frenzy of the early golden age couldn’t contain her, and she remains one of the medium’s greatest onscreen presences, no matter what colour her hair was.
As a gossip column in The Hollywood Times put it after Harlow was spotted with red hair, her blonde look had been her “crowning glory.” This is no small detail for a pre-Code starlet, as very few women had hair that colour at the time since there was no commercially available dye that could accomplish it. So little surprise that it almost immediately became key to Harlow’s identity, as Howard Hughes’ publicity director dubbed her the “Platinum Blonde”—Hughes even launched a contest to award $10,000 to any stylist that could recreate Harlow’s iconic sheen. Going redhead wasn’t just a playful meta moment in the film, it was also like a dare to the audience. You’ll love me as I am, it suggests, not as you imagine me.
Red-Headed Woman tells the story of Lil Andrews, a secretary intent on making her way up in the world. The film’s 79 minutes encapsulate the essence of the pre-Code Hollywood film, as Lil manages to break up a marriage, commit adultery, engage in premarital sex, and attempt murder—all in a day’s work! Her weapon of choice, as you might expect, is her sex appeal, and it is remarkably easy for her to manipulate the various bumbling men in her life. She isn’t quite a femme fatale, but something like it, perhaps with a little more human vulnerability and a clearer idea of her motivations. Femme fatales weren’t quite an archetype in this period, as they would become culturally significant through the rise of film noir in the 1940s. They are deliberately shrouded in mystery and desire, whereas women in many pre-Code films are granted more of a perspective, even if certain moralising tendencies would weigh on them regardless. Lil Andrews, on the other hand, sees it, wants it, gets it.
In real life, Harlow was surrounded by scandal. Thanks in part to tabloid coverage, many believed that Harlow, shortly after Red-Headed Woman’s release, was responsible for the death of her second husband, Paul Bern. Bern had helped to launch Harlow’s career, landing her key roles, taking her on a hugely successful personal-appearance tour across the East Coast, and coaxing MGM producer Irving Thalberg to sign her, which he did on her 21st birthday. When Bern was found dead in their home, Harlow was blamed, seemingly having used him for her own gain and then disposing of him—his death was ruled a suicide. Soon after, Harlow had an affair with the boxer Max Baer, and MGM concocted a scheme for her to marry cinematographer Harold Rosson to avoid further scandal.
In some ways, this mirrors her role in Red-Headed Woman; Lil Andrews does all that and more, a bonafide maneater who will rest at nothing to make a name for herself—gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss for the Depression era. For 1932, this characterization wasn’t particularly uncommon for a pre-Code Hollywood flick, as they were regularly populated by lascivious or otherwise driven female characters, played by actresses like Mae West and Joan Blondell. Still, even in the vast majority of these films, the woman almost always ends up punished in some way (death is not unusual), or instead “cured” of her old ways and properly domesticated.
"[…] gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss for the Depression era."
In Red-Headed Woman, though, Harlow breaks the musty mould. Despite her prowess at manipulating men, she struggles throughout the film to be accepted by high society, which continues to look down not only on her low-class origins, but also the desperation they seem to find in her eyes. Unafraid to brazenly, even viciously wield her sexuality, her vulgarity had her shunned, even if it appealed to an audience feeling especially powerless in the years following the stock market crash on Black Tuesday. Regardless, in the end, Lil proves her singularity even further as she nimbly avoids the prescriptive expectations placed on her—she not only ends up unpunished, but indeed rewarded for her unabashed pursuit of, well, everything. After impulsively shooting the man whose marriage she had destroyed in order to build her way up (she’d found him back with his ex-wife), he can’t seem to deny her insistent and unstoppable rise, and refuses to press charges against her. Years later, we see her happily living the good life with an elderly Frenchman, and, it is implied, carrying on a secret romance with her driver. She is rich and romantically fulfilled, because the world, and the audience, know that she is undeniable.
"She is rich and romantically fulfilled, because the world, and the audience, know that she is undeniable."
Harlow demonstrates what a remarkable period the early 1930s were in Hollywood cinema, a brief era within which filmmakers, actors, and producers experimented as though they knew a crackdown was coming. In retrospect, Harlow similarly seemed to have been living life to its fullest in every sense and in every performance, as though she knew her own time was running out. Like Lil, Harlow was cast in a certain light, but even the tightly-controlled media frenzy of the early golden age couldn’t contain her, and she remains one of the medium’s greatest onscreen presences, no matter what colour her hair was.