88 years ago in Harlow History, March 29, 1934: Jean Harlow and Lewis Stone film an initial take of their shared scene in The Girl From Missouri. Shown is a dated MGM studio production still that has Jean Harlow’s character, Eadie Chapman, in frills and stockings from an earlier scene—in the final version that moviegoers saw, Eadie’s getup changes to that of a svelte black dress. Almost like a certain administration had something to do that…
Retakes of this particular scene were done until early April—this was just one tweak. The Girl from Missouri’s production suffered through extensive changes just to comply with severe enforcement of the Production Code. When finally released in August, the PCA put its seal of approval before the credits rolled: The Girl from Missouri was recipient of Certificate 91. Yay (boo)!
Although I adore this film and its impeccable Anita Loos banter overall, the ending of this scene in particular doesn’t sit well with me. Spoiler alert: Lewis Stone’s character, Frank Cousins, proposes to Eadie and commits suicide shortly thereafter. A gross and obvious capitalization on Paul Bern’s death that was repeated in Reckless (1935).
At this point in time (March), the screenplay was still titled 100% Pure. The PCA wasn’t a fan of that, either, and the “suggestive” title was changed multiple times before the bland Girl from Missouri was settled on—the film’s shortest lived title was It Pays to Be Good.
Above is a glorious on-set picture of cast and crew. From left to right are: unidentified man (enlighten me?); Anita Loos, the film’s writer; Sam Wood, Lewis Stone, and Jean. This was taken when Sam Wood was still involved in the production. Wood, who directed Hold Your Man, quit in late April because he didn’t agree with the story changes requested of him. Jack Conway replaced him and finished the picture. It’s apparently unknown how much footage actually belongs to Wood!
Harlow Heaven 