“Roaring across the screen with all the fury of a tropical typhoon!”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Dir. Tay Garnett
87 mins.
Production: March 16, 1935 — May 1935
Release date: August 16, 1935
Release status: available to watch free online and on DVD.
Cast: Clark Gable (Alan Gaskell), Jean Harlow (China Doll ‘Dolly’ Portland), Wallace Beery (Jamesy MacArdle), Lewis Stone (Tom Davids), Rosalind Russell (Sybil Barclay), Dudley Digges (Dawson), C. Aubrey Smith (Sir Guy Wilmerding), Hattie McDaniel (Isabel McCarthy), Robert Benchley (Caleb), Lilian Bond (Mrs. Timmons), Edward Brophy (Wilbur Timmons), Soo Yong (Yu-Lan), Carol Ann Beery (Carol Ann), Akim Tamiroff (Romanoff), Ivan Lebedeff (Ngah), Donald Meek (Chess player), Willie Fung (Cabin boy).
Summary: Tough-talking sea captain Alan Gaskell (Clark Gable) discovers a stowaway on his ship in the form of his very blonde ex, China Doll (Jean Harlow), whose platinum chemistry all but causes a reaction when posh Sybil Barclay (Rosalind Russell) is added to the romantic mix. It becomes a quadrangle with the addition of Jamesy MacArdle (Wallace Beery), who China Doll employs to make Gaskell jealous. The presence of gold on the ship complicates relations.
Trivia:
- Notably, Harlow wears a wig in this film after experiencing issues with brittle strands and breakage during Reckless. Contrary to some popular legends, Harlow never went bald or came close, which is evident by the sight of her natural hair during the storm scene in China Seas.
- Rosalind Russell, who had costarred with Harlow in Reckless, taught her to hemstitch during production. Harlow readily admitted to Grace Wilcox she had ‘never sewed a stitch’ in 1935: “Rosalind Russell taught me how to hemstitch on the set of China Seas. I had never sewed a stitch in my life, but I find this fascinating work. I am sorry I didn’t discover how much fun it could be years ago.”
- Harlow’s breast is visible for a split second as her dress slips when Wallace Beery pushes her across the room. This, apparently, was not caught by the censors.
- Carol Ann Beery, Wally’s then four-year-old adopted daughter, is readily spotted in publicity portraits with Harlow and is credited in the film. Yet, she remains nowhere to be seen in it.
- MGM loved to recycle costumes worn by stars by giving them to starlets to wear in photoshoots or as extras in newer films. Harlow’s striped matching hat-and-dress set by Adrian is an example of this; it appears again on an extra the next year in Born to Dance (1936).
- Harlow celebrated her twenty-fourth birthday just as this was entering production, and the Los Angeles Times reported director Tay Garnett taking her and her mother (as well as Bill Powell) out on his yacht to celebrate.
- Among the many films Harlow was briefly slated to star in throughout her career, The Gorgeous Hussy was briefly given as Harlow’s next picture after China Seas. It, like Love on the Run, went to Joan Crawford instead (Reckless, on the other hand, meant for Crawford, was endured by Harlow).
- Production on China Seas went as far back as 1932; Harlow’s Public Enemy director, William A. Wellman, was tasked with the uncredited directing of the pirate scenes in the final version.
Stills and ad art:
Harlow Heaven 