RECKLESS (Fleming, 1935)

“Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Mammoth Musical Melodrama!”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Dir. Victor Fleming
97 mins.

Production: November 27 or December 6, 1934 (AFI cites November 27, but David Stenn’s Bombshell lists December 6) — February 23, 1935
Release date: April 19, 1935
Release status: available to watch online and on DVD.

Cast: Jean Harlow (Mona Leslie), William Powell (Ned Riley), Franchot Tone (Bob Harrison), May Robson (Granny), Ted Healy (Smiley), Nat Pendleton (Blossom), Rosalind Russell (Jo Mercer), Mickey Rooney (Eddie), Henry Stephenson (Colonel H. Harrison), Man Mountain Dean (Himself), Robert Light (Paul Mercer), Allan Jones (Allan), Carl Randall (Himself), Louise Henry (Louise), Nina Mae McKinney (Herself), James Ellison (Dale Every), Leon Ames (Ralph Watson), Allen ‘Farina’ Hoskins (Gold Dust), Alice Weaver (Dancer), Betty Halsey (Harlow’s dancing double)

Summary: Singer-showgirl Mona Leslie (Jean Harlow) is rescued from jail for reckless driving and whisked away by handsome Ned Riley (William Powell). Her affections are soon challenged by handsome oil heir Bob Harrison (Franchot Tone), whose eventual suicide after marrying Mona puts her—and Ned—in hot water on suspicion of murder.

Trivia:

• The film was originally conceived as a vehicle for budding lovers Franchot Tone and Joan Crawford under the working title A Woman Called Cheap, later changed to Reckless; Harlow and Powell’s parallel blossoming romance, however, caused MGM to remove Crawford and insert the latter. Two more working titles were Born Reckless (later given to a Mamie Van Doren Western in 1958) and Hard to Handle.

• The plot of this Selznick-produced musical was in part based off the life and tragedy of torch singer Libby Holman and her ill-fated lover, Zachary Reynolds; Harlow, believing the plot capitalized on her own husband (Paul Bern)’s death, at first refused to do the film. William Powell later claimed he talked Harlow into taking the role by advising her not to invite any more negative publicity about her career by refusing work and receiving another suspension from the studio.

• Although it’s often claimed Harlow and Powell “announced their engagement” during the production of Reckless, this simply isn’t true. The couple continued to deny the rumored engagement until well after Reckless wrapped (and it would never happen at any time after that, despite Harlow’s willingness). “In the first place, we couldn’t get married if we wanted to,” Harlow told the press in August 1935 after a nondescript diamond ring and a shopping trip with Powell caused talk, “My divorce from Hal Rosson is not yet final, and in the second place, Mr. Powell and myself have never discussed marriage.”

• Harlow’s first and only film to lose money, hemorrhaging over six figures at the box office (a good reminder that Harlow was not fit for a musical, no matter how hot her romance).

• One of several films where Harlow wears wigs, and the first since Red-Headed Woman in 1932. Harlow’s famous platinum hair, by now long damaged from years of weekly bleaching, began to thin and fall out during production. Both the film and the bleaching were put to a halt, and a stylist came to Harlow’s rescue with a prescription of weekly oil massages on her scalp. Harlow would wear another blonde wig for China Seas, filmed later the same year, though her real, grown-out wet hair—roots and all—make an appearance during the storm scene.
  
  
• Harlow was required to learn every dance step in Reckless although long shots of her legs were replaced by those of her dancer-double, Betty Halsey. Halsey later married screenwriter Maurice Geraghty, the brother of Harlow’s friend Carmelita Geraghty (whose 1934 wedding Harlow inadvertently upstaged by announcing her divorce from Hal Rosson just before she walked down the aisle). As for Harlow’s songs, the bulk of her vocals were dubbed by singer Virginia Verrill. Harlow’s real singing voice can be heard in the first forty seconds of Reckless‘ self-titled theme (which boasted music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II).

Stills and ad art: