“They scoffed at love–laughed at marriage–lived for luxury alone!”
Columbia Pictures Corp. / Dir. William Beaudine
68 mins.
Production: October 1, 1931 — October 22, 1931
Release date: January 11 or February 9, 1932 (AFI cites January 11, David Stenn’s Bombshell and IMDB list February 9)
Release status: Available to watch free online. Three Wise Girls lacks a recent, dedicated physical release as of 2026, but it’s on a 5-disc compilation of Columbia pre-Codes, if you don’t mind shelling out a bit extra to own it.
Cast: Jean Harlow (Cassie Barnes), Mae Clarke (Gladys Kane), Marie Prevost (Dot), Walter Byron (Jerry Dexter), Andy Devine (chauffeur), Natalie Moorhead (Ruth), Jameson Thomas (Arthur Phelps), Lucy Beaumont (Cassie’s mother), Katherine Clare Ward (Mrs. Kane), Robert Dudley (Lem), Marcia Harris (Landlady), Walter Miller (Manager), Armand Kaliz (Andre)
Summary: Small town Ohio soda-jerk Cassie Barnes (Jean Harlow) figures she can get more out of life in New York, and puts up her apron to move to the Big Apple with her best girlfriend, Dot (Marie Prevost). The big city doesn’t bring an immediate change of scenery, but after Cassie meets up with a childhood friend (Mae Clarke) who seems to have made it big with a modeling job, she finds out just how entangled things can get.
Trivia:
- Three Wise Girls was the first film in which Jean Harlow received top billing.
- The film’s working title was Blonde Baby, after the Wilson Collison source material, but was changed before release as it was too similar to Platinum Blonde.
- Costar Mae Clarke was not a fan of Harlow, calling her ’embarrassing’ in The Public Enemy and ’embarrassing in this movie, too’.
- Director William Beaudine had Harlow learn the ways of a soda jerk, hiring real ones to come to the set and show her how to work the dispenser: “If pictures don’t work out for me, I have a job at any drug store!”
- More trivia in this blog post on Three Wise Girls.
Stills and ad art:
Harlow Heaven 