Dennis Lee Cleven is currently doing research on Jean Harlow, the MGM star who died at the age of 26 in 1937. Harlow reportedly appeared in about a dozen movies before her big break in Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels in 1929. Cleven is trying to find out the movie from which the above picture was taken.
He believes it could be one of three films:
- This Thing Called Love (Pathe, 1929) Constance Bennett, Edmund Lowe, and Jean Harlow (unbilled extra). It is apparently a lost film.
- Thundering Toupees (Hal Roach, 1929) A lost short subject. Cast: Edgar Kennedy, Vivien Oakland, Jean Harlow, Eddie Dunn, Mickey Daniels.
- Close Harmony (Paramount, 1929) Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Nancy Carroll, Harry Green, Jack Oakie, and Jean Harlow (unbilled extra).
If you know the answer to this query, please contact Alt Film Guide editor.
Richard Atkins-
This was VERY informative. I'm going as Jean for halloween with a shorter hemline dress and I didnt know about ankle bracelets, perhaps i'll pick one up. I was also debating about wearing stockings with a seam in the back, but she doesnt appear to be wearing any.
P.S. "MT": She was never chubby in the least, she was always very thin. She had a full face.
Jean Harlow is unrecognizable here. Clearly this is from her pre-MGM period, when she was glamorized to the point when she looked more like a doll than a real person. I can't understand why Hollywood studios would do that to people, especially women.
I don't believe this to be a scene from a Harlow film. The set appears to be that of "The Last of Mrs. Cheney" with Norma Shearer and Basil Rathbone. This would make it 1929 which would be correct for her appearance, including the slightly short dress for the year. Hemlines were still all over the place, whereas the three films mentioned were slightly earlier and hemlines shorter. Harlow would have begun to see Paul Bern at this time and it was he who escorted her to the premiere of "Hells Angels" that same year. So her visiting an M.G.M. set is also not out of character for the time. She is also wearing the ankle bracelet she obtained about this time. Bern was championing Harlow for an M.G.M. contract, but wasn't successful until late '31 after she had appeared in M.G.M.'s "Secret Six" and "Beast of the City" to the first good reviews of her career.
She looks a little chubby there. Still pretty, but different from the later Harlow.