Bombshell (1933) User Reviews

Sharp Hollywood Satire from the Golden Age

[chetley · 8/10 · 22 January 2006]

"Bombshell" does for the Hollywood of the 1930s what "The Player" does for the Hollywood of the 1990s. It's quite interesting to see how well established the Hollywood System was already in the early 1930s when this film was made. Already at that time the film world was centered on stars, studios, and a sycophantic support network that was focused on a false facades and phoniness. There are plenty of hilarious scenes in "Bombshell" sending up the studio system in a way that I found quite surprising given the year (1933) that this film was produced. It seems to present a sensibility - sarcastic, witty, honest - that I don't usually associate with the Golden Age of Hollywood. So many jokes about alcohol and drunkenness! "Bombshell" makes "The Thin Man" seem like an advertisement for AA by comparison.

Good supporting cast - nice to see Frank Morgan (aka the Wizard of Oz) as the inebriated father of star Jean Harlow. Lee Tracy is completely convincing as the smooth-talking oily agent who harbors a secret passion for his client. But what really makes "Bombshell" work - and which explains why I rate it at 8 out is 10 - is the tremendously self-effacing performance of Jean Harlow. She's just terrific!

Shining jazz comedy from one of America's best directors

[funkyfry · 8/10 · 4 October 2002]

Jean Harlow shines as a movie sex starlet who's tired of all the negative publicity drummed up by her studio's publicist (Tracy) to promote her career. she wants to adopt a baby and play "respectable" roles, but society's mavens continually reject her (this "picture girl") and everything she tries to do for herself is thwarted by Tracy, who (more or less) secretly loves her. Very funny and well directed by Fleming, not slapstick as some claim, but more like Hawks/Sturges/Wilder style "screwball."

It's Da Bomb

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 10 January 2009]

Bombshell is one hysterically funny screwball comedy about a movie star played by Jean Harlow, bearing no small resemblance to the real Jean Harlow. Contemporaries of Jean have testified to her wonderful sense of humor and I'm sure she saw the ironies in this film tied to her own life where she too dealt with family hangers-on.

Jean lives with and supports father Frank Morgan, sister Una Merkel, and brother Ted Healy all on her salary as a film star. Being the reigning sex symbol of the screen, she's got men lining up who are interested in her. Those include director Pat O'Brien, playboy Franchot Tone, and no account phony count Ivan Lebedeff and studio press agent Lee Tracy who is relentless in his quest for publicity for Harlow. She's even got some wackadoo played by Billy Dooley who is stalking her claiming to be her real husband. That was actually kind of over the top, we've seen too many stories about people stalking celebrities, that gag did not go over, especially nowadays.

Out of this whole lot, you'll have to figure out who she might get and in my opinion though the deck is clearly stacked towards one of them, for myself I don't think it would have been Jean's lot to have found happiness with any of them.

MGM put a great cast of identifiable character players to support Jean and they make this a most enjoyable film. Yet knowing what we know about Harlow's real life and the leeches she actually did have in it, there is an air of sadness for me permeating the film. Still it's a great example of why Jean Harlow was the star and sex symbol she was back in those Depression days.

Harlow Shines

[Doghouse-6 · 8 December 2009]

In the mid '30's, Myrna Loy penned (ostensibly) an article for Photoplay titled, "So You Want To Be A Movie Star," which went into grim detail about the grind that is the real life of a star studio player both on and off the soundstage. BOMBSHELL takes this conceit and runs with it as brilliant and lacerating satire.

Jean Harlow is at her best as Lola Burns, the at-once pampered and put-upon star in question. Depicted are the constant demands for Lola's attention, time, energy and money, and the film has fun with all of it, from fatuous fan-mag interviews and staged photo ops to Hollywood politics and trouble with household and studio staff. Though awakened at the crack of dawn, Lola gets breakfast in bed - but with sauerkraut juice instead of orange juice. "There are are no oranges," apologizes the butler, to which Lola retorts, "No oranges?! This is California, man!" Before she's even out of her boudoir, Lola's had to contend with the pandemonium created by last-minute schedule changes, fussing and bickering from hair and makeup people and the inconvenient attention of her outsized dog. Finally ready to leave the house, she laments, "Well, here goes for another day; 7:00 AM and I'm already dead on my feet!"

Also driving Lola to distraction with his constant headline-grabbing stunts is the scheming studio publicity director played by the irrepressible Lee Tracy, who always gave co-stars a run for their money when it came to on-screen dominance. Harlow more than holds her own with him.

Appearing in able support are reliable players such as Franchot Tone as an apparently blue-blooded suitor unaware of Lola's fame, Pat O'Brien as her understanding director, Una Merkel as a less-than-reliable personal assistant and Louise Beavers as maid Loretta, who is deferential to Lola but takes no prisoners otherwise (responding to Merkel's early-morning crabbiness, she warns, "Don't scald me wit'cher steam, woman...I knows where the bodies is buried!"). As Lola's bombastic father and ne'er-do-well brother, respectively, the usually-lovable Frank Morgan and the never-lovable Ted Healy are ultimately rather tiresome, but that's what their roles require.

In a good-natured way, the film throws in some weirdly biographical elements of Harlow's real life, in which she coped with familial hangers-on in the persons of her domineering stage mother and somewhat sleazy stepfather, and Lola's reference to her palatial home as a "half paid-for car barn" is reported to have been uttered by Harlow herself about her own ostentatious digs. There's even a scene depicting Lola doing retakes on "Red Dust," a hit for Harlow the prior year.

In addition to snappy dialog and a mile-a-minute pace, the picture is enjoyable for its time-capsule look at the Ambassador Hotel and Coconut Grove in their heyday, as well as the grounds of the MGM lot itself, all used as locations.

Although bordering on farce at times (but in a good way), BOMBSHELL gives the impression of an only slightly exaggerated look at what the "real" life of a top-name contract player might have been like at the height of the studio system, with Harlow giving perhaps her most genuine (and least mannered) comic performance.

Harlow is great here.

[hemisphere65-1 · 6/10 · 21 March 2021]

The story isn't bad, although the script is a bit flimsy, but the movie would have benefited from some toning down of the performances. Clearly the director wanted everyone to yell at each other even when it made no sense in the scene. My biggest complaint is the lack of any negative consequences at the end. Shouldn't Space have ended up out of a job, along with Mac? It's a comedy, right? Are we really supposed to accept the Hanlon character as anything but human garbage? It plays more like a sad drama in which the main, likable character is duped by others and finds out that life is miserable and it's never going to change.

Comic Riot With Miss Jean Harlow & Mr. Lee Tracy

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 11 June 2002]

Lola Burns is Hollywood's greatest Blonde BOMBSHELL - but her life is a chaotic wreck thanks to eccentric relatives, sassy staff and studio publicity director Space Hanlon.

Jean Harlow & Lee Tracy are wonderfully matched in this pre-Code Comedy, one of the funniest films of the 1930's, and another proof - if one was needed - that Hollywood had an endless appetite for self-ridicule. With her platinum hair and couturier's parade of billowy fashions, Harlow is still essentially playing a parody of her own unhappy private life. Her constant high-decibel groans of complaint as to her celebrity's misuse at the hands of those closest to her have the ring of veracity. And no one gives her greater grief than Tracy, who is determined to wring every last drop of publicity out of her, even if his meddling in her personal life drives her insane. Immovable object meets irresistible force. Result: laughter.

A most impressive gathering of character actors appear in the supporting cast: sturdy Pat O'Brien as Harlow's director pal; delightful Frank Morgan as her dyspeptic father; Ted Healy as her shiftless brother; Una Merkel as her conniving secretary; and Louise Beavers as Harlow's plain talking maid.

Franchot Tone adds a touch of class to the proceedings as a sophisticated fellow who takes a shine to Harlow; Mary Forbes & marvelous old Sir C. Aubrey Smith are his wealthy parents. Ivan Lebedeff gives some laughs as a penniless marquis who is happy to live off of Harlow's money.

Movie mavens will recognize boxing champ Primo Carnera in the opening montage; Greta Meyer as Harlow's masseuse; Gus Arnheim as the Coconut Grove band leader; Ethel Griffies as one of the orphanage representatives; and Billy Dooley as the lunatic who claims Harlow is his wife - all uncredited.

Although the action takes place in the imaginary Monarch Studios, all the real stars & films mentioned are pure MGM.

This was one of five films Lee Tracy made for MGM in 1933 (CLEAR ALL WIRES!, THE NUISANCE, TURN BACK THE CLOCK, DINNER AT EIGHT, BOMBSHELL), and arguably the best role of his career. It was certainly the culmination of nearly all the other roles he'd had over the past couple of years in various studios, where he'd perfected the depiction of shyster lawyers, unscrupulous talent agents, snoopy reporters & disreputable gossip columnists. There is certainly no telling how far he might have gone with MGM, but his career literally went south in 1934 after a few moments of drunken indiscretion. While in Mexico for location shooting for VIVA VILLA!, Tracy stepped out onto his hotel balcony and urinated on a passing military parade. He was immediately arrested and deported from the country. Embarrassed & furious, Louis B. Mayer fired him instantly from MGM. With only the smaller studios willing to hire him, Tracy's film career largely slipped into obscurity. Years later, no longer young, he did some television work. He had a short comeback, of sorts, in 1964, when he was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for THE BEST MAN. This was to be his cinematic swan song; old and tired, he no longer resembled the hot shot who delighted audiences in the early 1930's. Lee Tracy died in 1968 of cancer, at the age of 70.

I'll have to catch this one again!! One of Harlow's better films...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 18 December 2004]

I missed the first half of the film on TCM but saw enough to follow the story and enjoyed what I did watch--in fact, so much so that I'll have to catch the whole film next time.

JEAN HARLOW seemed to be at the peak of her career as a blonde bombshell, just as she is in this story--and hating every moment of it. Seems she wants desperately to get away from the studio manipulations and particularly those of her ruthless press agent LEE TRACY.

MGM obviously believed enough in the story to surround Harlow with some first-rate performers including Frank Morgan as her whiskey loving father and Franchot Tone as an amorous suitor who declares he wants to "run barefoot through her hair".

It's a witty script and there's a bit of a surprise to the ending. All in all, a delightful romp for Harlow and surely her fans will appreciate her comic flair in this one.

A Roisterous Showcase

[falconcitypaul · 8/10 · 20 March 2008]

I would call "The Bombshell" (UK: "The Blonde Bombshell") Jean Harlow's funniest comedy. She exhibits enormous acting range, from emotional anguish to maternal care to melting passion, all in the service of farce. The movie's frenetic dialogue and propulsive urgency also make athletic use of Lee Tracy, the fastest talking lead actor on the screen.

In "Platinum Blonde" (1931) Harlow somewhat stiffly embodies genteel sex in service of a comedy. By 1933's "Dinner At Eight" she stands her own paired with two mighty talents. She spars lustily with Wallace Beery, a Falstaffian scene-seizer. Her lines as straight woman to Marie Dressler could not be more exquisitely rendered.

To an extent Lola Burns in "The Bombshell" spoofs Harlow's own career and image. Her character even does a retake of the rain barrel scene from "Red Dust" (1932), a picture which had Harlow sunnily portraying a good-time girl along the Malay rivers. More broadly, she helps satirize an entire merciless industry which could cruelly grind up creative personnel's egos, private lives, and sanity.

Yet, we don't have the corrosive movie-biz self-criticism of "What Price Hollywood?" (1932) or its "A Star Is Born" descendants. For all the muck it rakes up about the studio system, this remains a fun picture, a supremely good time, and a roisterous showcase for a talented star who died far too soon.

Marilyn Monroe had wanted to play Harlow in a biopic. Both luminous women left impressive, abbreviated legacies.

Let's Hang On To What Jean's Got

[Lejink · 6/10 · 8 February 2020]

I hadn't before watched a Jean Harlow film but will certainly do so again after watching this early hit of hers. She's by far the best thing in this madcap comedy helmed by the future director of "Gone With The Wind" Victor Fleming. She plays the title role, namely Lola Burns, a recently successful glamour-puss actress, who is very much at the centre of a fawning and parasitical entourage taking in her gee-gee loving father, spendthrift brother, plain-Jane sister, a non-stop agent, always looking for an angle, a tough-talking movie director who may or may not be based on the reportedly virile and tough-talking Fleming himself and last and definitely least, a demented male stalker who wants her to marry him.

Directed at breakneck speed with rapid-fire dialogue to boot, the farcical situations just pile up for Lola until she finally decides to walk away from the whole shebang, with harsh words for pretty much everyone around her. She hides herself away, or so she thinks, at a private holiday resort out in the desert, where she's rescued from her indefatigable mad suitor by a dashingly handsome gentleman, who announces himself as coming from blue-chip Bostonian stock and money and who later in the evening proposes to her. Is this the fortuitous happy ending for which she's been hoping and her big chance to stop the world and get off, well let's say there's a twist in the tale and leave it at that.

I must admit that I found most of Harlow's hangers-on to be downright irritating especially Frank Morgan as her dipso-gambler father and Lee Tracy as her incessant press agent "Space" Hanlon so that by the end I actually felt sorry for Lola as she's put back in her box so that her exploitation can continue and the gravy train get back on track. The real life irony of course was that Harlow was herself thrust into the limelight by her own mother who from what I've read took a sizeable cut of her prize daughter's earnings as well as taking a major part in influencing her career.

Whether this background informed Harlow's performance only she would know but she's certainly head and shoulders above the rest of the cast here and likewise rises above the hackneyed and at times demeaning material with which she has to work.

Sure at time she delivers her lines as if she's just been handed them but her energy, vitality and yes, sex-appeal are what make this movie watchable if only barely tolerable.

Just superb

[preppy-3 · 10/10 · 13 August 2004]

Hysterical comedy with Jean Harlow playing Lola Burns--an actress being driven crazy by her dysfunctional family and her overzealous publicity man (Lee Tracy).

VERY quick, very risque (this was pre-Code) and very funny spoof/satire on Hollywood, the studios and the stars. One liners fly fast and furious and the film almost never stops for breath.

Harlow is just incredible--she's sexy, funny and one hell of an actress! She carries the whole picture on her shoulders. She's matched by Tracy who plays the role of a slimy publicity man to perfection. Frank Morgan and Franchot Tone offer great comedic support also (especially Tone with his "romantic" lines).

Basically this is a true classic comedy. It deserves a lot more recognition than it gets. It's also a chance to see Harlow in her prime--she was an incredible actress who died tragically at a very young age.

This is an absolute must-see. Don't miss it!

Jean Harlow At Her Best

[waelkatkhuda · 6/10 · 12 August 2016]

This movie without doubt is one of the best Harlow performances in her whole career (next to Libeled Lady), she is so natural and her comedy skills are superb. In my opinion at our time her performance and act are more realistic than Greta Garbo and a lot of female stars of the 30s. One of my favorite scenes were Alice and Cinderella Argument with Tracy, Fanny Fish and of course the last tow scenes. All the characters played very well such as: Frank Morgan,Ted Healy and Louise Beavers. Now the only actor who annoyed me was Lee Tracy, he really gave me a headache every-time he opened his mouth, his acting skills were good but he had a terrible voice which annoyed me a lot and i had to finish the film in two days in order to keep my ears quite and clean! i wish if Spencer Tracy was instead him for this part, because he really gave us a great performance a few years later also as a news paper man in (Libeled Lady).

Finally if you are a big fan of Miss Harlow i highly recommend this light comedy for you.

"Why Did You Have To Wake Me Up...He Was About To Do Something Cute!"

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 4 January 2007]

This is an interesting change of pace comedy for Jean Harlow. She is not playing a lower class shop girl or even a prostitute like in THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI or RED DUST, nor a slumming upper class girl (as in THE PUBLIC ENEMY). Instead she is playing a very popular film star with a very sexy body and screen personae - gee, it sounds like she is playing Jean Harlow. According to the thread the character she is playing ("Lola Burns") was supposed to be based on Clara Bow (certainly the two names are similar in sound). But it could be based on Harlow's attempts (tragically repeatedly doomed) to have a happy normal life but finding her screen personae interfering.

Still, even if one starts thinking of Harlow's marriage to Paul Bern or her romance with William Powell, the film is engrossing and humorous enough to make you push aside the tragedy of the life of Harlean Carpenter. Lola is, like all movie stars, a prisoner of the studio's determination to get all the public attention publicity can garner from it's merchandise (it's stars). In particular Lola finds herself at the mercy of the studio's head publicity man "Space Hanlon" (Lee Tracy). Tracy is always coming up with goofy stunts, or twisting events that involve Lola in her attempts at normality (like adopting a baby, or dating a "normal" man (Franchot Tone) into another mess. The studio only cares that she personifies sexual allure - so Hanlon keeps making that the key to his publicity: he even arranges a fight between several men on the set of her latest film (one is director Pat O'Brien) supposedly over Lola's love.

Lola is not against sex and love - the quote in the "Summary line" is Lola's when her maid wakes her at the start of the film, and she's just had a promising sex dream. She really needs a confidante - but everyone around her takes advantage of her. Her father (Frank Morgan) is an alcoholic, cadging old scoundrel (who keeps reminding her - to her growing disgust - of her owing him obedience as her loving father). Her sibling (Ted Healey) is also an alcoholic, constantly having sexual affairs that she has to get him out of. Her maid actually steals from the household accounts (Lola is aware of this - she is not stupid). And all constantly are as demanding on her as her studio.

Ironically there is one person who would be her confidante and more - but he knows she'll reject him. It's Space, who loves her. In fact, some of the stunts he sets up is to get rid of possible rivals. Eventually, can he get her to recognize this? Ah that is the final point of the film.

Harlow was a gifted comic actress, knowing how to use her image for fun (such as Wallace Beery's unfaithful wife in DINNER AT EIGHT). But I suspect because of her own problems in Hollywood and real life she put more of herself in this film than in any other. I can't say it was her best performance (I tend to like RED DUST and CHINA SEAS a little more) but it was somehow her most real performance, and the film benefits as a result.

"Imagine that little Peoria cornflower trying to give me the runaround".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 20 March 2011]

Well how do you pass on a movie with a title like "Bombshell", especially when Jean Harlow's in the cast. Up till now, my quintessential idea of a screwball comedy was Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell trading barbs in "His Girl Friday", but this one certainly gives the latter picture a good run for it's money. Harlow appears pretty much as her own persona, an actress at the top of her profession who's seemingly unable to balance the demands of stardom with the pressures of those around her seeking to take advantage of her wealth and fame. I didn't quite know how to react to Lee Tracy's character, smarmy business agent Space Hanlon, who manages to keep Lola's name in newspaper headlines. He's got an answer for everything, and I think it's only his delivery that keeps him from being an outright cad.

This movie is probably a good candidate for seeing more than once, since it's almost impossible to keep up with the furious pace and dialog. If you stop long enough to laugh you'll probably miss something that's even funnier or more outlandish, so it's best to stay focused. Helping this all come together is a well selected cast that includes Frank Morgan, Pat O'Brien, Una Merkel, Ivan Lebedeff and Louise Beavers. I was a little puzzled by Ted Healey's selection to portray Lola's brother Junior, a role that probably should have gone to someone younger looking, but maybe it's just me. It might also have been a good idea to give Una Merkel a few more lines as Lola's secretary Mac; she looked like she could have held her own with this bunch.

Best line of the picture, if not the corniest, has to go to Franchot Tone, who as Lola's newest love Gifford Middleton, exclaims that "I'd like to run barefoot through your hair". That sounds kind of sweet until you try to conjure up a mental picture to go with the description. Seeing as how old Gifford turned out to be a phony, I wonder who came up with the lines he used. It had to be Hanlon.

Jean Harlow plays a caricature of herself

[HotToastyRag · 4/10 · 1 February 2020]

The first time I watched Bombshell, I actually turned it off. It's so loud, and everyone's shouting their heads off! I gave it another chance and was able to appreciate the story better, but it's still not my favorite Jean Harlow movie. She plays a caricature of herself, a sex symbol movie star who's nothing like her onscreen persona. There's even a scene that shows her on the MGM lot talking about filming reshoots for the barrel scene in Red Dust. It'll make you chuckle, but turn the volume down because everyone shouts.

Jean's publicist is Lee Tracy, and he's extremely unlikable. He's supposed to be in love with her, but he doesn't value her opinions and requests, and he continually goes behind her back to thwart her plans. How is he a redeeming love interest? I prefer the elegant Franchot Tone, who falls in love with Jean's insides and has never seen any of her movies. I love Jean and Franchot together; they have such a sweet chemistry and he always seems to respect her more than the others in her movies.

Also in the movie is an element that I found sad more than funny: Jean's written up by Lee as a glorious, perfect movie star, much like many studios would write up their star attractions during that time period. Behind the scenes, Jean's family treats her terribly and takes money from her. Her dad is played by Frank Morgan, and he's not an admirable character. I have a soft spot in my heart for Jean Harlow, especially knowing what I know about her personal life, so I don't like to see her mistreated by people who are supposed to love her. If you want to see the movie that created her nickname as the "blonde bombshell" then you can rent this early comedy.

Super entertainment

[jaykay-10 · 30 March 2004]

Count me in. This slam-bang, snap-crackle-pop picture is a doozy, never pausing for breath as it zips along its nifty, irreverent way, superbly cast so as to let everyone do what he/she does best.

As if its entertainment value were not enough, it has something to say, so cleverly that it mocks itself along with a half-dozen other victims. Where the movie business is concerned, nothing is what it seems to be - except when it is. At the center of it all are a press agent to whom lies come so naturally that he would require a moment of intense concentration before he could utter a word of truth - if he wanted to; and a colossal star, neither educated nor bright, a small-town girl who, without half-trying, becomes what every woman yearns to become - except that she yearns to be something else.

Jean Harlow was considerably more than a glamor girl. Limited (as many studio players were) to one type of screen persona, she brought it off with success in both comedy and drama, perfecting the mannerisms, gestures and nuances. Lee Tracy, born to play the kind of role he was given here (and elsewhere), is without peer as the fast-talking, shifty-eyed conniver, a rascal beholden to no ethical sense but his own. Their supporting cast - with a special nod to Frank Morgan's tipsy, dithering poseur - is uniformly excellent. Don't miss this one.

Early Hollywood hype, hoopla and smoke screens

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 30 May 2015]

Other reviewers have noted how closely this story comes to Jean Harlow's real life. Not so much the nightlife as her personal life with a highly dysfunctional family. I also was surprised, as were a couple of other reviewers, at Hollywood's seeming transparency in the making of this film. If nothing else, "Bombshell" is a scathing exposé of the hype and hoopla that the movie studios used to promote their stars. They even manufactured gossip and scandals to make the news and keep the stars in the limelight. But the limelight began to sour from some scandals, and the movie industry began to back away from and even cover up such publicity - that was no longer to the public's liking.

"Bombshell" is a good movie in showing such a crazy life as Jean Harlow apparently had. She plays Lola Burns in this movie. Harlow was a very good actress who had a markedly different stage persona than all other leading ladies of her day and for decades thereafter. She had a toughness and briskness in her manner. She seldom played a refined woman. In the few scenes in this or other films where she shows gentleness, kindness or softness, it's a real stretch because of that persona. Still, she is very good in this film.

The movie has a nice list of top movie names of the day - Pat O'Brien, Franchot Tone, Frank Morgan, Una Merkel, Lee Tracy. But the movie is mostly about her, and Space Hanlon, played by Tracy. Tracy was an nearly film leading man known for his fast-talking, high-energy roles. The IMDb Web site biography on Tracy nails the guy and his persona. It reads, in part, "this actor with a voracious appetite for high living was a representation of the racy and race-paced style of Hollywood."

It doesn't take long for one to thoroughly dislike Space Hanlon (a credit to the script and Tracy's acting); but after a while this film strikes one as awfully noisy. And, it goes on a bit too long. The cleverness in the film is in the manipulation and management of the press that Hanlon demonstrates. It is peppered with some witty lines here and there, but I think, far too few for a comedy.

Some of the best lines in the movie are telltale about Hollywood - the industry, the life, and the culture. Here are some of my favorites.

Pat O'Brien as Jim Brogan says to Lola, "Say listen, you can't raise a family and make five or six pictures a year."

Tracy's Hanlon says to the press, "Well, listen. Don't you know that Lola Burns can't have a baby?" Some reporters, "No? No? Why?" Hanson, "It's not in her contract."

Hanlon and Burns are talking. Hanlon, "Listen, you can't adopt a baby." Lola, "As if you or anybody else could stop me." Hanlon, "Yeah, but that isn't your line. The fans don't want to see the 'IF' girl surrounded by an aura of motherhood leaning over a cradle, sterilizing bottles. I dubbed you the Hollywood Bombshell, and that's the way they like you. Men! Scrapes! Dazzling clothes! A gorgeous personality. Not pattin' babies on the back to bring up bubbles." Lola, "There's a lot of other people in this business have happy healthy babies."

Later, Hanlon says, "OK, baby, you win. But I'll tell you one thing. The house with your family is about as a fine a place to bring up a baby as an alligator farm."

"Your mouth is like a gardenia, open to the sun."

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 5 February 2007]

Jean Harlow is the "Bombshell" of the 1933 film also starring Franchot Tone, Frank Morgan, Lee Tracy, Pat O'Brien, Una Merkel, Isabel Jewell, Louise Beavers, Ted Healy, and C. Aubrey Smith. Harlow plays a star, Lola Burns, who has a career very similar to Jean Harlow's - in fact, she starred in "Red Dust" with Clark Gable! She's the "It" girl where Harlow was the "If" girl.

From the first time we meet Lola, it's obvious that she is overwhelmed by the pressures of her home life, which in turn puts pressure on her career duties. Her drunken father (Morgan) acts as her business manager but her bills aren't paid and she doesn't have any money; she constantly has to bail her brother out of trouble; there's a newspaper man who prints one lie after another about her; one of the people in her household wears her clothes and steals from her; she has three huge dogs; her brother shows up with a tramp; the assistant director on "Red Dust," Jim Brogan (Pat O'Brien) is in love with her and goes crazy when he sees Hugo, the Marqis de Pisa de Pisa on the set (and it's in his storyline that strong prejudice against immigrants is shown); and her agent (Lee Tracy) is a puppeteer in a sick puppet show - Lola's life.

Lola wants out. She decides that she wants to adopt a child and falls in love with a baby at an orphanage but the home visit is a total disaster. Disgusted with her life and all the leaches around her, she takes off, seeking peace and quiet. It's in peaceful surroundings that she meets the wealthy Gifford Middleton. It's love at first sight. Just when she's meeting Gifford's parents, her father and brother appear.

This is a very funny comedy and also very touching, as Lola's sweet personality and desire for a stable family is evident. She swears to Gifford that she's through with show business but becomes concerned when told there hasn't been anything about her in the papers lately. She's young and has no idea what she really wants. Her agent plays off of this and uses it to his own advantage. To most people, she's a blond gravy train.

All of the actors are terrific. Franchot Tone is hilarious, totally and deliberately WAY over the top saying lines such as the one in the summary box. Harlow is surrounded with the best character actors - Lee Tracy, who despite a scandal in 1934 managed to enjoy a nearly 40-year career is great as Lola's fast-talking scam artist agent; Frank Morgan plays his usual role of a weak man, but not a bad one; Louise Beavers brings spark to the role of a maid; Pat O'Brien is in top form as the volatile Brogan.

But it's Harlow's film, and she keeps up with the frantic pace of the film beautifully. Funny and vulnerable, she's hilarious when she pretends she's upper class, as she's often done in her films - no one has ever pulled that off quite like she has. Certainly one of the most lovable and charismatic actresses ever on screen. It's unbelievable that she didn't have a chance to live a full life. "Bombshell" is one of her best films among a lot of wonderful ones.

Bombshell Bursts Forth **1/2

[edwagreen · 6/10 · 29 September 2014]

With it all, Jean Harlow gave quite a performance in this 1933 film. She portrays a volatile actress giving out constant outbursts with her staff.

The film shows the effects of a publicity agent whose scheming has brought Lola (Harlow) to what she is. She desperately wants to be her own woman, but is caught up in the general Hollywood mayhem.

The part where Harlow wanted to adopt a baby, but the people from the agency being scared off by the various Hollywood types including her outrageous father and pathetic brother/

The film also brings out how everything in tinsel land is so basically false.

Her publicity agent really loves her and the film ends with her finding out about his latest scheme. These agents will stop at nothing to get their star ahead.

WHY WE WILL NEVER FORGET JEAN.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 22 February 2021]

If BOMBSHELL isn't the story in a story about the real life of Jean Harlow, I'll eat my hat. Interestingly, it was also a thinly veiled bio of Clara Bow, who was quite close to director Victor Fleming once upon a time.

A hilarious comedy of errors, no matter who its based on, and designed to give audiences during the Great Depression a laugh on the back of Hollywood itself. BOMBSHELL was tailor made for the talents of Jean Harlow and she just rolls with it. The supporting cast is what you would equally expect, lead by fast-talking, idea man Lee Tracy, playing Jean's Hollywood press agent.

Frank Morgan plays her broke dad and Una Merkel (a star in her own right) is her sis, just as much fun to watch. On the gentlemanly side you have Pat O"Brien and Franchot Tone and that's one heck of a bill to entertain just about any audience.

While Warner Brothers and Paramount generally turned out these wacky romps in the early 30s, the writers at MGM did their homework and produced what now has become a classic screwball comedy, which has gained a new generation of fans.

Long debated by critics as one of Harlow's very best roles, a tough call to make at that. Jean followed this with DINNER AT EIGHT, which would make an incredible double feature. After all these years, though, you often wonder how this film would have turned out starring Clara Bow. Hmm?

Always on dvd and remastered blu ray. Special thanks to TCM for reruning this great film.

chaos energy

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 10 October 2020]

Movie star Lola Burns (Jean Harlow) is pissed off and her life is chaos. Her father Pops is an incompetent manager. She is angry at her studio publicist "Space" Hanlon (Lee Tracy). Her boyfriend gets arrested. She's tired of the business and tries to adopt a baby.

The dialogue is rapid fire. It's a lot of yelling. I'm not in love with Lola and that's the biggest problem in this movie. I need to really get invested in her chaos but I don't really care that much. Her life gets much more chaotic and convoluted. I like the energy of the screwball chaos. The humor doesn't strike me as that funny.

That's No Way To Treat The Woman You Love!

[xan-the-crawford-fan · 9/10 · 16 June 2021]

For anyone who ever doubted that Jean Harlow was better than Marilyn Monroe, look no further.

This film is a pure laugh riot, filled with satirical comedy bites (although to understand some of the references, you have to know 1930s Hollywood). It's also mildly dark and a bit sad, seeing as Jean's character is basically controlled by her press agent (who's deeply in love with her). Lee Tracy is a very underrated actor- I think he was blacklisted, which is a shame.

I can't help but point out that the film gets better with more than one viewing. The first time, it comes across as shrill and the story falls flat, but you have to give it a second chance. What made me take a star off was how Lee Tracy treated Jean Harlow in this film.

He's supposed to be in love with her, yet he doesn't want her to be happy (at least that's the message I got). She wants a break from the rat race of fame, and of being a sex symbol, but he won't have it. He makes up stories about her private life, leaks them to the papers, and claims he didn't have anything to do with it. Jean Harlow's brother and father sponge off her, and he seems to encourage it. When she decides that she wants to adopt a baby, he goes out of his way (along with her family) to scare away the women from the adoption agency. This part is perhaps the most tragic of the film- Jean Harlow makes her pain look real. Lee Tracy's character thought it was just a phase, and that she would get over it, but you don't simply brush something like that off. Upset, she runs away and meets a suave playboy who doesn't know who she is, despite her star being so bright. He's not really a playboy- when you find out who was behind this scheme, you'll want to slap him.

Oh, and we have the most amazing flirt line in the history of cinema, uttered by the inimitable Franchot Tone.

So, while an early screwball comedy that packs a lot of bite, it's rather tragic. It was reportedly a spoof of Clara Bow, but it seems to be the role Jean Harlow played that was closest to her real life. Unlike Jean Harlow in the film, Clara Bow was forced to retire from films due to not being able to cope with the technology of talking pictures and her erratic mental health. She would go on to marry Rex Bell and have two sons with him, but found herself in a lot of metal hospitals before her death of a stroke at age 60.

Jean Harlow would be dead four years after this film was made- it's rather macabre to keep a tally of 'this film was made so many years before she died and she had this many left', but it's something you can't help but do, because she only lived to be 26.

Bombshell

[Spuzzlightyear · 7/10 · 24 January 2013]

Fun Jean Harlow movie here as she plays a starlet pretty much created by the media via sensational headlines and her trying to get away from all of it (gee, how times change). The movie has that 1930's crackle where everyone is super hyper talking all at once, and you're struggling to catch up with all of it. Even though Harlow is the title Bombshell, I was really impressed with Lee Tracy as her publicist who seems to know Harlow more than she knows herself. It sort of does get monotonous towards the end, and the twist just doesn't really resolve anything, as a matter of fact, we're right back where we started. But it's still a fun sit through.

Well, here goes to another day's work and I'm dead on my feet already

[boscofl · 8/10 · 21 April 2020]

MGM's madcap 1933 comedy Bombshell was initially conceived as a mockumentary satirizing Clara Bow's private life but it sure mirrors plenty in star Jean Harlow's off camera situation: a workhorse studio, a relentless publicity department, and a parasitic family swiping Jean's earnings faster than she could bring them in. On its own the film is frequently hilarious but if one understands the parallels to Jean's personal life the picture takes on a more melancholy tone. Taken at face value Bombshell is a scathing critique on the exploitative nature of Hollywood and the price one pays for being in the public eye.

Lola Burns (Harlow) is the top star for a fictional movie studio who works like a mule to fill her employers coffers while having her personal earnings misappropriated by her scheming army of parasites. Studio Publicity Man "Space" Hanlon (Lee Tracy) secretly loves her but spends his time making her miserable with phony sensationalist stories promoting her to the masses; an "ends justifies the means" philosophy. While Lola's career benefits from the press coverage her private life is a shambles. The relatively plotless story follows her around as she struggles to figure out what makes her happy while her naive nature allows her to be hoodwinked at every turn.

Bombshell was ahead of its time time with its frantic, screwball structure. The characters are forever yelling at one another and the dialogue between them frequently overlaps. Thanks to the superb diction and timing of professionals like Miss Harlow, Tracy, and Pat O'Brien every word is intelligable and the film spins like a pinwheel. While contemporary audiences may be turned off by the nonstop shouting the movie abounds with great dialogue.

Jean Harlow gives one of her best performances as a simple girl trapped by her sexy film image. She is so natural in the role that one can easily get the impression she's playing herself; Miss Harlow certainly knew the trappings of being Lola Burns all too well. Even more than that she proves herself to be an underrated actress and a skilled comedienne; her sense of timing and ability to rattle off dialogue like a machine gun is truly impressive and often hilarious.

Lee Tracy is certainly masterful at firing off lines as well but his character is difficult to embrace; he is an expert at generating publicity at the expense of Lola's feelings. While he knows the types of freeloading bums Lola relies on he allows her to be put through the ringer for the sake of promotion. Plus with so much pancake makeup and lipstick he looks like a drag queen with his wig off.

Pat O'Brien, taking a break from a Warner Brothers, is on hand to lend his impeccable staccato delivery to the proceedings in a small, ill-defined, and ultimately superfluous role. Other than Tracy he's the only one who sees Lola's entourage as the vultures they are and is refreshing with his blunt honesty. If they eliminated his character and gave him the Lee Tracy role the film would have been better off.

The rest of the main supporting cast are saddled with one-dimensional and frequently irksome characters. Frank Morgan portrays Lola's blustering, drunken father and is absolutely impossible to tolerate with his relentless mugging and throat-clearing; a performance that has not aged well. Speaking of not aging well is Ted Healy as Lola's freeloading brother(!); another irritating character who, thankfully, is not around long. Franchot Tone shows up near the end as a supposedly rich dandy pursuing Lola with a cringeworthy arsenal of overly romantic patter. When he is later revealed to be a ham actor out to deceive her Tone's performance makes more sense although it sure says little about the type of man Lola wants for herself.

Bombshell emerges as an entertaining star vehicle for Jean Harlow and reportedly the personal favorite of her films. The autobiographical nature of the narrative couldn't have been lost on her and she effortlessly absorbs the character of Lola Burns making her both hilarious and touching. The enduring appeal of Miss Harlow is encapsulated by this film: while being undeniably beautiful and sexy she possesses vulnerability that makes her relatable and, to the romantic dreamer, potentially attainable. The fact that nearly everyone else in the story comes off as detestable opportunists is an unfortunate side effect but will not detract from the enjoyment. In closing take note of how the writers had a field day excoriating every character except the head of the fictional studio; clearly they drew the line at satirizing LB Mayer!

The original blonde bombshell

[jellopuke · 6/10 · 8 March 2021]

Here you get to see Jean Harlow in her prime, but was there much worth seeing? she's an okay actress, but not great. Here she plays essentially herself but you only see a fickle, whining, baby and it's not the most likeable image. Sure she's good looking, but that's about it. Everyone is exploiting her and some stuff happens. Nothing really changes, nobody learns anything, and it's not all that funny. Kind of a let down really.

Ninety Minutes of Screeching

[cdale-41392 · 5/10 · 22 November 2017]

You've seen other reviews, you've read the synopsis, you already know what this film is about, and you know who the stars are ... I'm just here to point out something I've not seen mentioned.

Everyone in this movie YELLS THEIR LINES!

Why speak when YOU CAN SCREAM?

It's all very chaotic, and the one-liners come at you fast and furious and LOUD!

I could have enjoyed this film so much more if everyone had toned it down a notch or three. So much of Bombshell is just Jean Harlow SCREAMING about something.

You've been warned.