Bombshell

Lola Burns, played by Jean Harlow, is a Hollywood star whose life is chaos: a publicity man endlessly manufacturing fake scandals, a father and brother living off her, a fan who will not go away, and a Latin lover. Space Hanlon, the publicist played by Lee Tracy, invents whatever it takes to keep her name in the papers and sabotages every attempt she makes at an ordinary life. The starting point was Clara Bow; Victor Fleming suggested basing the story on her life at the height of her fame, and Bow had in fact left the movies to marry and retire to the desert. Some of the material comes straight from Harlow's own life though, including the large dogs at the mansion and the family living off her. The result is a rare pre-Code comedy that describes the studio system's manufacture of stars from inside. Its success is also where Harlow's nickname, the blonde bombshell, came from. Who it is for: viewers who enjoy pre-Code Hollywood and fast classic comedy. Who it is not for: anyone who will find, by present standards, the treatment the heroine constantly absorbs uncomfortable.