3 Garotas Ladinas

Bored with her small-town job as a "soda jerker," sexy platinum blonde Jean Harlow (as Cassie Barnes) moves to exciting New York City. For obvious reasons, Ms. Harlow is treated like a sex object. Propositioned by boss number three, Harlow is rescued by drunken Walter Byron (as Jerome "Jerry" Wilson). After sobering up, Mr. Byron seems like the perfect mate for Harlow. He's wealthy, proper and attentive. Unfortunately, Byron is also married. Harlow is soon reacquainted with childhood friend Mae Clarke (as Gladys Kane), who models underwear (and other clothing). She is having a relationship with a married man. Harlow's roommate Marie Prevost (as Dot) is looking for a man...

"Three Wise Girls" focuses on one Jean Harlow, but the other women have the better roles. Harlow commands the screen when she undresses - and director William Beaudine gets in several scenes with Harlow and Ms. Clarke in stages of undress. Harlow's figure is generously displayed. A "silent" star said to be victimized by the microphone, Ms. Prevost is noteworthy in a character role. Able to command the screen without taking off her clothes, Prevost sounds fine. She's looking for a plumber, but will settle for chauffeur Andy Devine. Clarke's subplot is the dramatic highlight. Unfortunately, Harlow's figure and her scene-stealing supporting cast don't make the main story more engaging.

***** Three Wise Girls (1/11/32) William Beaudine ~ Jean Harlow, Mae Clarke, Marie Prevost, Walter Byron

Jean Harlow had top billing and gave a good performance in this one, playing a small-town girl who goes to New York to seek her fortune. I found it refreshing to see her in a more virtuous role; she not only shows her range, but her character is strong, and stands up for herself when hit on by men. At the same time, her magnetism and sex appeal shine through, helped along by some modeling and pre-Code lingerie scenes. She finds out the rich guy she's been seeing is married and wants to end it, particularly after having seen what a similar situation has done to her friend, played well by Mae Clark (who you might remember as having been with Harlow the previous year in 'The Public Enemy', and getting a grapefruit stuffed in her face by James Cagney). The last of the 'wise girls' is Marie Prevost in the role of her roommate, who points out the flipside, hey, it's nice to eat something other than liverwurst by seeing a guy with some money, and breaks off a few other funny lines in the film. The movie is quite brisk at 68 minutes, maybe too brisk in a couple of ways (such as Mae Clark's fate), but it's worth watching, particularly if you're a Harlow fan.

THREE WISE GIRLS (Columbia, 1932), directed by William Beaudine, is early Jean Harlow, vintage Columbia, and routinely made story dealing with three young girls (usually three) attempting to make good in the Big City, and the men who take part in their personal lives. Adapted from the story, "Blonde Baby" by Wilson Collison, there's nobody legally blonder than the platinum blonde baby herself, Jean Harlow (1911-1937), making her second and final feature presentation for Columbia. Though PLATINUM BLONDE (1931), her initial film for Columbia, is known mostly as an early Frank Capra directed comedy, THREE WISE GIRLS offers nothing really outstanding for Harlow except the opportunity in handling a leading film role for the first time.

Of the THREE WISE GIRLS, the story introduces Cassie Barnes (Jean Harlow), a small town girl living at home with her mother (Lucy Beaumont) and earning a living as a soda jerker for Lem (Robert Dudley) at the Chillicoale Drug Store. Finding that her good friend, Gladys Kane, has found success away from the town they grew up in, Cassie decides to follow suit by quitting her job and moving to New York City. Sharing an place with Dot (Marie Prevost), who supports herself addressing envelopes in their apartment, Cassie, soon meets Jerry Wilson (Walter Byron), a drunken millionaire, at the drug store. After quitting her third soda jerking job since moving to the city, Jerry, in good faith, takes Cassie home in his limousine. Later, Cassie comes to meet with Gladys (Mae Clarke), whom she hasn't seen in three years, at her place of work. Learning of her unemployment situation, Gladys arranges her employer, Andre (Armand Kaliz) to use Cassie as one of the models at $60 a week. As Cassie becomes romantically involved with Jerry, her situation soon patterns that of Gladys' courtship with Arthur Phelps (Jameson Thomas), a rich banker with eyes on Cassie, while Dot takes an interest in Jerry's chauffeur, Barney Callahan (Andy Devine). Complications soon take its toll for one of the "three wise girls."

Brief (67 minutes), and to the point, THREE WISE GIRLS limits itself of character introduction and plot development by presenting what it needs to be addressed without any drawn-out scenes. For Jean Harlow's first starring role, she's not bad. Her acting technique would improve greatly following her move to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio where all her future films were made, with comedy being her finest contribution to the motion picture industry. Harlow's Cassie is sometimes sassy, but mostly on the serious side. She's unlucky when it comes to men as evidenced in the opening scene that has her walking home alone from a date she abandoned some miles down the road. She later loses her jobs due to some overly aggressive bosses. Regardless of setbacks, Cassie will not give up her dream to make it on her own. As for the co-stars, Mae Clarke, the secondary character living in a luxurious penthouse, comes off best with her natural flare of acting, with advise of not ending up "behind the eight ball"; while Marie Prevost, the third "wise girl," with little to do except being the funny member of the trio with the most common sense. Andy Devine, the one in chauffeur's uniform, is almost unrecognizable here, speaking only a few lines of dialog, none which have that recognizable trademark raspy voice for which he's known. Walter Byron, sometimes classified by film historians as a poor man's "Ronald Colman," does satisfactory work as a millionaire with his distrust for women, but would drift to uncredited parts by the end of the decade. Others in the cast include Natalie Moorehead (Rita Wilson), Katharine Clare Ward (Mrs. Kane), and Marcia Harris as the no-nonsense landlady.

With the exception of sporadic reissues in revival movie houses in New York City during the 1970s and 80s, THREE WISE GIRLS remains a seldom seen Harlow product. Though this time filler made its way on cable television's Turner Classic Movies July 10, 2009, one can only hope for revivals of other extremely rare Harlow finds as THE Saturday NIGHT KID (Paramount, 1929), GOLDIE (Fox, 1931) and THE IRON MAN (Universal, 1931) to become part of a television broadcast package. (**)

In her last film before she signed her MGM contract, Jean Harlow starred in Three Wise Girls along with Mae Clarke and Marie Prevost for Columbia. If this sounds familiar Warner Brothers was also doing Three On A Match around the same time and it had some similar plot elements.

While Prevost seems to have a really good deal working at home sending out letters with advertisements for various companies both Harlow and Clarke get themselves involved with married men, for one of them it turns out really bad. Prevost seems to have the right idea.

Playing opposite Harlow is Walter Byron who had a run of minor popularity in silent films, but whose career gradually petered out in sound films. He sounds like George Brent in his speech pattern and voice, but looks like Charley Chase. I'm betting that's why he didn't succeed in sound.

This film was filled with tragedy with both Harlow and Prevost dying way too young within six years. Three Wise Girls is far from the best work of these fatally star crossed actresses.

Cassie (Jean Harlow) works in a coffee shop, but is sick of putting up with the drunks that come in....its only 1932, so things are still allowed to be a little on the rough side. She leaves that job and goes to visit her friend Gladys, who may be able to get her a job as a model at Andre's (Armand Kaliz) dress shop. Gladys introduces Cassie to the dashing "Arthur" (Jameson Thomas) and "Jerry" (Walter Byron), where things start to heat up. Good story, good acting by all. The story really isn't that original, but with such a professional job done by all involved, its quite enjoyable to watch. Viewers will catch Andy Devine in one of his early CREDITED roles as the chauffeur.. he will go on to play larger, funnier roles. Shortie from Columbia Pictures, at just 68 minutes. The only really risqué part is when one of the girls spends some time talking about a weenie that's cooking on the stove. I guess at the time, seeing a married man was also a huge taboo subject for films, or would be when the film code started being enforced. Story by Wilson Collison, who had also written the "Maisie" series, and "Mogambo", which starred Clark Gable. "Three Wise Girls" is directed by William Beaudine, who had been making films since 1915... he must have been standing there when the camera was invented; his bio says he was assistant to D.W. Griffith, so he certainly learned from the best. Lots of little connections here... Harlow and Gable would make six films together in the 1930s.