Platinum Blonde (1931)

A reporter marries a rich woman, even though her family disapproves of it. The financial disparity between men and woman generates some conflict; there is also a clash of lifestyles.

Quite entertaining. This film is quite in tune with Hollywood's ideology of that era, which associates wealth with artificiality and ultimately considers it an obstacle to happiness. It's a hypocritical view, of course, since most directors and stars were very rich. Well, maybe it's not exactly like that, and the point is not wealth but work. That is, it looks down on people who do not work for a living. In any case the plot's development is very articulate; the audience, which was mostly working and middle class, was sure to identify and thus have a good time. On another angle, the film is perhaps about the transition from non-fiction (here in the form of journalism) to fiction (the hero is writing a play). As a journalist he damages (by exposing them) the lives of people who are strangers to him; as a playwright he feeds on himself and those near him. Eventually it evolves into a fusion of his life and the fiction he is writing.

The hero in this film forgoes a stunning beauty for an uglier woman, a phenomenon which already occurred in The Public Enemy. The uglier woman is played by the same actress in both movies.

(This is number 7 in Dale Thomajan's top ten of 1931.)

Rating: 60