Saratoga (1937)

A sadly unfitting swan Song for Jean Harlow.

Plot in a nutshell: Romantic comedy concerning the relationship between a sly bookie and a horse breeder's snobbish daughter.

Comments: The good cast tries hard to make this work, but ultimately, the material is far beneath its stars. While slightly amusing at times, on the whole it is a pretty boring film.

Some morbid trivia surrounds the film. First of all, Jean Harlow died two-thirds of the way through production, and had to be doubled in part of the latter half of the movie. The doubling is clumsily handled, as you can clearly tell when it's not her.

Secondly, shortly after Jean Harlow's death, Lionel Barrymore tripped over a cable that was carelessly left lying about, and broke his hip for the second time, resulting in his being confined to a wheelchair.

Harlow's death made the film one of the year's biggest moneymakers, but it undoubtedly would not have been nearly as successful without her demise.

The end result is rather sad, really. If only these actors could have suffered for the sake of a good film!

"Say, we got more dead horses on this place than live ones!" ~Grandpa Clayton (Lionel Barrymore)