Tough Dames in Satin Slips: Films from Pre-Code Hollywood

In a film and discussion series that will explore the history of sex and violence in the movies, censorship and the ratings system, movie critic Nell Minow and journalist Margaret Talbot present gems of pre-code cinema.

The story of a saucy, scheming, gold-digger, Red-Headed Woman can still make audiences uncomfortable but it’s more likely to amuse them. Jean Harlow just looks like she’s having such a good time getting away with being bad. The screenplay was written by Anita Loos and an uncredited F. Scott Fitzgerald.

From Celluloid Club:

Harlow as a redhead? Filmed before her “blonde bombshell” days, she has never been sexier than in this film and Morris is good as the unwitting boss who becomes obsessed with her to the point of divorcing his wife and marrying her. In fact, this role was Harlow’s springboard to bigger and better parts.

Trivia: Loos wasn’t the first screenwriter to convert the novel to film. In fact, it was novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, but according to Loos’ autobiography, Kiss Hollywood Goodbye,  MGM executive Irving Thalberg called her to his office, handed her the novel and told her: “Scott tried to turn the silly book into a tone poem!”