Pun Salad

Hard to believe, but we ran out of Netflix DVDs to watch one night. So we ventured over to Comcast's "On Demand" service, found the "Free Movies!" button, checked out what Turner Classic Movies (TCM) had available, and here you go: a 1935 offering starring Jean Harlow and William Powell. Apparently not on DVD, hence not Netflixable, so a pretty good choice.

[A brief gripy aside: "Free" isn't exactly what I'd call Comcast's cable service. Instead of "Free Movies!" maybe they should label that button "Movies That, If You Watch Them, Won't Increase Your Already Exorbitant Cable Bill!"]

[Another gripy aside: Comcast doesn't see fit to include TCM in my tier of cable service. It is for some stupid reason in the "Sports Entertainment Pack". What? Jerks.]

Anyway: Ms. Harlow plays Mona, a struggling singer; William Powell plays her agent, Ned. Ned loves Mona, but can't seem to seal the deal, romancewise. But Bob, a wealthy playboy, (Franchot Tone) becomes infatuated with Mona, too. To Ned's disappointment, Mona marries him. This turns out to be a bad idea, since Bob's family looks down on Mona's roots, and it turns out that Bob still has feelings for his previous sweetie, Jo. (Who is played by a very pretty Rosalind Russell.) Somewhat to my surprise, the movie turns from being a light sorta-musical comedy (with ludicrous dance numbers) into a pretty dark melodrama.

Other trivia: it's got Mickey Rooney (about 15 years old) and Margaret Dumont, on loan from the Marx Brothers.