SARATOGA

US, 1932, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Walter Pidgeon, Lionel Barrymore, Frank Morgan, Una Merkel.
Directed by Jack Conway.

Jean Harlow's last film. She had appeared with Clark Gable in a number of films including The Secret Six, Wife Versus Secretary and most significantly Red Dust. She died before completion of the film and a stand-in was used for some sequences and the screen play re-written for this.

The film is a blend of racing film and screwball comedy thirties' style. Jean Harlow has an unusual role - she is meant to be aristocratic (and is not entirely persuasive). Walter Pidgeon has the foil role to Clark Gable's con-man hero - they were to appear in Too Hot To Handle in similar roles a year later. The film is pleasant in its way but truncated in its form because of Harlow's death.

1. An entertaining comedy romance of the thirties?

2. The blend of the sporting film with screwball comedy? Carol and her aristocratic pretensions, romance with Hartley? Relationship with Duke? Romantic tangles, confidence trick tangles? Conventional material - more?

3. M.G.M. production values, gloss? Black and white photography, racing sequences? The stars?

4. The plausibility of the plot? credible characters, situations? For comedy? The blend of realism and contrivance?

5. Duke as hero? confidence trick style, man about town, relationship with Carol, victimising Hartley? The racing connections? Techniques? Friends? His taking in Hartley, confrontations and fights? Winning Carol? A typical Gable romantic hero? Symbol of the American type hero of the thirties?

6. Jean Harlow's performance as Carol? how credible with her aristocratic voice, romance with Hartley, connections in London? Her return? Her father? The clashes with Duke? Her support of Hartley? Changes of heart and helping Duke to trick Hartley? The finale?

7. Hartley as an aristocratic stooge? Walter Pidgeon's comic style? Love for Carol, business sense, clashes with Duke, his readiness to bet? His almost winning?

8. The contribution of the minor characters ? Carol's family,
Rosetta?

9. The racing sequences with the background of the bets and confidence tricks?

10. The comedy routines, the American romance symbolised by Gable and Harlow? The world of affluence for a thirties' audience? Now?