Rating: 
Summary: ahead of its time
Review: A nice surprise..witty and natural acting makes this film seem more modern than it is. Jean Harlow is relaxed and gives a good performance///Loretta Young gives an understated but beleivable performance//Robert Williams is a natural....this film will put a sly smile on your face!
Rating: 
Summary: Platinum Blonde
Review: Any B&W fan will appreciate this film. I LOVED Robert Williams--I thought he was refreshingly original and had great chemistry with both of his female co-stars, two stunningly beautiful and very different women. The scene with the the song about the garters is priceless, and one of the sexiest scenes ever filmed(and there are many other breathtakingly sexy scenes as well). Although it should have been called "Cinderella Man", in captures it's time period in every way. I would have loved to see Robert Williams in other roles after this one, but he died very shortly after filming. You'll also love the scene where Stew follows Ann into the library! Don't miss this cool and sexy film.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific performance from an actor you've never heard of
Review: Despite the title this film is not really about Jean Harlow but about a newspaper reporter played by Robert Williams, an actor who made only a handful of films (4 in 1931) before he died at age 35. This guy is a winning, natural actor with the charm and intelligence of the early Gable but without the vanity. He would have been a huge star through the 30s and 40s had he lived. Harlow is not bad and Loretta Young is beautiful and likable, but I couldn't take my eyes off Williams. Kevin Kline should remake this one and play the Williams role.
Rating: 
Summary: dull dull dull
Review: Generally I love old movies, but this one was completely flat. The plot (working guy meets society girl, gets dazzled and ignores his real love) is nothing new (and was nothing new at the time) but since I have seen this plot done at least a dozen different INTERESTING ways, that alone wouldn't bother me. It's the fact that it's a totally unfunny comedy. Nothing funny happens. Just the same old plot without any of the sparkle that makes good comedies (His Girl Friday, Libeled Lady) a joy to watch.
Rating:
Summary: dull dull dull
Review: Generally I love old movies, but this one was completely flat. The plot (working guy meets society girl, gets dazzled and ignores his real love) is nothing new (and was nothing new at the time) but since I have seen this plot done at least a dozen different INTERESTING ways, that alone wouldn't bother me. It's the fact that it's a totally unfunny comedy. Nothing funny happens. Just the same old plot without any of the sparkle that makes good comedies (His Girl Friday, Libeled Lady) a joy to watch.
Rating:
Summary: TWO LOVELY LEADING LADIES....
Review: I agree and disagree on points made by some other reviewers about "Platinum Blonde". The title is misleading, I agree. The studio obviously wanted to showcase Jean Harlow to sell the picture. She's a second lead as Ann Schuyler, a wealthy society girl who marries a coarse newspaper reporter, Stew (Robert Williams) and tries to refine him. But, in as obvious a plot line as you can throw to an audience, his heart belongs to Gallagher (Loretta Young) his co-worker at the paper. The studio wanted to please Depression era audiences so the rich are portrayed as stuffy bores and the "poor" (Williams) are portrayed as scrappers who punch people in the face when they get mad and feel it's justified. I disagree that Williams gave a good performance. "Stew" (an apt a name as any) came off as sarcastic and unlikeable. The Schuyler family was justifiably appalled at him. Ann liked him though and tried to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. But he ends up feeling stifled and going ballistic. He wants to write. Williams showed none of the humaness that made Cagney or Gable so good at these kind of parts. His character was way too arrogant and cocky. His performance is badly dated and chauvinistic (especially in his dealings with Gallagher). But what I enjoyed about the film was the luminous presences of two future stars---Jean Harlow and Loretta Young. Both were excellent. Harlow had a thankless role as Ann but she was fabulous in gowns and quite braless. She was more sympathetic than the film would have you think. She didn't deserve the treatment she got from Stew. Young was SO young and so pretty and very good as Gallagher. She certainly didn't deserve Stew either. But that was the studio's approach to pleasing the masses back then. I can't recommend this as a good film because of Williams. But, as a relic of times gone by---it's certainly worth a look or two for Harlow and Young and for that fabulous Schuyler house with those immense diamond shaped tile floors and gorgeous staircase that Harlow goes up and down in those gowns and chandelier earrings. Good DVD print too. And that early Columbia logo is really vintage.
Rating: 
Summary: Now Nostalgic, But Still Surprisingly Fresh (3.5 stars)
Review: Just 18-year-old Loretta Young comes off as a very talented young actress in this, now three-quarters-of-century old comedy. Her character, of which a viewer will never know her first name, is vulnerable and pretty, especially in her evening gown. No wonder that the journalist colleague (played by Robert Williams) has hard time after snubbing her for a rich platinum blonde. The great bit of nostalgia stems from the fact that Williams died later that year the movie was completed and Jean Harlow (the platinum blonde) died a few years later. Otherwise, it is a surprisingly fresh and lovable comedy (although you shouldn't expect too much), with somehow familiar music and a merit to the name of Frank Capra, who went on to become one of the greatest director Hollywood has ever produced.
Rating:
Summary: Harlow Miscast in Significantly Dated Script
Review: PLATINUM BLONDE is an early Frank Capra-directed effort concerning common-man reporter Robert Williams who ignores an obvious love match with co-worker Loretta Young in favor of marriage with high-society socialite Jean Harlow. Although often cited as an early example of the screwball comedy genre Capra helped create with such films as IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, the script is very dated, and from a modern standpoint it creaks in almost every scene.Although not often noted for her acting skills, Loretta Young gives a very fine performance here in the role of Gallagher, an attractive but working class reporter who can hold her own with the boys while maintaining her femininity. The often praised but little known Robert Williams gives an equally pleasant, enjoyable performance, albeit one less successful than Young's in the face of passing time. But Jean Harlow is seriously miscast in the role of manipulative socialite Anne Schuyler, who is first attracted to Williams by his working-class attitudes and who then seeks to erradicate them after their marriage. The film is perhaps most interesting to Harlow fans, for it shows Harlow before Hollywood discovered how to best display both her talents and her beauty. Harlow's talent did extend to light drama, but she would be most at home in wise-cracking, sassy comedy, and she is clearly out of her element in this particular role; her physical appearance is also quite unlike the Harlow iconography expertly developed by MGM, and she looks rather like a white-blonde version of Kay Francis--but unfortunately without any of that actress' sparkle. It is a very wooden performance that seriously undercuts the success of the film, and one wishes that Young and Harlow had been cast in each other's roles. Harlow fans will enjoy seeing Harlow "before she was Harlow," and those interested in the evolution of Frank Capra's work or in the development of the screwball comedy genre will find the film of considerable interest. Others, however, should stay away: the film has more historic interest than entertainment value, and more casual viewers would do better to select later films--such as Young's THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER, Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, and Harlow's BOMBSHELL.
Rating:
Summary: ODE TO ROBERT WILLIAMS
Review: PLATINUM BLONDE, an early Capra comedy, through heavy-handed, showed glints of the director's knack for outrageous situations and cast Harlow in the improbable role of a hoi-polloi socialite. This film plowed newer ground, even while it reinforced (with Loretta Young's performance) the career-girl myth. Rather than simply break a man's heart and betray him with another, Harlow's emasculation of her ace-reporter husband challenged not his sexuality, but his role as an independent provider. Socialite Harlow views his livlihood and his playwrighting aspirations both as an inconvenience and a blight on leisure-class dilettantism. Indefatigable and insensitive shrew that she is, she strips him of all that has been essential to he self-definition; insisting on setting up house in her parent's mansion, she insults his friends and belittles his work. The forgotten Robert Williams is easily the best thing about this film; his performance still shines with a natural virility uncommon in early talkies. Tragically, he died soon after this film was made.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Star Is ...?
Review: Robert Williams plays a reporter with a comeback for everything that marries wealthy Jean Harlow, and unfortunately, her family as well. Left behind is the simple girl who really loves him, fellow reporter Loretta Young. Since Williams doesn't fit into Harlow's world, and Harlow doesn't fit into his world, many complications arise as the upper class meet the common folk. Young, despite top billing, has little to do in the film except look good, which she does with her usual style. Harlow is a bit stiff, but has some good moments. Halliwell Hobbes, as the family butler, has some great moments and provides some good laughs. But surprisingly, the real star is Robert Williams, an actor I've never heard of until this film. He has a smart screen presence, and plays his part with a lot of charm and ease. He has some excellent scenes with Harlow. The film has some funny moments mixed in with romance and drama, and it plays out the class distinctions well. Catch this Jean Harlow/Loretta Young film for its real star, Robert Williams.
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