Saratoga (1937)

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Ordinary comedy would have been a cinematic footnote and a stop gap for Gable and Harlow before their next scheduled pairing on loan to Fox for the much more worthwhile In Old Chicago if not for Jean's sudden death. Instead it ended up becoming the second most profitable film of 1937 and a notorious cash grab for Metro. Not really a bad film but hardly the best film on any of the actors resumes. Other than the ghoulish, rather easy, game of spotting the scenes filmed after Jean's passing with a stand-in the film is packed with great character actors and actresses doing good work. Of particular note is Una Merkel, sassy and smart as an old crony of Gable's. Jean's part is one that's far away from her more famous early persona as a brassy good time girl but in line with the more refined lady-like roles Mayer was moving her towards after Irving Thalberg's death and which she had been transitioning to nicely. Considering the fact that it's an incomplete performance she is fine in her role, she looks weary and a bit bloated throughout not surprisingly since unbeknownst to all her kidneys were failing. Her death actually caused great upheaval in many films that were in development at the time changing the course of many careers. She and Gable were to head over to Fox for In Old Chicago which proved a boon to Alice Faye and Tyrone Power. For their services Shirley Temple was to be loaned to MGM for the Wizard of Oz, when that fell through of course Judy Garland was cast pulling her out and Ann Rutherford in to the small part of Carreen in GWTW. Also among many other planned projects Maisie, originally planned as an A production but moved to the B unit after the loss of Jean, was allocated to Ann Sothern so successfully that it started her on a series that ran, between other films, almost ten years.

With the really A-List cast, you want this movie to be better than it is. Yet is it better than you expect. Why is that? The cast as there is no doubt here about Gable in this one.Based on a play, this movie sold a lot of tickets in New York when it was released because of the time and generation it was released in, plus New York was the biggest market then. For the greatest generation, Horse Racing and Saratoga were magic. Every August, the old tradition still goes on today. But then, Saratoga was a pilgrimage every August for folks who loved racing.The old track there and the August meetings were a magic atmosphere. Ironically, Hollywood already had the tradition of filming in other places and creating their own world. Most of this film was not done in Saratoga. What was being sold was the most magical track to racing fans then, and this cast.Even though Harlow died during filming, having Clark Gable as a nice bookie at the old Saratoga Raceway sold a lot of tickets in the 1930's. Harlow's untimely death added to the box office too, sadly.

Saratoga was not a great film. It has some clever and witty moments, such as the scene where Harlow is caught smoking a cigar, but on the whole the film is not among the best work of the wonderful cast which includes: Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore and Walter Pigeon. Harlow died before she completed filming this movie after a supposed illness which lasted 10 days. Watching the film you can see how unenergetic she looks, how puffy and tired and knowing that she does not live to finish the film casts the film in a poor light. When Harlow died, it was reported in the press that the film would be scrapped and left unfinished....but Louella Parsons reported in the press a few days after Harlow's death that the public outcry had been so great that MGM had decided to release the film. Being realistic here, it is hard to believe that MGM would ever seriously consider scrapping the film....the film had already cost millions and had other big name stars in the film. Parsons reported that the role played by Jean Harlow would be filled by actress Rita Johnson, and that at the point in the filming where Harlow died, co-star Lionel Barrymore would film an introduction announcing that Harlow had passed and that the film would be completed by another actress. None of this happened. There was no intro by Barrymore, and the role was taken over by actress Mary Dees. Dees was described in the press as having been both a $55 a week dancer at Warner Brothers, and also was said to have been pulled from a picture that she was shooting at Paramount with Bing Crosby to finish the role.It is laughable to see the new actress in the role. At the point at which Harlow dies in real life, her character on the screen seems to almost vanish too. When she is shown, she is shown from the back, or with binoculars to her face, or a laughable scene with Hattie McDaniels where she is wearing a huge hat with a wide gauzy brim which obscures her face. This all makes what already was not a stellar film, get even worse. It is hard to say how the film would have been had Harlow lived. There is no question that her role would have been much larger.In a macabre twist, in the scene where Jean Harlow is being examined by the doctor played by George Zucco, the gown she is wearing, white and with puffy sleeves, was the gown she was buried wearing.

Not a great movie, it doesn't have the expected chemistry between Gable and Harlow, but many bits of trivia connected with it. It was released as I understand it after public pressure for another look at her. It ended up being her most financially successful film. I think that the cigar scene is one of her best, most understated comic moments.I don't know of another film finished after its star's death like this. For that alone it is a curiosity. The added footage is very obvious, comical yet macabre. And the ongoing bit about her being sick is equally macabre.As for the trivia, you have one of Lionel Barrymore's last ambulatory roles; longtime MGM contractee Walter Pidgeon in his first MGM role; Hattie McDaniel singing; The Wizard of Oz having breakfast with the Wicked Witch of the West; and Clark Gable playing probably the only nice bookie in the history of the movies (sort of nice, to Harlow's father at least).For Harlow at her best, go with Personal Property, Red Dust or Bombshell, but watch this for the trivia.