Jean Harlow could play a GREAT headcase in the movies and she plays her maddest one here. She hops into so many beds in this film, you eventually lose track of which man she’s fucking. The point is that she’s a loose dame of modest stock and she wants to move up in society by bedding rich businessmen. She starts with her boss at work, but doesn’t stop there. The biggest difference between this and the scandalous Baby Face (another film about a woman who sleeps her way to the top) from the following year is that Jean Harlow is more naturally vulnerable than steely Barbara Stanwyck. When Harlow cries, you feel it’s at least partly real, rather than a manipulation tactic.
Drafts of the script went through the hands of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Anita Loos. MGM worked closely with the censor boards to try to make a film that wouldn’t ruffle too many feathers, but it still got complaints and the United Kingdom banned it until 1965.