Red-Headed Woman
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Red-Headed Woman is a 1932 film of the Pre-Code era, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway.
The film starred Jean Harlow (wearing a red wig) as a young woman who seduces her boss (played by Chester Morris) and convinces him to divorce his wife (played by Leila Hyams). She soon tires of him, and embarks on an affair with a wealthy businessman (played by Henry Stephenson). Accused of murder, she escapes prosecution and flees to France where she embarks on another affair, with a chauffeur (played by Charles Boyer in one of his earliest Hollywood roles). Also in the film are Lewis Stone, Una Merkel and May Robson.
The film proved difficult from its inception. Producer Irving Thalberg was concerned that the original story and the first draft of a script by F. Scott Fitzgerald were too serious, and offered the job of rewriting it to Anita Loos, instructing her to provide something that was more fun and playful and with a greater emphasis on comedy. After a complete rewrite of the script he was happy with its tone, and the film was made. Prior to its release he liaised with the Will Hays Office to ensure it would receive approval for general release. Under the Production code a criminal could not be seen to profit from the crime, or to go unpunished. Sin must also be punished, even if the sin committed was not actually criminal. Adding further to the problem was Harlow's overtly sexual portrayal, with several scenes in which she was partially undressed, or making obvious sexual advances.
Although the Hays Office could not ban a film as such, a refusal to issue approval for a particular film could lead exhibitors to refuse to screen it. Thalberg agreed to seventeen cuts in the film to enable it to screen in the United States, however upon release it received a large number of complaints from affronted cinema patrons. It was banned in the United Kingdom.
The furore surrounding its release generated considerable publicity, and the film was a box-office success, and ensured the commercial viability of Harlow's upcoming releases. Red-Headed Woman was one of the films that led directly to a new, tougher moral code that was introduced in 1934, as with other Pre-Code films, and which remained in force until 1968.
