Watch Reckless For Free

So much average

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good start, but then it gets ruined

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

...this movie rapidly descends into maudlin melodrama that is practically unwatchable. The movie starts out with promise with a feisty Granny Lesie (May Robson) pulling a rather hung over Ned Riley (William Powell) out of bed to bail playful star Mona Leslie (Jean Harlow) out of jail. These early scenes would make any fan of these three want to stick around for more, but believe me, you'll regret that decision. Things go downhill rapidly when Mona meets avid fan and drunken playboy Bob Harrison Jr. (Franchot Tone), whose enthusiasm wanes and drunkenness worsens after the two are hastily married. Every indignity you can think of is flung at Harlow's character at a time in Harlow's life when she herself had recently been through a great personal tragedy, and you just get the feeling that MGM is using that tragedy to sell movie tickets. It really is a sad spectacle for any Harlow fan.The melodrama grows to ridiculous proportions by the end of the film, with Mona Leslie even being booed by fans and her giving a preposterous on stage speech as a result. All of this just crowds out any promise with which the film started. Avoid this one.

Reckless (1935) * 1/2 (out of 4) Really poor comedy/drama about a showgirl (Jean Harlow) who gets caught in a love triangle with a producer (William Powell) and a playboy (Franchot Tone). This is a pretty poor picture that fails as a comedy and then really fails as a drama in its second half. I'm not sure if Fleming couldn't handle the material or what but in all honesty he's not given too much to work with and even the cast sleepwalks through the film. This is certainly the worst I've seen Harlow and Powell as neither actor are up to their usual standards and Powell comes off quite boring. The supporting cast includes May Robson, Ted Healy and Mickey Rooney but none of them offer any laughs. The second half of the film turns into a drama, which tries to bring tears but this is the only segment that offers any laughs. The ending is downright insane and overly forced.

Why do I give a movie with obvious skips a "10". I guess you could call me a nutty Harlow fan! That's so untrue. The cast is wonderful, William Powell is one of the grandest actors of them all. Franchot Tone is so romantic and classy. May Robson plays her matronly role with just the right tone. Even Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy bring the needed roughness to the scenery.************** SPOILER ************************ But what sets my view of the film, what redeems it for me, is that final scene in the theater. Harlow alone singing a song and then being heckled by the entire audience. She picks herself up and defends herself. To top all this all off, we have her encore. She sings to the audience while Powell, just inside the curtain, close enough to touch her, proposes to her between her lines. It is a tender, surprisingly effective moment that brings anyone with a shred of heart left into them to shed a tear. It is a well directed scene and for what it's worth, appropriately the best scene in the movie.************* END OF SPOILER ******************Watch this movie, to know just how few movies there are to see Harlow in. Appreciate it for her every trademark gesture. Enjoy it for its pure entertainment value. Enjoy it for Jean.

Jean Harlow can be funny and likable in such delectable classics as "Dinner at Eight", "The Girl From Missouri", "Red-Headed Woman", "Platinum Blonde", among others. But she is wasted in "Reckless", a surprisingly plodding and undernourished comedy-musical-melodrama, made for MGM and David O. Selznick, directed by Victor Fleming. Harlow's Mona Leslie, a Broadway singer whose reckless affairs with rich playboy (Franchot Tone) leads to scandal and jealousy, is one of her weakest performances. William Powell plays her secret admirer who rescues her from carelessness. May Robson is the maid whose delightful banter with Powell is one of the few likable moments in the film. As in "Personal Property" and the overrated "Libeled Lady", the film offers nothing more than its earnestly plush and overproduced MGM look. And it is obvious from the beginning that Harlow is uncomfortable with this mush; her singing and musical numbers, mostly dubbed, are highly forgettable.