Cheap Hold Your Man (DVD) (Sam Wood) Price

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Customer Reviews of Hold Your Man

50 out of the 87 minutes are entertaining
"Hold Your Man" is significant as Harlow's transitional film from the pre-code days. She is significantly de-tuned physically from the hot presence a year earlier in "Red-Headed Woman" and "Red Dust". It also appears that to illustrate their ability to police themselves without a formal approval process, the studio tacked on a moralistic second half that turned a very entertaining romantic comedy into a sappy melodrama. <
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>The film begins when depression-era hustler Eddie (Clark Gable) and his pal Slim con a pedestrian out of $30. Running from the police he blunders into an apartment and finds Ruby (Harlow) taking a bath. Ruby turns out to be a bit of a con artist herself and gets rid of the police. Eddie takes off but he has made an impression on Ruby and she arranges an "accidental" meeting. They soon fall in love but their marriage plans are interrupted by Eddie's accidental murder of one of Ruby's marks. He gets away but Ruby gets two years in a reformatory, which is portrayed as an intense Home Economics class. <
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>Until it crashes and burns at the end this is a slick little romantic comedy written by Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). Gable provides his standard bravado and Harlow gives it right back to him. The script is quite clever and entertaining. Gable does not have quite the chemistry with Harlow that he had with Claudette Colbert or Rosalind Russell, but this is the kind of film that is best when its two stars are competing instead of cuddling. <
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>Unfortunately the audience's identification impulse and emotional connection are casualties of Harlow's abrupt personality change from gritty seductress to dewy-eyed self-pitying victim. This confuses and distances those who were most involved in the story until that point. <
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>Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

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Pre-code sizzler; VHS transfer quality very poor
"Hold Your Man" is a good example of what the Hays Production Code did to Hollywood films. Almost overnight films went from being racy and funny and risque (but never vulgar, unlike many of today's films) to squeaky-clean fare, where violence was kept to a minimum and sex, especially among women, was practically non-existant. 'Hold Your Man' is a good example of a pre-Code film. Harlow is white-hot, Gable is irresistable, the dialogue is packed with innuendo and many characters and ideas pop up in the film that would not be seen again (or at least portrayed fairly) in American film for decades: A fully-rounded, three-dimensional black character; a socialist; marital abandonment and unwanted pregnancy. <
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>Now on to the VHS transfer itself: it is just a pitiful state. The audio hisses and the volume must be turned up high to properly hear the dialogue; the film looks dark and dusty and scratched. It is a stark contrast to the bright, clean look of the DVD version of "Dinner At Eight", also starring Harlow, released about a year ago. <
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>After "Hold Your Man", Jean Harlow would become perhaps the biggest female star, certainly the biggest female star at MGM, of the 1930s. Her popularity was enormous; some have credited Harlow's films with keeping MGM in the black (in fact, the only studio to regularly show a profit) in the dark days of the Depression. The Harlow/Gable combo was a box-office goldmine; they were paired several times throughout the 30s in other mega-hits including "Red Dust" (not yet on DVD); "China Seas" (not yet on DVD); "Wife vs. Secretary" (not yet on DVD); and finally "Saratoga", during production of which Harlow would collapse and suddenly die, of what was revealed to be kidney failure. "Saratoga" is not on DVD. <
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>Why the dearth of Harlow DVDs? I urge the readers of this review to write Warner Bros (who now issues the DVDs she appears in) to ask if they have any plans on releasing more of Harlow's excellent catalog of film on DVD.

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Gable And Harlow Rock!!!
This movie is witty, watchable and utterly touching. And now often do you get to see Jean Harlow (or any actress of this era, for that matter) give another woman a swift punch in the jaw? (Twice!) <
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>After Harlow's Ruby is sent to a reformatory after getting mixed up with Gable's Edward Hall (he of that cheesy yet endearing crooked smile), her predicament becomes all the more complicated when she discovers that she is pregnant, and she's convinced that this rake has abandoned her, but in fact, her love has reformed him and he comes to see her, despite the fact that he will be arrested, and from the help of a minister, are married. <
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>The wonderful relationship that Harlow shares with her fellow inmates is second only to her electric chemistry with Gable, who was her most frequent leading man. Her cynical character is a perfect match for Gable's smooth-talking crook. What's not to like? <
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>"You know, you wouldn't be a bad looking dame - if it wasn't for your face!" Ruby cuttingly remarks to Gypsy, her rival. "If you're going to get that close to me, I'll have to open the other window!" <
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>Priceless!!!