The Saturday Night Kid *** (1929, Clara Bow, Jean Arthur, James Hall, Jean Harlow) – Classic Movie Review 11,997

Director A Edward Sutherland’s 1929 American pre-Code love triangle romantic comedy film The Saturday Night Kid stars Clara Bow, Jean Arthur, James Hall and Jean Harlow in her first credited speaking role.

The story is about two sisters – Mayme (Clara Bow) and Janie (Jean Arthur) – and the man they both want – Bill (James Hall). The sisters share an apartment in New York City and work as salesgirls at the Ginsberg’s department store.

It is easy to respect and enjoy a dawn-of-sound movie with Clara Bow, Jean Arthur and Jean Harlow, and also with Edna May Oliver as store supervisor Miss Streeter. It really is an impressive must-see vintage cast.

A print of this film still exists. The movie was preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding by Clara Bow biographer David Stenn.

The film is based on the 1926 stage play Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em by George Abbott and John V A Weaver. The play opened on Broadway at the Sam H Harris Theater on 3 February 1926, and ran for 152 performances. There was a previous silent film version, the 1926 Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, with Evelyn Brent, Lawrence Gray and Louise Brooks. A print of this film also still exists.

Screenwriters: Lloyd Corrigan and Edward E Paramore Jr.

Unfortunately, Clara Bow had noticeably gained weight and was attacked by critics for it. On the plus side, Harlow convinced designer Edith Head to let her wear in the movie one the dresses Bow could not fit into. Also on the plus side, Bow got along well Jean Arthur, but on the minus side, not with director Edward Sutherland, who had snubbed her socially and she called ‘a lousy no-good bastard’.

It is produced for Ross Productions by Frank Ross, who was Arthur’s husband from 1932 to1949. He then married Joan Caulfield in 1950, and she did a film for his company, The Lady Says No (1951).

Frank Ross graduated from Princeton University and began acting in an uncredited role in 1929’s The Saturday Night Kid, but appeared in only two more films. He married its star Jean Arthur in 1932. He became an important producer, starting with the 1939 film Of Mice and Men. His other notable productions include the comedies The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and The More the Merrier (1943), both starring his wife Arthur.

The cast are Clara Bow as Mayme, Jean Arthur as Janie, James Hall as Bill Taylor, Edna May Oliver as Miss Streeter, Hyman Meyer as Ginsberg, Charles Sellon as Lem Woodruff, Ethel Wales as Lily Woodruff, Jean Harlow as Hazel, Leone Lane as Pearl, and Frank Ross.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,997

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