When Harlow and Astor first meet, they are talking about doctors. I swear, Harlow says "Those "f'in'" doctors..."
The word was clearly cut out, but the sound drops out for a split second, and her lips look like they say that word. Does anyone have any backstory on this?
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I bet I've seen this film 20X, and I never noticed this before! Another yes vote for Jean dropping the F-bomb! My only wonder if why it wasn't edited out? I know her lines that follow where she says, "...they're under the table singing "Sweet Adeline," were originally "...they're under the table singing the Marsiallaise," but this was edited & dubbed so as not to offend the French (who had control of Vietnam, or at least had influence there at the time). There are a lot of 2 syllable words that could have been dubbed in to replace "effin." Curious that they'd leave in an "f" sound (very plain & obvious), and cut the rest when a dub could have been spliced in. It'd be interesting to know if lip-readers of the 1930's wrote in to complain, wouldn't it? I know in the silent films, lip-readers often wrote to studios to complain of the bad language.
What a riot! This just made my day!!
Okay...I'm changing my mind about the F-bomb. I just re-watched this segment very closely with the sound muted. Jean COULD be saying "French." Knowing about the other "Sweet Adeline" dub (see above), it is possible that's what she said: "Those French doctors..." She does go on to stereotype doctors who live in Vietnam as "sitting around crabbing the country, prescribing brandy & drinking it themselves, and then singing the Marsailles (or Sweet Adeline as it appears in the movie). Watch it with the sound off, and watch her lips very carefully. It does fit, and makes sense. As a previous poster pointed out, Mary Astor makes absolutely no reaction at the line, therefore leading one to believe she was not surprised. Also, I've never read anything about lip-reading movie goers complaining about this, which leads me to believe Harlow's bleeped f-word was actually the word "French."
shareJean Harlow was a very well brought up girl, despite her risque roles, and very rarely swore. One of the major complaints about Schulman's book "Harlow" was that he implied she used bad language. A wealthy society girl from birth, Harlow was renowned for her lovely manners and for being very well spoken. Even in character, I don't think she would use the "F" word. Love the film though I do, I don't think on watching it that Harlow used that word.
shareHarlow's reputation as being a "lady" is very open to argument. In David Bret's biography about Clark Gable, he talks at great length about Harlow's reputation as being a wild woman, given to using salty language and being notorious for never wearing panties. There are several direct quotes from good sources.
shareJean Harlow was famous (or infamous) for reputedly never wearing a bra. I always though it was Tallulah Bankhead who didn't wear panties.
All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
I really hope you are joking about the David Bret bio on Clark Gable. Any biography that man ever writes is known to be complete trash, based on rumors and poor research. In fact, the bio he wrote about Jean Harlow was almost entirely based on Irving Shulman's book... and Shulman said "The line between fictional biography and biographical fiction is very fine indeed" when questioned about his own Harlow bio!
shareI literally just finished watching this movie. I noticed it, too. I think, however, it was just a technical glitch. A sound drop-out. However, I could be wrong. You know that Harlow...
shareCalling the doctors in question "French" is actually worse than merely referring to them as "effin'", in my humble Francophobic opinion.
shareIf you read "Sin in Soft Focus", you learn that Jean was saying something demeaning about the French. I believe she called them "Frogs" and she originally said that they would be under the table singing "La Marseillaise". That entire speech of hers had to be dubbed over for the final release, because it would have been politically incorrect. Even though this movie is a pre-code, there was still a code in Hollywood from 1929 to 1934, albeit a more lax one.
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Having just seen the scene in question about 4 minutes ago, I'll agree that, from the shape of her mouth, Jean clearly appears to say "Frogs". Of course today, that would have been left in the final product, while refering to the natives as "coolies" would no doubt be excised.
shareI saw an very old print of this unedited years ago on a local cable station. I could have sworn she said "these poon tang doctors"
shareSomehow I doubt that one...
How in the world would that have slipped by ANY censor board?
The idea that Jean Harlow dropped an F-bomb while filming a scene in a 1932 movie is ludicrous. If she had uttered that word on camera with sound rolling, the director would have immediately yelled "Cut!" and that take would have wound up in the scrap film bin.
REALLY, folks. Some people just need to get a life.
All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
I'm inclined to agree that the director would have yelled "Cut!" if she had ad-libbed the line. But is it possible that the line was scripted -- not with the intention that audiences would ever hear the word, but with the intent that audiences should see her saying those "f---- doctors" with the sound cut out? Since her character is supposed to be a tough broad of questionable virtue, the audience could believe she would use such language, while not having her actually say the word, but only the "f----", would in strictness clear the filmmakers from the charge of having put any bad words in the film.
On the one hand, even this sounds preposterous -- I can't think of another pre-code film where even an unfinished "f---" is expressed. So I suppose my scenario is wildly unlikely. On the other hand --
1. Clark Gable tells her soon after the speech in question to "watch her language". Whether he is referring to the word in question, I can't say, but it is the natural previous reference to make sense of Gable's remark.
2. Did anyone notice that when Gable dunks her head in the barrel, she says something like, "If you think I give a ----" just before she goes under; and it seems to me that you can see the "f" forming on her lips just before they vanish. But I might be imagining that. I'm not even sure if "give a f---" was an existing expression in 1932. It seems to me that "give a sh--" or "give a d---" would be more likely, and that "give a f---" did not exist until about the 1970s. But I am not an expert on the popular history of crude language. Does anyone know if "give a f---" existed in 1932? (Of course, if it did, it is not something our grandparents would have told us about.) But in any case, the syllable forming on her mouth doesn't look as if it starts with "d" or "sh" but "f". If someone else would take a look and let me know if I'm imagining things ...
Another vote for "frog" doctors appearing correct based on the shape of her mouth. It also makes sense based on her later French-bashing description. Also, Cochin-China was a French colony.
shareIt could be "fool doctors", since fool was used a lot back then. I really don't believe she dropped accidental f-bomb in the middle of a normal conversation. Some crazy action scene perhaps.
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I looked up a transcript of the movie and it says "fool"
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