Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13073 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Customer Reviews

Forget the sad history; it's a sparkling star vehicle
The gloom of Jean Harlow's tragic early death has cast a pall over SARATOGA for over 65 years. It's time for that veil to be lifted. Taken as it stands, SARATOGA is a gem of a romantic comedy with great performances from both Harlow and Clark Gable. Even the infamous doubling for Harlow in the last third doesn't mar the film, as it's handled in such a straightforward and perfunctory manner. What the film might have been had Harlow lived to complete it is debatable; even a notorious critic like Graham Greene thought the film played better downplaying the leading lady's role towards the end. What has always struck me is how some Harlow fans bemoan the doubling, and even the fact the film was completed. Would they have preferred MGM to scrap the over forty minutes of footage that Harlow did leave prior to her death? If the studio had done that, I tend to think that they would be the one's crying over the loss now. I, for one, would much prefer having the prime Harlow footage that appears here, more then any of her other, rather awful work in films like HELL'S ANGELS, PLATINUM BLONDE, and PUBLIC ENEMY. As for the 3 and ½ minutes that Mary Dees spends in the film with her back to the camera, or wearing that ridiculous floppy hat (in the one scene I think could have been omitted), how many remember Harlow's early appearance in the Clara Bow film THE SATURDAY NIGHT KID, where she spent nearly twice that amount of time with her own back to the camera. Even in Harlow's previous film, PERSONAL PROPERTY, the back of her head ended up facing the camera more than a few times. The bottom line is that people only complain about the doubling in SARATOGA because their attention is drawn to it, unfortunately due to the sad circumstances regarding the film's production. However, once the film is separated from it's tragic history, it becomes the grand entertainment it was intended to be. The script by Anita Loos and Robert Hopkins is exemplary, and the performances all around hit just the right, lighthearted, note (again, all the more impressive given the history). For me, SARATOGA has become a test case. I've shown it to over two dozen people over the years, and all of them, having no idea of it's history, thought it was marvelous. Nor did they pick up on the Mary Dees doubling, or even have any idea there was anything wrong with Jean Harlow. All were shocked when I revealed she had died before completing the film. After all these years, it's time for the mourning to end. In 1937 Time magazine boldly declared that SARATOGA was "Jean Harlow's best film, as well as her last." I won't go that far. But among the Gable/Harlow films, I will say it ranks second only to RED DUST. Hopefully, when the film makes it's way to DVD it will get the deluxe treatment it deserves - both for its unique history, and as a memorial to its wonderful leading lady.

Jean Harlow. What a trouper.
Not a bad job of concealing the fact that Jean died halfway through the shooting of this movie. I am glad they didn't start over. Because Jean Harlow sick is still pretty good & this movie is a fitting legacy to her. Actually if you didn't know, the floppy hat, the over use of binoculars at the race track & brief back shots might not have tipped you off.
Oh, the movie. It is really a pretty good romantic comedy about horse racing & betting. The old time race scenes are great.Clark Gable plays the bookie with a heart of gold. Everybody loves him & he loves everybody. Jean is a snob who apparently has spent too much time in Europe. Gable turns her around in no time. Her father was a breeder & she is engaged to a a rich, complusive gambler. Get the picture? The movie alternates between Florida & New York race tracks. Complications ensue but we all know that Clark will get Jean by the closing credits. Lots of star power, good actors like Lionel Barrymore & Walter Pidgeon & character actors like Hattie McDaniel & Frank Morgan. I loved Una Merkel who played Fritzi.
Apparently the last shot of the movie with Clark & Jean waving from the last car on the train was shot eariler. See this one for more than the obvious reason.

Harlow's Swan Song
The other reviewer goes into a great deal of detail about this movie, so there's no need to recap all of that. "Saratoga" is indeed famous because it was the movie that Jean Harlow was making at the time she was striken with nephritis and died, leaving her own part in the show unfinished. Curious to see how that was handled, I rented the movie myself. As comedies from the 30s go, it's okay; not the best work I've seen, but not the worst either. Jean is noticeably fuller figured here than in anything else I'd ever seen her in ("Red Dust", "Wife vs. Secretary"); I suppose it sounds vapid to say, but I think she looked better bodywise than when she was thinner--vapid, because it was her kidney failure that was causing her to retain fluid in her tissues. It's disturbing afterwards to think that here's actual footage of someone dying right before our eyes, and that nobody could pick up on it at the time. As the movie began to move towards its end, I noticed that there were no more shots of Jean's face, that her back was to the camera the whole time. Obviously, these are the shots filmed after her death, when they had to have a body double stand in for her so that the other stars had SOMEBODY to say their lines too, and act around.

If you too are curious to see how MGM dealt with such a serious production problem, then check out "Saratoga", but personally, I find it too sad to see again, regardless of its being a comedy.