Synopsis
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Jean HarlowLola Burns
- Lee TracyE.J. 'Space' Hanlon
- Frank MorganPops Burns
- Franchot ToneGifford Middleton
- Pat O’BrienJim Brogan
- Una MerkelMac
- Ted HealyJunior Burns
- Ivan LebedeffMarquis Hugo di Binelli di Pisa
- Isabel JewellA Girl Friend
- Louise BeaversLoretta
Recommendations
- 100
TV Guide Magazine
This early precursor to Sunset Boulevard and The Bad and the Beautiful was so inside that many people outside the movie business didn't catch the nuances, and it still packs a considerable comic punch. - 90
Los Angeles Times
I have a weakness for inside Hollywood films, and this smart and fearless item starring Jean Harlow as an amalgam of herself and Clara Bow is not as well-known as it should be. [03 Apr 2020, p.E1] - 88
Boston Globe
It's loud, abrasive, and as soothing as a slug of battery acid. This crackling 1933 satire directed by Victor Fleming skewers the Hollywood star system with saber-sharp precision. [23 Nov 2006, p.5] - 80
Vanity Fair
One of the funniest pictures of the year: a farce with Frank Morgan, Lee Tracy, Ted Healy and particularly Jean Harlow, concerning the life and times of a Hollywood star, complete with a Marquis and three dogs. - 80
Variety
Here's a crackling comedy built out of the low down on Hollywood, elaborately dressed up with a lot of inside stuff, written with fine jaunty insouciance and acted with luscious abandon by a tip top cast. [24 Oct 1933, p.17] - 80
The New Yorker
Great fun in the uninhibited early-30s style, made at M-G-M before fear of church pressure groups turned the studio respectable and pompous. - 80
Time Out
Allegedly based on the career of Clara Bow (who, like Lola, had a parasitic family and a duplicitous private secretary), Bombshell is a prime example of Jean Harlow at her comic best. - 75
Chicago Reader
One of Jean Harlow's best pictures, this 1933 feature is a merciless satire of Hollywood, with Harlow as a movie star and Lee Tracy as her publicity agent.
