SARATOGA: Blu-ray (MGM, 1937) Warner Archive

Just six days shooting remained on Jack Conway's Saratoga (1937) when its star, MGM's resident sex symbol, Jean Harlow fell ill, eventually to succumb to uremic poisoning at the tender age of 26. Harlow’s mother’s religious beliefs prevented her from receiving the necessary care to possibly spare her life. There is, today, some debate how far the illness had progressed by the time anyone knew anything was wrong. Gable reported that Harlow’s breath smelled slightly of urine and that she appeared to be suffering from a chronic light fever. Harlow went home to ‘recover’ – then, died. Her fiancée, MGM star, William Powell fell into dark despair. The back lot collectively went into a state of shock, then bewildered mourning, leaving the completion of Harlow's last picture in jeopardy. MGM contemplated recasting Saratoga with Virginia Bruce or Jean Arthur. But fans inundated the studio with pleas to release the film as a testament to its fallen star. As several crucial sequences had yet to be filmed at the time of Harlow's passing, MGM regrouped, hiring double, Mary Dees to finish the picture - a bittersweet occasion for all concerned. Fans may have won the battle, but the spoils of their conquest went straight into MGM's coffers. Saratoga was the biggest-grossing film of 1937. Viewed today, Saratoga is not quite the memorable last act of Harlow's career fans might have preferred. In fact, the screenplay by Anita Loos is rather pedestrian.

And Harlow, it should be noted, was no longer considered ‘the vamp’ in 1937. The harder-edged sex appeal she had exhibited early in her career had morphed, or rather, been gradually blunted by Hollywood’s self-governing code of censorship. So, somewhere between Dinner at Eight (1933) and Reckless (1935), Harlow left the bitten realism of the sexpot scorned on the cutting room floor. And, to her credit, she excelled perhaps even more so as the sexy ‘good girl’ in movies like Wife Vs. Secretary, Libeled Lady (both made and released in 1936) and Personal Property (1937). Any of these aforementioned titles – and a few, as yet unmentioned in this review - would have better revealed the greatness that ‘was’ Jean Harlow, performer/legend, than Saratoga. And Harlow, perhaps recognizing something was terribly remiss about her failing health, though perhaps unable to quantify it, appears in Saratoga as a wan ghost flower of her former self. The nobility she taps into here is of a world-weary nature. In one particular love scene with Gable, she seems to be reaching out for anyone in front of or behind the camera to recognize the pain she is suffering through. It is more for the morbid curiosity of watching a star literally fade away before our eyes that Saratoga was a big hit in 1937 and has remained of interest to fans and celebrity ‘death watch’ gargoyles these many years since Harlow’s passing into screen immortality.

Plot wise, Saratoga is pure pulp given over to MGM’s usual gloss. Bookie, Duke Bradley (Clark Gable) intervenes in the bank's takeover of Grampa Clayton's (Lionel Barrymore) once illustrious stud farm. Grandpa's son, Frank (Jonathan Hale) has been contemplating getting out of the horse race business for some time. Frank's weak heart has left him tired and slightly disillusioned about the future of the farm. Meanwhile, Frank's daughter Carol (Jean Harlow) has been abroad in Europe these many months and has recently become engaged to wealthy Hartley Madison (Walter Pigeon). Duke and Hartley have a long standing - though very congenial - rivalry stemming from a bet Duke lost to Hartley on the racetrack. Duke vows to get even and confides his intensions to friends, Fritzi (Una Merkel) and Tip O'Brien (Cliff Edwards). But Fritzi's husband, Jesse Kiffmeyer (Frank Morgan) is the loveably jealous sort. He thinks Duke is making a play for Fritzi. Actually, Duke is in love with Carol. After Frank dies of a heart attack, Grandpa hands over the deed to the farm to Duke. Carol is outraged but can do nothing without buying the farm back.

At an auction, Duke goads Hartley into betting on Moonray, a colt Carol is selling to pay her debts on the farm. Duke is determined to win Carol's heart. But when he confesses his intensions to soak Hartley for the necessary funds to marry her, Carol is outraged. Duke decides the only way to win Carol is to win enough bets to own the farm outright. But Carol sets into motion a plan to teach Duke a lesson about living life on the prospect of good bets alone. Carol stacks the deck against Duke by getting Jesse's contract with jockey Dixie Gordon (Frankie Darro). But Fritzi learns of this plot and alerts Duke who has already taken a $100,000.000 bet from Hartley that Moonray will win. Instead, Fritzi's horse comes in, securing Duke's future interests in the farm and winning back Carol's love and affection.

Saratoga is rather convoluted entertainment, complicated by the fact Harlow is suddenly absent from its last third. Mary Dee does a so-so job of faking Harlow's presence, shot mostly with her hand to her face or from the back to conceal her identity. But Harlow's inimitable brass and cheek is missing and it is greatly missed. Anita Loos was forced to rewrite the last act to accommodate Harlow's absence. But either way, Saratoga isn't as grand or memorable as Harlow's five other movie outings with Gable - Red Dust (1932) being their finest. Viewed today, the sequence where a beleaguered Carol, recovering from the flu, has Duke rubbing liniment on her back, is a painful reminder of the sad few days left in Harlow's own life. Indeed, Harlow looks bloated and unwell throughout most of this movie.

Saratoga is passable entertainment. But its love triangle gets buried under a quagmire of screwball misdirection. Is this a story of dirty underhanded horse-racing, or a playful romantic romp for its two stars? The screenplay never entirely decides. So, Saratoga flip-flops between these contradictory plot devices. By the end we really do not care if Grandpa gets his farm and only marginally worry whether or not Carol and Duke will be together before the final fade out. Gable's catch all, "I love yah!" doesn't cement their relationship either because he says it to virtually everybody in the cast. In the final analysis, Saratoga is more of a footnote to the behind the scenes tragedy that brought down the curtain on one of Hollywood's most enduring and endearing stars.

Warner's Archive new-to-Blu easily bests the careworn MOD DVD from 2011. This image has all the hallmarks of a full-blown restoration effort, with all the bells and whistles applied to make it shine as never before. The real tragedy here is WAC has pushed Saratoga to the forefront, while still leaving such Harlow/Gable classics as Red Dust (1932) and China Seas (1935) to molder. A word about this. In the past, WAC’s George Feltenstein has inferred WAC is not interested in releasing substandard hi-def releases – an admirable approach to film preservation and one that remains as the gold-standard bearer. However, and in more recent times, WAC has also made movies like Camille (1936) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) – neither surviving from original camera negatives – available in hi-def, afforded all the improvements that are possible within reason, even when cribbing from less than an OCN or even first-generation prints.

So, I really don’t see why WAC cannot proceed to offer up more prescient deep catalog titles like, say, Captain Blood, Honky Tonk, Boy’s Town, My Reputation, Scaramouche, The Brothers Karamazov, High Society, Bathing Beauty, Tea and Sympathy, Ryan’s Daughter, Personal Property, Humoresque, In This Our Life, Mr. Skeffington, A Woman’s Face, The Great Ziegfeld, Around the World in 80 Days, Easy to Love, Anna Karenina, Till The Clouds Roll By, Gunga Din, etc. et al.  Of late, WAC’s only real decision-making appears to be in parceling off a lot of its ‘lesser known’ catalog, mixed in with a few high-profile titles fans have been clamoring for, hoping they will buy the ‘month’s worth’ bundle of the good and the largely forgettable. Again, the effort on Saratoga is first-rate, with crisp whites, deep, velvety blacks, exceptionally reproduced film grain and superb contrast. The 2.0 DTS mono sounds exquisite. But any way you slice it, Saratoga is not a great movie. Even if Harlow had lived to complete it, it is a minor entry in the Harlow/Gable cycle. As a morbid exercise for spotting the scenes in which Harlow had to be replaced by a double, it has its seekers. We get a ‘Romance of Celluloid’ featurette. There are no other extras.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

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