The Working Dead

To pastures more sunny and flowered
Went Harlow, Lugosi, and Howard.
But posthumous credits
through doubles and edits
Can leave one a little bit soured.

Donald B. Benson

Image: Between Walter Pigeon and Clark Gable and behind binoculars is actress Mary Dees, doubling for Jean Harlow in Saratoga (Jack Conway; 1937). Saratoga was completed despite Harlow's death; Bela Lugosi "starred" in Plan Nine From Outer Space via a few soundless shots Ed Wood had taken for something else; and Shemp Howard's final Three Stooges shorts used doubles and footage from earlier films.

Astor Risk

 

One's shamefully funny, robust
One's tame and well-done, upper-crust
The wise-cracking whore
Or the prize who's a bore
Two dames, only one you can trust.

Clark Gable is caught in a triangle with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor in Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932). What the film has to say about virtue is more nuanced than you might expect. Title by the risqué James Finn Garner.

Clark Raving Mad

Red-blooded, and get 'er done Gable
Looked ruddy and willing and able.
From ardor they'd swoon
For this star so rough-hewn
King stud of the Metro-run stable.

Clark Gable and Jean Harlow heat up Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932).

Of Humid Bondage

When cast as a matron demure
Mary Astor is stately and pure
Yet what Joe is so damp
He’d forgo the hot tramp?
High class doesn’t rate ‘gainst a hooer.

James Finn Garner



Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932). Rubber plantation ramrod Clark Gable (there's a, um, mouthful) is torn between married society dame Mary Astor and prostitute Jean Harlow. Title by Bond villain Donald B. Benson.

Indochina Pattern

 

No lady, she's lolled on the street
For a payday she's followed the fleet
Who'll he choose between classy
And this floozy who's brassy?
I'm afraid that this doll can't be beat.



Jean Harlow and Clark Gable star in Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932).This steamy melodrama about a love triangle is set on a rubber plantation in what was then called Indochina. Title by male patterned James Finn Garner.

Harlow Can You Go?

In a barrel this "Lily" is splashing
Sans apparel she's thrillingly thrashing
Bare-naked, with sponge,
She's taking the plunge
Doesn't care that civilians she's flashing.



Jean Harlow as Vantine Jefferson and Clark Gable as Dennis Carson in Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932). They call each other "Lily" and "Fred," as though neither can be bothered to remember the other's name. Title by go-go Norm Knott.

Rubber-Dub-Dub

To a cheap rubber farm Harlow’s gone
'Til the heat settles down in Saigon
She’s testing Clark Gable
As best as she’s able
Now Jean’s a renowned “barrel blonde.”

James Finn Garner

Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932). James Finn Garner writes novels about a clown detective and poetry about baseball. And you think I'M weird.

Red Dust in the Sunset

This bargirl of loosest repute
Likes sparring with boozer and brute
Wears flimsy apparel
And swims in a barrel
Jean Harlow is truly a hoot.

Jean Harlow. Clark Gable and Donald Crisp in Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932).

Dust Never Sleeps

The setting's a steamy plantation
For a sweaty, unseemly flirtation
They fight and they spoon
Through a frightful typhoon
Dry or wet, this screen team's a sensation.

Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932).The actors made six films together.

Red Dustup

One more tart in a skirt with a bust
Just a smart aleck flirt, lower crust
While you're tapping the rubber
You play sap and you snub her, 
Drag her heart through the dirt and the dust.

In Red Dust (Victor Fleming; 1932), Jean Harlow and Clark Gable spar on a rubber plantation.