Saratoga

Clark Gable was re-teamed with the beautiful Jean Harlow for the sixth time, in this delightful M-G-M romantic comedy. On screen, Jean Harlow was pure platinum: white-blonde, rare glamourous and tough. But she was fragile off screen, succumbing to kidney disease at the achingly young age of 26, just as this film was about to complete production. So Saratoga became what it was never intended to be: a farewell to the great star. Gable and Harlow share the screen with a superb cast of M-G-M's best supporting players. The story with its colorful racing-circuit setting is a hoot: a snappy, sexy tale of a horse breeder's daughter (Harlow) who's engaged to an upstanding millionaire (Walter Pidgeon), but drawn to a brash bookie (Gable). Saratoga opened a month after Harlow's death and grieving fans made it a box-office smash.

• comedy
• romance