Jean Harlow discovers jerking sodas in small town USA ain’t much different than jerking sodas under the bright lights of the big city. And no man will make a jerk of her! The seductive Harlow, the perspicacious Mae Clark and the unpretentious Marie Provost are the titular women whose wisdom cannot always save them from love’s forlorn consequences.
In Harlow’s first starring role, DP Ted Tetzlaff wastes no time in focusing the camera upon her beautiful figure, following her home from work and methodically undressing before climbing into bed...with her mother! But we soon learn Cassie is not content with her $15/week salary and longs to earn more money in the Big City like her friend Gladys, who just purchased her own mother a brand-spanking new Ford motorcar. Cut To: Cassie jerking sodas once again but this time in the city. As a drunken and suspiciously well-dressed man stumbles to the counter Cassie literally floors her boss for his “hands-on” training procedures. She quits and demands her two-days pay. When he refuses the drunken customer stands up for her. Thus begins a blossoming romance that soon wilts under the klieg lights of unholy matrimony.
Cassie and the upwardly mobile Jerry soon begin to date at the urging of her roommate Dot, whose homespun worldly wisdom is greater than the hackneyed letters clacked out from her Underwood. Marie Provost is wonderful as the roommate, often mocking her own shortcomings with humor and wit while never surrendering to their abased social status. In one scene, she holds up a small “shriveled wienie” and imparts sage advice for gals like them: ‘ya know, even small wienies have something to offer! Hot damn, fuck the Hayes’ Code! Cassie and Gladys are soon reacquainted but Gladys’ happiness seems precipitous, likely to fall because she’s the mistress to a wealthy man. Cassie sees the superficial glamour but her childhood friend’s insight is acute and she warns Cassie about getting involved with her own married man. And Jerry is a married man, a fact he has kept hidden. In fact, Jerry is trying to convince his wife to divorce him which predates Cassie’s involvement so he’s not the Cad she mistakenly believes. Dot hooks up with Jerry’s chauffeur and finds love of her own. Gladys is the tragic one, whose downfall was almost terminal velocity but induced by poison instead.
Believing Jerry is a jerk and suffering from the loss of her friend, Cassie heads back home to the coffee-stained counter of her previous life. But a surprising headline and a trio of visitors sweep her away again: Jerry is divorced and Dot is engaged...to the chauffeur! It’s all a rather trifling affair though the death of Gladys is poignant. In THREE WISE GIRLS, the three actresses outclass the mundane script.
Final Grade: (C)
