If you enjoy identifying actors in cameo roles, this movie might interest you. Spotting the likes of Mickey Rooney, Leon Ames, Allan Jones, Margaret Dumont and Paul Fix saved this movie for me. If it weren't for that little game, I'd have regarded this film as a total waste - of both my time and a deep, talented cast.The film slowly develops a plot that never seems to gel, and the characters are all very one-dimensional, except Franchot Tone, who delivers a reasonable performance. However, his character's fate comes out of the blue, and is the point at which the tone of the story veers sharply in a bizarre way.The early, light comedy part of this movie is pretty aimless, and it jumps around a lot. The second half of the movie is like a completely different film spliced onto the first half. It, too, meanders; but unlike the first half, it is maudlin and melodramatic.The final scene is preposterous. The supposed-to-be climactic speech by Harlow would not come close to turning a hostile audience in her favor. She repeats a few generalized statements that, no doubt, everybody had read many times in the press coverage of the scandal. Talk about rehash!Oh yeah, there are quite a few discontinuities, too, for those of you who can entertain yourselves by spotting them. There is a shot of Tone's yacht in broad daylight, an intervening interior scene, and then Harlow and Tone go out onto the deck in darkest night, without the slightest suggestion of any time having passed.I was drawn to this film when I saw the incredible cast. How did Victor Fleming and this impressive cast deliver such a malaise of a film? Chalk it up to the writers, I guess.

How do you make a turkey with a cast that includes Jean Harlow, William Powell, and Franchot Tone, and has music by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein? It happened, in 1935, with Reckless, an unfunny, almost incomprehensibly bad melodrama from MGM. The script is terrible; we don't even know why Harlow starts the film in jail. Powell plays a drunk who is in love with Harlow, spouting gibberish for long, embarrassing scenes. Harlow struts her stuff in a couple of awkward dance numbers. (Even Ruby Keeler was a better dancer.) The music is just awful. There is no comic relief. No wit anywhere. What was the director thinking? How did the best studio in the golden age of movies produce something this dreadful? Leonard Maltin gave it two stars out of four. He was far too generous.

Although Jean Harlow disliked playing this part in Reckless because she was a friend of Libby Holman on whom her part is based, she did it anyway, because it was a great part and she turned in a great performance. It was also her first of two films with William Powell whom she was going to marry at the time she died.No doubt the notoriety of the Zachary Smith Reynolds suicide which was in the presence of Ms. Holman, well known torch singer from the twenties was a wonderful story. Can you see the wheels turning in Louis B. Mayer's mind? Star Jean Harlow in this film, also because of her own suicide scandal involving her late husband, Paul Bern. This can't miss at the box office and it didn't. Of course if the film were made today, it would also include Libby Holman's lesbian affairs. As the Code was now in place, that was an aspect that MGM couldn't film in Reckless. Although Harlow is clearly in the lead, Franchot Tone also got one of his best roles as the young millionaire from the horsey set who's not wrapped too tight although that's not apparent at first. For once his part from MGM did not include just wearing tails and being charming.Of the leads William Powell is clearly in third place, he just has to be dapper and supportive as the family lawyer for Harlow and grandmother May Robson. He gets to do a great drunk act though. Speaking of Robson her part in Reckless probably led to her being cast as Janet Gaynor's grandmother in A Star Is Born.This was an early film for Rosalind Russell who plays the girl Tone jilts when he marries Harlow. She plays it nice and supportive. Russell did China Seas as well with Harlow and in her memoirs, she says that Harlow was a kind, generous, and supportive to a new kid on the lot. Who could know she would be dead within two years.Reckless is one of Jean Harlow's best acted parts in her career. Fans of her and Franchot Tone should not miss this film by any means.

This really seems like a Marion Davies vehicle: comedienne who really can't dance or sing is called upon to do so (but her songs are dubbed). This one has ornate, ridiculous-but-not-Busby Berkely routines, and the usual good, almost artistic, direction by Victor Fleming. But it also has William Powell and Jean Harlow! I've never seen Powell more relaxed and fun; he has obvious chemistry not just with Harlow but with May Robson as Granny! The scenes between him and May are a delight. And Harlow's acting is great! So it's a must-see for fans of Powell and Harlow. Just be prepared, the musical scenes are a joke, and the final scene is so ill-conceived it's a let-down. Otherwise, this is first-rate.