The Girl from Missouri was made right around the time the film code was going into effect. This film stresses virtue and high morality yet it still has some lines and scenes that would not again be seen in Hollywood movies for decades to come.

Jean Harlow plays a chorus girl, named Eadie, on the make for a millionaire. She chases an old rich guy (Lionel Barrymore) to Palm Beach. Once there, she meets and falls in love with his son, Tom. The old man wants his son to stay away from her. He assumes she is nothing more than a gold digging slut.

To open his son's eyes to her, he shows Eadie around his home. He ends up leaving Tom and Eadie in Tom's bedroom. The idea is that his son will get some and realize Eadie is just a slut looking for money. However the plan backfires as Tom's sexual advances to Eadie reveal that she is actually a virgin and intends to stay that way till marriage. To his dad's dismay, Tom then gets engaged to Eadie. Desperate to get rid of her, Tom's dad then sets Eadie up for stealing and gets her put in jail. To save herself, Eadie finds herself on the brink of sacrificing her virtue to a married man (played by Andy Hardy's dad Lewis Stone). Tom of course comes to the rescue.

The film is fast and funny. At a mere 72 minutes it is over before you know it. The dialogue is classic. Early in the movie Harlow and a friend (Patsy Kelly) are at a party full of rich older men. Harlow tells her friend to act like a lady. Her friend responds, 'If they wanted ladies they'd go home to their wives.'

This movie also contains some dark subjects. Early in the movie a man kills himself by gunshot. In one scene Harlow loses a job because - as she explains it - she '...wasn't friendly enough to the boss.' In another scene Harlow tells a friend that she just got engaged to a man she just met. Her friend asks, 'Did someone have you sniff a little white powder.' In another scene, Harlow gets thrown in a shower fully dressed. When she emerges you can clearly see some nipple action through her soaked dress.

For being a simple little comedy it was very well-written. Right after Tom's dad frames Eadie he is shown speaking at a banquet. Later he gives a little speech to some reporters. Both speeches contain the subjects of honor, sincerity and dignity, all of the things that he does not show to Eadie.

The lead male role played by Franchot Tone should have been played by a bigger star. Sure he does a decent job, but Harlow sucked up scenery better than any actress of her day. She was best when opposite a major lead actor like James Cagney or Clark Gable. Made during the depression, this is just another of the thousands of Hollywood movies that show the rich as self-centered stuck-ups. The Hays Movie Code forbade direct references to drugs or sex. Too bad it did nothing to stop the stereotypes of blacks who are shown here as simple laborers, and rich whites who are always shown as snobs.

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