This MGM comedy-romance drama has a wonderful cast with three big name leads of the day. Jean Harlow is Eadie, Lionel Barrymore is T.R. Paige and Franchot Tone is T.R. Paige Jr. The drama aspect is in a small-town girl leaving home to get away from an overbearing stepfather and escape a seedy lifestyle. The drama also comes in as Eadie tries to work her way into the circle of wealthy men. And in a short scene that ends with a broken businessman committing suicide. Eadie wants to find a rich man to marry, and not become a harlot in the process.It's that very drive to remain a good girl that makes for some of the comedy with T.R. Paige (Lionel Barrymore), who spots her as a gold-digger from the first. But it's also the allure that wins over T.R. Paige Jr. (Franchot Tone). The difference between a gold-digger and Edie, as Tom Paige Junior discovers, is that Edie doesn't want money and a good time. She wants marriage with the money – and a settled lifestyle. And for love to come with it – well, that's perfect."The Girl from Missouri," isn't a riotous or witty comedy. But it is a nice story with some very clever schemes and funny situations. I think Harlow is the funniest when she puts on airs and acts a snob – the exact type of person she dislikes. I suppose the writers and directors know that, and it's why she gets films such as this where she gets to play both roles.Lionel Barrymore is very good, as always. Franchot Tone is superb as the young banker-heir to his father's fortune. He's also a playboy, but well-liked by friends and acquaintances. Tom is smitten by Edie the moment he sees her, and he persistently pursues her. At first, she doesn't know who he is, and before she learns that he too is rich and heir to a fortune, they hit it off and she begins to fall for the guy. Of course, dad must try to dissuade the son and he tries everything to get him to see that she is a gold-digger.How it works out after their first encounters is all part of the fun of this entertaining film. It's not filled with laughs or witty dialog. But it is a fine comedy-romance with some drama thrown in for a good story. One character began to grate on me after a while. Patsy Kelly plays Kitty Lennihan, Eadie's best friend and companion – her chaperon, as Eadie calls her. But much of the time Eadie has to be chaperoning her. It might be funny once or twice, but after a few situations it becomes irksome.This film also has a number of top supporting actors of the day. Lewis Stone, Alan Mowbray, Hale Hamilton and others do well in their roles. This is a movie that most movie buffs should enjoy.This film came out in 1934, right when the motion picture industry began enforcing its "Hays Code" through the "Breen" office. So, I thought the opening script was interesting. It read, "This picture approved by the Production Code Administration of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America." It had "Certificate Number 91."

Pretty weak showcase for the star who manages to shine brightly despite the ordinariness of the script. The story is cliché and has been told with more imagination elsewhere.It helps that she is pitted against a top rank actor like Lionel Barrymore as her protagonist. Their flinty interchanges are some of the best scenes in this lackluster affair. The other standout in the cast is Patsy Kelly who makes a peach of a sidekick for the brassy Jean. Her easy virtue is used to counterpoint the heroine's chastity in a way that could get around the censors of the day. The actor who is out of place, although he fulfills his role adequately, is Franchot Tone. A fine actor in the right pictures, dramas such as Five Graves to Cairo and the like, Metro for some reason used him mostly as a colorless effete mannequin for their leading ladies. Jean and he are oil and water, she was always more comfortable with an earthy man like Gable or Spencer Tracy. One last thing, what a lousy title for any movie but for a Jean Harlow movie, ridiculous. For some reason the powers that be had a hard time coming up with an appropriate title. Shot under the title Eadie Was a Lady, then changed to 100% Pure then Born to Be Kissed and released in some areas under that title, while none of them is great any would have made more sense than the lemon they ended settling on.

In this film, made JUST as the production code was being enforced, Jean Harlow is Eadie, and Patsy Kelly is the wisecracking, man-chasing sidekick "Kitty". Girl from Missouri starts out with the girls getting on a train, with Eadie making a promise to herself to earn money while looking for a millionaire husband, staying whole-some in the process. It doesn't take her long to meet up with Frank Cousins, (Lewis Stone, was the kindly Doctor in Grand Hotel, as well as Judge Hardy in the "Andy Hardy" films.), but all is not as it seems...The censors must have LOVED Harlow's line "A girl couldn't accept an expensive gift like that from a gentleman unless she was engaged." Later, someone says "You know we've never been alone together" and Eadie replies "Yeah, and we're not going to be!" Lionel Barrymore is T.R. Paige, another rich, uppercrust who comes to her rescue when trouble comes looking for Eadie. At one point, Paige declares "You oughta scratch me off your list - I'm not a ladies man".... I wonder what that line would have been just a couple years earlier before the Hayes code came rolling into town. What was he really saying? Carol Tevis seems to be the high-pitched "Baby Talker" as listed in the credits on IMDb. Looks like she was only in showbiz from 1931 - 1939, with "Munchkin" in Wizard of Oz being the last part she played. Fun, cleancut romp as the girls chase men around the country. Look for Nat Pendleton as the lifeguard, who was an Olympic Wrestler 1920 (silver medal winner) turned film star (he was in many of the Dr. Kildares, and would appear in four of Harlow's films.) Mistaken identity, plot twists, a young Franchot Tone, love stories, even Jean Harlow in a bathing suit in "Palm Beach", although the outdoor scenes of downtown appear to be a backdrop.

THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI arrives in New York City knowing exactly what she wants: to amount to something solid by marrying a millionaire - without losing her virginity. With her knockout good looks she quickly catches the eye of the playboy son of a tycoon, but by staying true to her virtue will she also discover true love?Jean Harlow sizzles in this excellent little comedy. With her platinum hair & gorgeous accouterments, she is a dazzler. But her beauty should not obscure the fact that she was also a very good actress. She has rightfully earned her spot at the very top of the Hollywood pantheon.An excellent cast gives Harlow fine support: Lionel Barrymore as the wily old tycoon, wise to Harlow's ways; handsome Franchot Tone as his son, smitten with love; raucous Patsy Kelly, stealing her scenes as Harlow's sidekick; debonair Alan Mowbray, as a well-mannered English Lord; elderly Clara Blandick as Barrymore's feisty secretary; hearty Hale Hamilton as a rich man with an eye for the ladies; muscular Nat Pendleton as a lifeguard who catches Kelly's flirtatious eye; and Lewis Stone, unforgettable in a small role as a bankrupted businessman.It should be noted that this film was produced soon after Hollywood's Production Code was instituted. A comparison with RED-HEADED WOMAN, made two years earlier, would be fascinating - in which Harlow's character goes after the same ends, but uses very different means.