According to RKO Radio's publicity folks, Beauty for the Asking was supposed to have been an expose of the lucrative beauty-parlor "racket". What emerged on screen, however, was a pedestrian romantic triangle involving socialite Denny Williams (Patric Knowles), his wealthy wife Flora (Frieda Inescort), and pretty beautician Jean Russell (Lucille Ball). Spurned by Williams, Jean finds consolation by developing a revolutionary facial cream that makes her a millionairess. Ironically, her financial backer in this endeavor is none other than her romantic rival Flora. Among the screenwriters was Paul Jarrico, later blacklisted for his allegedly Communistic sentiments; the only thing remotely radical in Beauty for the Asking, however, is the notion that 28-year-old Lucille Ball could play a cosmetic tycoon.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
- Retaliation
- Rags-to-riches
- Marriage
- Love
- Retribution
- Revenge
- Vigilante
- Victim
- Vengeance
- Vendetta
- Inventor
- Invention
- Business
- Bloodshed
- Bloodlust