Beauty for the Asking (1939)
Directed by Glenn Tryon / B.P. Fineman
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
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.
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Keywords
beautician, bloodshed, business, inventor, love, marriage, rags-to-riches, revenge, victim