MovieChat Forums > The Barefoot Contessa (1954) Discussion > Jean Harlow and Paul Bern

Jean Harlow and Paul Bern

posted 15 years ago by Loomis_Orange
8 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this film from beginning to end for the very first time. That in itself is a shame. The picture was lovely and I certainly appreciate films about Hollywood of old. I feel this movie's loosely based on the relationship between the childlike sex goddess Jean Harlow, who was a mere child of 26 when she died. In ways she was much like the woman in this film. She had dreams of a fairy tale marriage and didn't sleep around. She met this Paul Bern fellow. None of her friends or family could see what she saw in this rather homely, effeminate looking gentleman other than the fact that he was kind to her and didn't treat her like a sex toy and never forced her into any sexual corners. She thought she had found her Prince..so.. she married him. On their wedding night, he could not perform. He didn't tell her of his affliction before the wedding. He attacked her one night in a fit of frustrated rage and she ran to a friend's house beaten and bruised and with bite marks on personal parts of her body. When they came back to the house Paul Bern was dead. He had killed himself by gunshot to the head out of disgust for himself and sexual shame. He left a note.

It's a one-legged race to the liquor store
It's just a hop, skip and jump into the tomb

[–] andyvanm 15 years ago

Bern married film star Jean Harlow on July 2, 1932. Just two months later, on September 5, he was found naked, shot in the head, in their home on Easton Drive, off Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, California. The coroner's jury came to the conclusion that his death was a suicide. To avoid scandal, the MGM management had fabricated an explanation, and evidence for it, that Bern had shot himself in the head because he was impotent. A strange note was left near his body that raised more questions than it answered, stating that "last night was only a comedy." All America, it seemed, wanted to know what Bern meant. Harlow never spoke of the matter.The beating story is just a myth and has been refuted many times by eye witnesses .

[–] Loomis_Orange 15 years ago

Even if your story is correct that doesn't change the fact that the Barefoot Contessa reminded ME of the Jean Harlow-Paul Bern story (fabricated or no) No one actually knows the real truth I suppose. But wondering if they wanted to avoid scandal would MGM paint Paul Bern's suicide the way they did? Could they not have said that he was in physical pain or had servere depression or died by accident or something. Unsing the impotence deal would naturally cause the celebrity rags and the public at large to go wild creating all these sordid sexual scenarios and that would do nothing but keep the story boiling.

It's a one-legged race to the liquor store
It's just a hop, skip and jump into the tomb

[–] BlueGreen 15 years ago

Actually, it is supposed to be based on Rita Hayworth (who is said to have been offered the part in the first place).

[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 13 years ago

I always understood that it was inspired by Rita Hayworth and Aly Khan.

Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies

[–] smjensen312-158-669840 12 years ago

The count was supposed to have been castrated due to a war injury, Paul Bern was supposed to have had a very small (basically non-functional) penis. The similarity is that of course neither of them could consummate a relationship.

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 12 years ago

Well, the latest line is that Bern was murdered by his disturbed first wife . . . though, yes, the story could've been based on such a scenario as has been stated . . . Nasty what the Count pulled-off on her . . . just so his family name could get publicity and that he had married so beautiful a woman . . . very disturbed man . . .

[–] smjensen312-158-669840 12 years ago

I'd heard that too, and also that she committed suicide shortly thereafter. However, based on the comment in his suicide note (why would he write one if he were murdered?) "last night was only a comedy", I'm still inclined to believe that Bern was either impotent or his penis was too small for penetration.

[–] necoleman 11 years ago

I am formerly known as HillieBoliday.....Member since May 2006:

Read Irving Shulman's......"HARLOW"... an intimate biography; published in 1964.

In this book, and according to Arthur Landau, Jean's manager, Paul Bern had the genitalia of an infant. Also according to the book, Paul Bern confided in a Dr. Herman Sugarman, heartbreaking details about his impotency, and sexual inadequacies that had plagued him since adolescence (when boys start exploring their sexuality), and the extreme measures and fear he went through worrying that as a teenager/young man his peers would find out.

Whenever I hear or read Paul Bern's name; my heart just goes out to him. I am a female, and I can only imagine the intense emotional and psychological pain he must have endured because he could not experience the sexual gratification that men are suppose to enjoy; much less the stress, panic and fear that others would find out.

"OOhhhooo....I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"