Jean Harlow made movies, but there were fewer than a handful of truly great ones. Like Theda Bara, Rudolph Valentino and Marilyn Monroe, Harlow survives in the popular imagination as a series of glamorous studio portraits–that capture an essence that was certainly part of what she was–but only part. The character on the screen is the “blonde bombshell” of the still photos, but she is more–funny, sensitive underneath a leather-tough exterior and down to earth in a way that seems out of step with seductress in the stills. [...]