Beauty for the Asking is a 1939 film drama produced by RKO Pictures, and starring Lucille Ball and Patric Knowles.
Beauty for the Asking | |
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Directed by | Glenn Tryon |
Written by | Doris Anderson and Paul Jarrico (screenplay) Edmund L. Hartmann (story) Grace Norton and Adele Buffington (idea) |
Produced by | B. P. Fineman |
Starring | Lucille Ball Patric Knowles Donald Woods Frieda Inescort |
Cinematography | Frank Redman |
Edited by | George Crone |
Music by | Roy Webb |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 68 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Jean Russell is a beautician who is jilted by her boyfriend so he can marry an older but wealthy woman. Russell invents a new facial cream, and with the financial backing of her former boyfriend's wife, starts a business that makes her a millionaire.
RKO's pre-release publicity claimed that the film was to be an "exposé of the beauty racket" but reviewers of the day concluded that it was a standard "romantic love triangle".[1]
Leonard Maltin has written favorably of the film, suggesting that the film offered an unusual feminist viewpoint for its time, and acknowledging that Ball delivered a strong performance.[2]