Line #17 Film/HoldYourMan


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0735.JPG]]
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3	''Hold Your Man'' is a 1933 drama film from UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra, directed Sam Wood and starring Creator/ClarkGable and Creator/JeanHarlow.
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5	Eddie Hall (Gable) is a small-time crook. When a scam to relieve a mark of $30 winds up getting Eddie chased by the cops, he dashes into an apartment building and flings himself into a random unlocked door, which happens to be that of Ruby Adams (Harlow). Ruby, who is something of a hustler herself, lets him hide. Sparks fly--it's Gable and Harlow!--Eddie and Ruby fall in love, and soon she's joining him in his con jobs. However, an unexpected tragedy changes things for the both of them.
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7	The third of six films that Harlow made with Gable before her untimely death at the age of 26 ended their screen partnership.
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10	!!Tropes:
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12	* AllWomenAreLustful: Eddie impersonates another inmate's brother in order to get into the jail. When he kisses her, she invites him to do it again, saying "It's been a ''long'' time."
13	* BathtubScene: If you were writing a movie with Jean Harlow, wouldn't you have put her in a sudsy bathtub at some point?
14	* CallBack: "Hold Your Man", first played as a jazz tune in Ruby's apartment, then in a more melancholy manner by Ruby on a jail piano.
15	* CatFight: Cut very very short when Eddie's other girlfriend, Gypsy, delivers a Cat Fight-style slap to Ruby's cheek. Ruby, obviously not interested in any of that, punches Gypsy right in the face instead.
16	* ChekhovsGunman: When Gypsy first appears, it seems like a one-shot gag as Eddie's drunk, jealous girlfriend, who promptly gets arrested for indecent exposure. Then they wind up cellmates and Gypsy becomes Ruby's tormenter. Later a freed and penitent Gypsy comes back again and helps Eddie and Ruby get married.
17	* CigaretteOfAnxiety: "It's snowing cigarettes!", says Eddie's partner as Eddie smokes up a storm. They are waiting out a scam that involves Ruby being romanced by one of her admirers, and Eddie doesn't like it.
18	* ConMan: Eddie is a rather small-time variant of this, getting by on a series of quick low-scale cons, until one goes horribly wrong.
19	* DiesWideOpen: The unfortunate mark who dies after being punched by Eddie.
20	* GreenEyedMonster: Eddie's jealous reaction when setting up a con in which the mark will be romancing Ruby is how he realizes he loves her.
21	* HalfwayPlotSwitch: What seems like it's going to be a merry lark about charming con artists turns completely different when Eddie accidentally kills the mark and Ruby goes to prison for it. This is because MGM, which was getting a little jittery about Jean Harlow repeatedly playing slutty schemers who got away with it, felt like they needed a movie where she got some LaserGuidedKarma.
22	* HeadbuttOfLove: Eddie and Ruby when they finally see each other again after a long time apart.
23	* MeetCute: Eddie, fleeing from the cops, dives into Ruby's apartment and finds her naked in the bath.
24	* NoHonorAmongThieves: After lifting $30 from the mark, Eddie tells his partner in the violin scam that they got only $20, and gives him $10.
25	* OrganGrinder: The presence of one outside Eddie's apartment helps the audience know that Ruby did, in fact, stay the night in Eddie's room
26	* ReallyGetsAround: Ruby, who starts to feel a little guilty about bilking Al, says "I've been around a ''long'' time" when he's being nice to her. Also, her apartment is festooned with pictures of various men who are presumably sugar daddies.
27	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Matron Wagner, who probably could have seen everybody involved in Ruby's wedding to Eddie get extended prison sentences, but instead hugs a weeping Ruby and says she'll be content with revoking their privileges for a week.
28	* RomanticFalseLead: Al, Ruby's suitor, a handsome, kind, gentle and utterly colorless businessman from Cincinnati, who might as well be called Not Clark Gable.
29	* SoapBoxSadie: One of Ruby's cellmates is a comically earnest socialist who calls Ruby "comrade."
30	* TitleThemeTune: "Hold Your Man", first played on a phonograph while Ruby and Eddie dance, later played by Ruby while in jail.
31	* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Where Ruby puts the $5 that Eddie gives her for hiding him.

Context Film / HoldYourMan