#ManCrushMonday Robert Williams in "Platinum Blonde" (1931)

People will best remember the early Frank Capra directed "Platinum Blonde" as one  of the first films that shot Jean Harlow's career into the stratosphere. But it is a lovely and nuanced role of a trophy husband trapped in his wife's home that is just as striking as Harlow's legendary blond curls. Best described according to an IMDB user as a "portrayal of fresh, modern, naturalistic acting (a style that later would be attributed to James Dean)", Williams was in a league of all his own as a "bird in a gilded cage."

Post reporter Stew Smith somehow manages to get assigned to get the latest on the rich playboy Michael Schulyer who paid off a chorus girl's breach of promise suit. But the family isn't going to say a thing to the press, including Michael's sister Anne (Harlow). Somehow Smith manages to get the confirmation and taking a book from the family's library to come back to chat Anne up a little. Eventually they fall in love and get married, but that's where the trouble really begins. It also does not help that one of his reporter friends just happens to be Loretta Young, who is deeply in love with him!

Although stuck in a "gilded cage," Smith is a naturally sympathetic role who also happens to be incredibly good looking and as charming and witty as later Capra headliners. Did I mention good looking? It bears repeating. Three days after "Platinum Blonde"'s release, Williams would pass away from periontitis after two operations for appendicitis the week before. He was 37 years old.