You keep being thrown by how sexy it is – Gable and Harlow clearly have sex the night they meet; Gable offers Harlow money the next morning!; Gable spies Mary Astor taking off her clothes through a window; Gable and Astor kiss in a storm and she's totally up for it (steam is practically coming off their clothes); Harlow takes a bath in a tub and you see her bare back (apparently in real life she leapt up at the end of a take showing her breasts saying "this is one for the boys in the lab"); on the night Gable is shot he tells Harlow to go up to bed and wait for him; Gable puts his hand up Harlow's leg at the end.
Gable’s performance is famous for his he-man aspect (bossing around coolies, ignoring Harlow) but he is genuinely touching and vulnerable in his love for Mary Astor. Harlow is hilarious, sexy and sympathetic as the prostitute who falls for Gable and has to jump and wave to get his attention. (The story is really about the Gable-Astor romance - he only goes with Harlow out of a default position.) Great fun, even if the bit where Astor's husband goes on and on about how much he loves Astor and admires Gable gilds the lily a bit and all the Asian characters are racist caricatures.
NB One extra thing - in articles on the making of this film, they often refer to the final scene being about Harlow reading Gable a kid's story while he puts his hand on her leg. Well, it is but actually the final shot is a guffawing comic relief Chinese cook. If people are going to recall pre-Code films with such fondness, they shouldn't forget the less pleasant aspects.
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