The Sex Goddess in American Film, 1930–1965: Jean Harlow, Mae Wes ...

Plate4. Theda Bara (1917).

In contrast, the early 1930s gold diggers had presumably better intentions, as well as a better plan. Their game was not only surviving or getting by while eventually realizing great wealth at the expense of man, but also often keeping that man. Love and money were not their main objectives; they also wanted to gain access to all of the culture that wealthy men could buy, including the respect that came with a newly elevated class status. In other words, not all gold diggers were prostitutes, nor vice versa, although it is true that sometimes they were both. Frequently, however, a marked difference exists in these 1930s films between gold diggers and prostitutes, one that is probably best demonstrated in the film Gold Diggers of 1933.