Beauty for the Asking

Beauty for the Asking is a 1939 film drama produced by RKO Pictures, and starring Lucille Ball and Patric Knowles.

Plot
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.

Cast

 * Lucille Ball as Jean Russell
 * Patric Knowles as Denny Williams
 * Donald Woods as Jeffrey Martin
 * Frieda Inescort as Flora Barton-Williams
 * Inez Courtney as Gwen Morrison
 * Leona Maricle as Eve Harrington
 * Frances Mercer as Patricia Wharton
 * Whitney Bourne as Peggy Ponsby
 * George Beranger as Cyril (as George Andre Beranger)
 * Kay Sutton as Miss Whitman, Jean's Secretary
 * Ann Evers as Lois Peabody

Reception
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".

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.