Movie of the Week: China Seas (1935)
This week’s film is Clark Gable the disgruntled sea captain and Jean Harlow the hooker he tried to leave behind in China Seas.
Gable is Alan Gaskell, a roguish captain of a ship that sails between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It’s established pretty early on that he’s been having some adult fun ashore with a Shanghai harlot, Dolly, who goes by the name China Doll (Harlow). So imagine his surprise when setting his ship off to sea that she is on board as a passenger! She confesses she is madly in love with him; he is weary of her and rejects her advances. She is green with jealousy upon the arrival of Sybil,(Rosalind Russell), a distinguished former paramour of Alan’s from England. Lily sets out to win her man back but ends up embarrassing herself in front of him and the lady by telling of Alan’s seedy behavior. Rejected by him once again, she decides to get even and is persuaded to be in cahoots with Jamesy (Wallace Beery), a crooked first mate who is collaborating with Malaysian pirates to loot the ship.
This is one of those films where MGM pulled out all the stops–All star cast! Action! Adventure! Foreign Intrigue! Romance! It was one of the highest grossing films of the year for 1935.
As far as Harlow/Gable pairings, I find this one middle of the road. Personally I like their pre-code fare (Hold Your Man, Red Dust) best. They do, as always, have great chemistry here and he hurls some great lines at her:
“Someday you’ll say something nice and never forgive yourself.”
“Let’s quit good friends instead of like a couple of cab drivers after a drunken brawl.”
“You’ve always got a good reason for anything you do. In fact I don’t know anybody who can think of more remarkable good reasons than you can on short notice!”
They make no mistake of letting you know in not so many words what kind of girl China Doll is, with Clark saying:
“Hello kid, what are you doing out in broad daylight?”
“You and I are friends. We’ve had a lot of fun together and as far as I’m concerned you’re a number one girl in the archipelago. But I don’t remember making any vows to you nor do I recall asking for any.”
Jean’s “loose woman” who wants to turn good for the love of a man was definitely not a new role for her, but she was a pro by 1936. And hey, any excuse to wear slinky gowns with no underwear! Yowza.
“When a woman can love a man right down to her fingertip she can hate him the same way!” she spats at Clark. Don’t mess with Jean!
Jean’s bad wigs are in this film just downright distracting. The poor dear had to wear these cotton-candy poof wigs throughout filming, as her real hair had fallen out in clumps thanks to years of bleaching it with peroxide. During the storm scene, they couldn’t use a wig on her because it would look so fake wet, so for a few seconds you can see Jean’s soaking wet real hair.
Only in a few scenes, Hattie McDaniel steals the show as usual as Jean’s maid Isabel. “Would you say I look like a lady?” Jean asks her sadly, after discovering prim and proper Rosalind Russell is her competition for Clark’s affections. “No, I’ve been with you too long to insult you that way!” Hattie retorts in her feathery robe.
Rosalind is here playing the good girl, when she was a mere colt in MGM’s stable, before her zany comedy years. She loses Gable in this one, but don’t worry she gets to keep him in 1941’s They Met in Bombay, when she was upgraded to leading lady status.
Wallace Beery is here playing the bad guy. Fitting since he and Clark shared a mutual dislike of each other since their film Hell Divers years earlier. During the scene where he hits Clark while he’s passed out, Beery reportedly smacked him hard instead of faking it. Clark jumped out of the chair and threatened to break his neck and the crew had to separate them and continue filming the scene the next day after they had cooled off.
Refusing to reveal to the pirates where the gold is hidden on the ship, poor Clark is tortured–his foot twisted in a Malay boot, which is designed to squeeze your foot between two iron plates and crush the bones. Ouch.
It’s okay, by the end he has a cane…and Jean too!
Full review is here
Nutshell review is here