Movie of the Week: No Man of Her Own (1932)

Well, it being Carole Lombard Month and all, naturally our first Movie of the Week for October is Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s one and only film together, No Man of Her Own (1932).

Gable is Jerry “Babe” Stewart, a crooked card shark on the run from a police investigator when he stops in on the sleepy small town of Glendale. There he meets the bored town librarian, Connie Randall (Lombard) who is just waiting for something exciting to happen to her. “Sometimes I go out in the woods and scream.” She says dryly. And declares the most exciting thing to happen in Glendale recently is that the drug store got banana flavored ice cream. Their attraction is instant, although she tries to play hard to get. On the flip of a coin, they get married (“I never go back on a coin,” he says repeatedly) and she accompanies him back to New York, unaware of his seedy occupation. When she does figure out how he earns his money, she insists that he could play it straight if he wanted to. But he is conflicted–is he willing to give up his lifestyle for the woman he loves?

Definitely a pre-code, we’ve got Dorothy Mackaill in a negligee throwing herself at Clark, Carole running around in her underwear, and both Clark and Carole in the shower. Ooh la la!

In true Gable fashion, Clark’s character is a charming rogue. You like him even though he’s a cad with dishonorable intentions.

“Oooh..pajamas!” he says with eyebrows raised when she appears after changing.

“Lounging pajamas!” she says pointedly.

“Glad you told me.”

He pretty much forces himself on her, feeding her line after line, kissing her when she least expects it.

“You still refuse to be nice, don’t you?” she says after he forces yet another kiss on her.

“All right, what does a nice guy do, sit around and talk?” he scoffs.

Let’s put in plainly: Clark sees Carole and it’s not her personality he wants. He just wants another conquest. She falls hard for him instantly, poor gal. After they are married, while she is in a honeymoon daze, he’s just happy he got her into bed. He apparently intends on sending her back home with “a few thousand dollars and a nice trousseau, she’s a nice girl, she deserves it.” Meanwhile Carole is just blissfully in love with him. Poor naïve girl.

Of course after a few months, Clark hasn’t sent her home and does indeed care for her.

It’s too bad that Clark and Carole never co-starred again, when they were a real couple.  I’ve said it before, but frankly this film could be pure garbage and we’d all watch it and lap it up just to see Clark Gable and Carole Lombard together onscreen. But the good news is that their lone film together is a good little precode film.

And it is not lost on me that the small town Carole lives in, where they meet and fall in love, is called Glendale. Forest Lawn in Glendale, California is where Clark and Carole are buried, side by side.

Full review is here

Nutshell review is here