Movie of the Week: Parnell (1937)

This week, Clark Gable is a mutton-chopped Irish politician in love with married Myrna Loy in Parnell.

In this historical melodrama, Gable is Charles Parnell, an 1880’s Irish politician dubbed “The Uncrowned King of Ireland” for fighting for Irish freedom from British rule. The British trump up false charges against him to try and keep his efforts down but are unsuccessful. But then Parnell falls in love with Katie O’Shea (Loy), the estranged wife of a British Parliament member. When her husband finds out, he files for divorce and names Parnell as co-respondent, resulting in political and social ruin for Parnell. Just as he begins to fight back for his position, he is taken ill with a sick heart.

Okay, let’s cut to the chase here. This film gets a very bad rap. And, well, it deserves it. It’s not that the script is necessarily bad, or that Clark or Myrna are terrible in their roles…it’s just BORING. This film is BORING. There is not really a climax; it just plods along. And really, how interesting is 1880’s Irish politics?

It’s well known that the film was an enormous flop; losing over $600,000 at the box office, and that Clark shuddered whenever it was mentioned for years to come. The truth is, it actually did not receive all horrible reviews when it came out. You can read some here, where the magazines herald it as being “an artistic triumph,” “a grand production with an excellent cast,” etc. Word of mouth killed it pretty quickly, no matter how much Louis B. Mayer padded the fan magazines’ pockets. Clark Gable playing a soft-spoken, delicate Irish politician was not what the people wanted. And actually it was not the biggest flop of Clark’s career. That award goes to Band of Angels, in terms of money lost.

Joan Crawford was originally cast as the female lead. She hated the script and begged out of it. MGM swapped her with Myrna Loy, who was set to co-star along with William Powell in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Joan later recalled that Clark was frosty to her after the film’s failure. “I don’t think he ever forgave me for leaving him on that sinking ship,” she said.

In my opinion, Joan would have been a bad choice anyway. Katie O’Shea is rather quiet and sweet, much more fitting to Myrna. Clark and Myrna always have chemistry and it is one of the few redeeming qualities of the film. The love story here, although largely fictional like the rest of this “biopic,” is cute.

Much publicity was given to the fact that Clark refused to grow a beard for the role. The real Charles Parnell had quite a bushy beard. The compromise was some very 1970’s-looking mutton-chop sideburns, which did him no favors. I wish he’d grown the beard!