Movie of the Week: Red Dust (1932) and Mogambo (1953)

This week, we’ve got Clark Gable in the original and the remake of the story about a man in a foreign land torn between a prim married lady and a good-times girl in Red Dust (1932) and Mogambo (1953).

In both films, Clark is an American living in a foreign land with a job to do, who gets distracted when a fun-loving gal shows up. After a brief dalliance with her (she falls in love, he thinks it just a fling), a dignified couple show up to work/do research. Clark soon falls for the wife, bad girl gets jealous, love triangle ensues.

Setting:

RD: Set on a rubber plantation in Indochina, however the picture was filmed entirely on MGM’s backlot (in fact the same jungle set was used later for Clark’s films Too Hot to Handle and Strange Cargo.) It may be fake, but it’s a grand set and everyone is depicted as sweaty and dirty–you can practically feel the humidity seeping off the screen.

M: The picture was filmed on location in Nairobi and Uganda in late 1952. There’s no faking these backdrops! It’s obvious that clips of the animals–gorillas, panthers, hippos fighting–are spliced in with the actor shots and there is also obvious rear projection used in the jeep and boat scenes, but nonetheless, the effect the real surroundings on the film elevate it from the mundane. The interiors were filmed in MGM’s London studio.

Our Leading Man:

RD: Clark is sex, sex, sex on a spoon here. He’s young, he’s constantly sweaty and dirty, his hair is flopping in his face, he’s a cad but who cares? He’s got dirt underneath his fingernails but you still wouldn’t mind him pulling you into his lap.

M: Clark is, of course, much older here, and as a man in his early fifties one can argue that perhaps he should not have been the #1 pick for 23-year-old Grace and 30-year-old Ava to fight over. He’s not overtly sexy, but he has that masculine energy seeping out of his pores (well, maybe not when they put him in shorts with knee socks….) Hey, in his first scene he is shirtless, and not too bad for a man of his age.This is one of the very few Clark Gable films in color, so you get to see his sparkling gray eyes. The hair on his temples has turned to match, but you don’t mind.

The “Bad Girl”:

RD: Jean Harlow’s Vantine is a prostitute and this fact is more than alluded to without ever having to be said outright: “I guess I’m not used to sleeping nights anyway…” Jean is definitely more tortured and at odds with herself than her 1953 counterpart. Jean does a brilliant job here, in what is my favorite role of hers. You can watch the pain that spread across her face when Clark tries to pay her as she’s leaving, as she realizes that while she’s fallen in love with him, it was always just a transaction to him.

M: Ava Gardner’s Honey Bear Kelly is no prostitute, but rather a showgirl. She’s just a fun girl who likes to float around and have a good time. I love Ava in this film. She is gorgeous, sexy and funny, and holding her own as she is hurt by Clark casting her aside. And I am in love with her ’50’s wardrobe of colorful cardigans, slim pants, full skirts, neck kerchiefs and kitten heels. What else would you wear to the African jungle?

The Married Lady:

RD: Mary Astor is no Jean Harlow but she is damn sexy in her own right. Not nearly as prim and proper as her 1953 counterpart. She gets to slink around in some tight dresses of her own and her and Clark’s attraction is sizzlin’.

M: It’s quite interesting that Clark and Grace Kelly were in the midst of a romance during filming, since I find their chemistry a bit lacking. Compared to him and Mary, it’s barely on a simmer. Grace is very haughty and oh-so-easily-shocked. I can’t stand her shrillness when she rejects her husband’s advances in their tent, “That light is shining right in my eyes!!!” Or her daintiness as she flings herself onto Clark screaming when gorillas advance on them. Or her snippy mistreatment of Ava when Ava calls her out on her dalliance with Clark and tries to make amends. Every scene of hers is grating on my nerves. You really don’t understand what draws Clark’s attention away from vibrant and radiantly sexy Ava to pearl-clutching Grace, other than that pretty face.

The Husband:

RD: I don’t much like Gene Raymond, I’ll be honest. There’s just nothing great about him; it’s always like he is just there filling shoes for anyone else who could have done the role. Same here. You see why Mary Astor chooses Clark.

M: I much prefer Donald Sinden in this role over Gene. He at least has some personality and seems to be figuring out what’s going on between Clark and his wife sooner than Gene does.

The Ending:

RD: Mary shoots Clark after she catches him in Jean’s arms and he makes her believe he was leading her on the whole time. “Sure, I’m drunk. That’s why I’m telling you the truth. You want to hear some more truth? I didn’t say anything to your husband down there and I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve just been kidding you all the time and everybody knew about it. If you want to come down here, you come down here on our rules. And if you want to cheat on your husband, that’s okay with me and I’m the boy you’re looking for! And let me tell you this: I’m not a one woman man. I never have been and I never will be. If you want to take your turn…” BANG! That bastard! Mary and Gene leave, seemingly to live happily ever after and have babies. Clark and Jean are left alone, apparently to eat French cheese.

M: Grace shoots Clark after she catches him in Ava’s arms and he makes her believe he was leading her on the whole time. “Certainly I’m drunk. But I certainly know what I’m saying. Listen Mrs. Nordley, you’re not going to tell me that you’ve been taking all this seriously are you? You know how it is on safari–it’s in all the books. The women always falls for the white hunter and we guys make the most of it, can you blame us? When you all come along with that look in your eye, ain’t a guy in the whole world that could–” BANG! (complete with Grace’s now-signature anguished shriek) That bastard! Grace and Donald leave, to live happily ever after and have babies. Clark and Ava are apparently going to get married and live happily ever after with Joe the snake.

What’s Cringe-worthy:

RD: The treatment of Clark’s Vietnamese “houseboy,” who is purely there for comic relief and is referred to as being stupid. The rest of the plantation’s Asian workers “coolies” are depicted as lazy and silly and apparently good for nothing until Clark gets after them. Yikes.

M: It cannot be unnoticed in these modern times, when Ringling Brothers Circus has closed up shop for good for the sake of the animals, that it is shocking and appalling to watch Clark and his crew set up traps and capture baby elephants, rhinos, giraffes and monkeys, selling them off to zoos and circuses. The baby rhino and elephant that Ava befriend tug at my heart strings. Also a big gorilla is featured on many of the posters, featuring the tag like “The battle of the sexes! The battle of the gorillas!”, which would make it seem like they’re at war with killer gorillas throughout the film. Really the part with the gorillas is quite brief, and the pre-filmed footage of them is spliced into the reaction shots of the stars in an obvious way.