But Not for Me (1959)
Release Date: August 19, 1959
Directed by: Walter Lang
Studio: Paramount
Costarring:
Carroll Baker
Lilli Palmer
Available to Rent via Amazon
DearMrGable.com’s Movie of the Month, June 2011
10th Anniversary Celebration Movie of the Week, June 17, 2019
Gable is Russ Ward, an aging Broadway producer deep in debt and losing his touch. When he finally decides to throw in the towel, his much younger secretary, Ellie Brown (Baker), admits to being in love with him. Her speech to him gives him the idea for a great play and he sets to work on it, reviving his career, leading Ellie on in the process. She proves she can play the lead role and becomes a success. Russ starts to have feelings for Ellie but his ever-present meddling ex-wife, Kathryn (Palmer) interferes.
Ella Fitzgerald singing the hit theme song, by Ira and George Gershwin
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Reviews
Modern Screen magazine, October 1959:
Clark Gable is the kind of producer who’ll tell Life magazine he has a hit play in the offing when the playwright (Lee J. Cobb) is too drunk to write the third act–because the first two acts were lousy. Flamboyant, self-assured, a powerhouse of charm, Gable even has two telephones in his limousine, but that’s not why his secretary, Carroll Baker, falls for him (that is, the telephones aren’t why). He’s twice Carroll’s age but she can overlook that. (He can, too; he’s been trying to overlook his age for years.) The plot is that Cobb’s play is so terrible even Gable gets scared. He decides that his career is finished and the first person he fires is Carroll. Now that she’s free, she’s equal–and tells him off. What she tells him is that she loves him madly. In two minutes Gable’s back in the business–because all of Carroll’s dialogue is perfect. Word for word it finds its way into Cobb’s script. And who could be a better star for that script than Carroll? After her debut she feel important enough to marry Gable. But does he feel young enough? Around to persuade him otherwise are his ex-wife, charmingly brittle Lilli Palmer, and Carroll’s ex-boyfriend, young actor Barry Coe.
Screenland magazine, November 1959:
Age is a wonderful catalyst, balancer, and, at times, the unwelcomed thing that stares back in a mirror. With theatrical impresario Clark Gable, however, age is an offensive word. As ex-wife Lilli Palmer put it in one of the soaring moments of dialogue: “He’s the only man who’s been reincarnated while he was still alive.” Facing bankruptcy because of a combination of high-living and alimony, Gable is desperate for a hit play. To bridge the crisis, alcoholic playwright Lee J. Cobb, and Gable’s secretary, Carroll Baker, are bamboozled into giving their all. For Cobb, that means going off the wagon, for Carroll, she only only gives the play its inspiration but also its star. No 22-year-old could ask anything more–except Gable thrown in. Carroll is just about to achieve Nirvana when young actor Barry Coe waves muscles and vigor. Delightful and slick treatment of the possibilities when a young girl falls in love with a man at least 20 years her senior.
Photoplay magazine, December 1959:
One joke–stage producer Clark Gable’s reluctance to admit his age–sparks a mild romantic comedy. While Carroll Baker isn’t too well-cast as his eager, youthful new love, Lilli Palmer has the light charm the film needs.
Quote-able Gable
“Hello? Thank you, operator.” first line
“I don’t believe in awards, they’re for historians. I deal strictly in the future books.”
“You read contracts for a living! What do you know about character and plot?”
“Are you trying to tell me that I’m through? That I’m old fashioned, a has-been? Well even if you’re thinking it you couldn’t be more wrong!”
“Your cough is the illegitimate child of you and those cigarettes!”
“You cast a sixty year old man pawing over a girl of twenty and the audience will go home sick!”
“I believed in you. It’s too bad you haven’t courage enough to believe in yourself.”
“Come on, let’s have a farewell drink before the ship goes under.”
“You’ll find someone else. The world is full of exciting people, much more exciting than I am.”
“I’m an expert on the care and feeding of egos.”
“I’ve seen French generals kiss heroes with more passion!”
“Marriage is a serious thing. You don’t just jump into it in the middle of a play.”
“I remember my first opening, 22 years–well, what difference does the date make, the feeling’s the same.”
“Honey, tonight you’d marry Frankenstein.”
“You think it’s safe to be out here alone? You might easily be stabbed!”
“Have you realized how few clothes you have on?”
“Nothing has ruined more good actors than the bottle.”
“I’m no artist. I’m a promoter, pure and simple. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to stay on top, I’d use anybody or anything. You know, I’ve gotten by on hustle, on out- working, out-talking, out-promising and out-gambling everybody else. I don’t always come home nights. I’ve got a bad temper and I’d make a poor father. I can only die broke, out of breath and facing reality for the first time. Ellie, you’d be a fool to marry me.”
“You were a kid who got some glamour dust on her and couldn’t see straight.”
“That’s one of the tragedies in life. People not believing what’s right in front of them.”
“Youth. The kids can have it!”
“There’s an angry husband if I’ve ever heard one. And I have.”
“What right did you have to risk MY money on MY play?”
“Maybe you’re right.” last line
Behind the Scenes
Based on the 1930 play “Accent on Youth.” It had been filmed twice before, in 1934 with Herbert Marshall and in 1950 with Bing Crosby (as Mr. Music).
The film’s title theme song far outlasted the film in popularity. Originally sang by Ella Fitzgerald, it became a standard.
The only time Gable worked with director Walter Lang, who was a longtime friend. Walter’s wife, “Fieldsie” Lang, was Carole Lombard’s close friend and Carole was godmother to their son, Richard.
On the marquee for the play in the film, “Give Me Your Hand”, the name “Richard Lang” is listed as one of the actors. That is the name of the director’s son.
A flop at the box office, largely blamed on the miscasting of Carroll Baker, who wasn’t an established actress and who lacked chemistry with Gable. However, it was the most critically praised performance of Gable’s post-war career.
Baker later recalled that her first scene to film was the one in which she grabs Gable and kisses him. She was scared stiff. She said he put her at ease but she still nearly fainted and had to redo the scene several times.
At the wrap party for the film, Gable gifted the cast with baskets of Kay’s homemade potato chips, made from their potato crop on the ranch.
Gable was nominated for a Best Actor Musical/Comedy Golden Globe for his role. The film was also nominated for Best Picture Musical/Comedy and Lilli Palmer was nominated for Best Actress.
One Comment
Pat Baldwin
After watching most of Clark Gable’s movies and reading all of the biographies about him like it was my job, I’ve come to the conclusion that he wasn’t acting….he was playing himself in different scenarios. He clearly WAS Rhett Butler!
I’ve also noticed some things that seem consistent throughout each movie. He asks/demands his leading ladies to come to him at some point in the movie.
He wasn’t a marrying man in his heart and apparently wasn’t a one-woman man ever.
That said, I think love and sex were two very different things for him. That’s why he apparently paid hookers from time to time. No complications.
He had unbelievable sex appeal and very few women (if any!) were immune. When he grabbed you for a kiss, he really enveloped you. He was also able to show desire in his eyes.
I suspect he was a very passionate lover and seriously doubt if Carole Lombard’s comments about him being a lousy lay were in jest. (And about that, what man wouldn’t be mad as hell if his wife demeaned him in that area!)
I think he had his own code of conduct and lived it. He was the most masculine man ever and THAT Is a very attractive quality!