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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…
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Gossip Friday: Adding to the Arsenal
From December 1935: While all the talk of divorce and separation was going about, Clark Gable was quietly purchasing himself some new guns. He has a regular arsenal already, numbering nearly two dozen rifles and shotguns. He is an inveterate hunter and a crack shot. At skeet and the traps his is said to be really expert.
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Movie of the Week: Teacher’s Pet (1958)
This week, Clark Gable is Doris Day’s star pupil in Teacher’s Pet (1958). Clark is Jim Gannon, a hard-nosed editor of a New York newspaper. When Professor Erica Stone (Day) requests that Jim speak to her journalism class, he rebuffs her with a sarcastic and mean-spirited letter, saying that people can only learn the newspaper business by working in the newspaper business and classes are a waste of time. When Jim, forced by his boss, goes down to Erica’s class to apologize, she reads the letter aloud to the class before he has the chance to explain himself. Embarrassed but charmed by Erica, he signs up for her class and…
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Gossip Friday: Punch Devotees
From August 1934: Clark Gable shuns crowds because he has, more than once, found a fist thrust under his nose and, “Come on and fight you big so-and-so,” bawled at him. And not by drunks either. The roles Clark Gable plays waken the animosity of punch devotees. The actor has a horror of coming out of a crowd with a black eye, a swollen nose, or of being forced to fight his way out of the situation. When he is making a picture, Gable never goes out in public because of this strange difficulty.
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{New Article} 1935: A New Log of The Bounty
This is a short article from 1935 about the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty on Catalina Island. It really doesn’t give much detail except to rehash the history of the events depicted in the picture. A new tale, of another Bounty, could be written around the adventures of that sore-beset crew, filming this grand tale for Metro, for all of them, from Director Frank Lloyd on, have stories to tell of trials and tribulations. But it all is well worth it, for without question here, in “Mutiny on the Bounty,” will be one of the greatest pictures ever contrived. I have lately returned from a cruise on this new…
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Movie of the Week: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
This week, Clark Gable is legendary mutineer Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty. In this adaption of the famous tale of mutiny on the high seas in 1787, Clark is first mate to the tyrannical Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton) on a two year voyage from England to Tahiti to obtain breadfruit plants. Bligh beats and starves the sailors, all while Christian and fellow officer Bynum (Franchot Tone) stand and watch. Christian finally can’t stand it anymore and rallies the men to overthrow Bligh and take over the ship. They send Bligh and his supporters adrift at sea in a small boat and take the Bounty back to Tahiti. They…
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Gossip Friday: Out of Shirts
From February 1937: Clark Gable no longer sends his shirts to a laundry. Employees were keeping them as souvenirs.
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Movie of the Week: It Happened One Night (1934)
This week, because the Academy Awards are on Sunday, our Movie of the Week is Clark Gable’s Academy Award-winning performance as a wise crackin’ newspaperman in It Happened One Night. If you’re a Clark Gable fan, then you’ve seen It Happened One Night. Now an essential classic and considered the first screwball comedy, it is the prime example of a sleeper hit. Produced by the “Siberia” of studios by an un-appreciated director and performed by two stars against their will, it seems an unlikely entry into Academy Award history. But with a snappy screenplay and chemistry that burned through the screen, it indeed earns its place in history. Gable…
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Gossip Friday: An Unfortunate Shrine
From October 1947 (Louella Parsons): Say what you will, there’s nobody like Clark Gable. With his charm, it will be a long time before the King is displaced. Younger men have come along to dazzle the gals, but none has yet hit with the force of a Gable. Oh, sure–there have been times when Clark has miffed me, and long periods would go by when we didn’t see one another. But it is impossible to be in his company more than a split second, and not fall under his fascinating spell again. Not long ago, he came to see me and we had a grand time drinking coffee in the…
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{New Article} 1937: Two Kings Share One Crown
This fluff piece from 1937 was most certainly ordered by MGM publicity to beef up their young acquisition, Robert Taylor. The article discusses how “Bob” is replacing Clark and how Clark’s day in the sun is fading. Which makes zero sense. It wasn’t until after this article was published that Clark was officially crowned the “King of Hollywood” by Ed Sullivan, and Bob at this point was really just starting out, Camille and Magnificent Obsession being his two most memorable roles at this point. This is quite the transparent PR play. Robert Taylor, a youth in his twenties, briefly out of an American university, has overnight become the living symbol…
