Films
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September Movie of the Month: Night Flight (1933)
Okay, okay, I know it’s the end of the month and here I am just now declaring the Movie of the Month for September. In my defense, I just moved and my office has turned out to be the last room to get unpacked. I always rewatch the Movie of the Month and reread the passages about it in some of the books I have. So I had to wait until I found my DVDs and books! I actually had another film in mind for this month but I can’t find the DVD at the moment, so Night Flight it is. Night Flight is a true ensemble piece, boosting an impressive…
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Gossip Friday: In Defense of Clark Gable
From June 1940, letter to editor: Never having complained before, I feel I am entitled to do so now. I sat through Gone with the Wind twice, thanks to Clark Gable’s excellence performance (and he is not my favorite actor.) Everyone I have seen since the picture was shown here was highly enthusiastic over his marvelous portrayal of Rhett Butler. Now it seems he has been completely ignored, and consideration give to a silly and boring performance by James Stewart in “Mr. Smith, etc.” Finally the Academy Award was given to Robert Donat. Nice going! It’s a wonder to us that Gable’s name was even recalled in connection with the…
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Gossip Friday: Clark Gable–Forgotten Man
From April 1939: …take the [Clark] Gable burial and its ramifications. This was in Too Hot to Handle. The scene had been shot a half a dozen times, but still it wasn’t right, in the opinion of Director Jack Conway. “We’ll shoot it again,” he decreed. Clark looked pained. “Hey, what is this?” he protested. “I suppose you think I LIKE being buried alive!” Myrna Loy, cool and comfortable in her easy chair, soothed him from the sidelines. “It’s for the sake of your art,” she said. At six o’clock, they were still at it and still Conway wasn’t satisfied. Clark was dirty, dishevelled, cranky. Walter Pidgeon remonstrated with him.…
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August Movie of the Month: Forsaking All Others (1934)
This month, Clark Gable plays the heartbroken guy to Joan Crawford’s wide-eyed heiress and Robert Montgomery’s selfish but lovable cad in Forsaking All Others. Clark is Jeffrey Williams, who still harbors a childhood crush on Mary Clay (Crawford). Upon returning from a two year jaunt in Spain, he has plans to finally propose to her until he learns that she is set to marry his best friend, Dillon “Dill” Todd (Montgomery), the next day. He swallows his feelings and agrees to give the bride away. Dill gets an unexpected visit from an old flame, Connie Barnes (Francis Drake), and ends up running off to marry her, sending Mary a telegram…
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{New Article} 1935: Into a White Hell For You
Yes, that is actually the title of this article! It is about the horrendous working conditions the cast and crew faced on Washington state location shoot for Call of the Wild. Most of it is a brief interview with Loretta Young: “Nobody expects to believe that a pampered film player ever is exposed to real hardships,” Loretta told me, “but if you could have seen what we went through–! It was no press agent’s dream, the rigors of that location trip. “It might not have been so difficult for me had I been accustomed to cold. Although I was born in Salt Lake City, where winter is frigid enough, I was brought…
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July Movie of the Month: Parnell (1937)
In July, for the month that celebrates the anniversary of this website, I always select an important Clark Gable film–one that is a highlight in his career for one reason or another. This year I don’t think that Clark would agree with my choice! It is his much-maligned effort to portray a soft spoken Irishman in Parnell. In this historical melodrama, Gable is Charles Stewart 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 (Myrna Loy),…
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{Photos} Play Ball!
While on location filming Strange Cargo on Pismo Beach in 1940, Clark, co-star Ian Hunter and some of the crew played ball with a girls softball team. It’s funny to see him playing all scruffy and unkempt, in his raggedy costume. I’m sure that was a story those girls told for the rest of their lives!
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June Movie of the Month: Night Nurse (1931)
This month, Clark Gable is ruthless, one-dimensional Nick the chauffeur to Barbara Stanwyck’s plucky young nurse in Night Nurse. A quintessential pre-code, the film centers around Lora Hart (Stanwyck) as she struggles to keep her ideals while getting through nursing school. After she graduates, she is assigned to be a night nurse to two little girls suffering from malnutrition and anemia. Clark does not appear until halfway through the film and only appears for a few minutes, as Nick, the evil brute of a chauffeur. Lora becomes suspicious of the doctor treating the children and of Nick. Nick throws her around, bullies her and the children say they are scared of…
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May Movie of the Month: Boom Town (1940)
This month, Clark Gable is a womanizin’ oil chaser, Spencer Tracy is his long-suffering best pal, Claudette Colbert is his best girl, and Hedy Lamarr is his sidedish in Boom Town. Gable is “Big John” McMasters and Tracy is “Square John” Sand, or as Big John calls him right from the beginning, “Shorty”. They are two wildcatters out west trying to strike oil. They pool their money and smarts and soon hit it big. Putting a snag in their festivities is the arrival of Elizabeth or “Betsy” (Colbert), Shorty’s sweetheart from back home. She arrives to see him but falls in love with Big John instead, and they are married…
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April Movie of the Month: Polly of the Circus (1932)
This month, Clark Gable is a straight-laced minister and Marion Davies is his sassy acrobat love interest in Polly of the Circus. Clark is Father John Hartley, a small town minister living a peaceful life. The circus comes to town, with its star attraction: trapeze artist Polly Fisher (Davies). She is enraged when her risqué posters are covered up and confronts Hartley, who admits that her posters aren’t appropriate in the town. The crowd mocks her at her next performance, causing her to fall. She recuperates at Hartley’s house at his insistence since he feels guilty. Soon they fall in love. But his parish and bishop uncle (Aubrey Smith) don’t support him…