Films
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Movie of the Week: Strange Cargo (1940)
This week, Clark Gable is a no-good, very bad convict and Joan Crawford is the naughty girl he’s chasing in Strange Cargo. Gable is Verne, a thief who has been imprisoned for years in a dirty jail on an island in New Guinea. Out on work duty one day, he comes across Julie (Crawford), a cafe singer. She turns him in when he breaks out to try and be with her. She is then banished from the island for harboring a criminal. When Verne manages to escape again along with fellow inmates, Julie joins them on their voyage to the mainland. Both are uneasy by the presence of Cambreau (Ian…
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Movie of the Week: Idiot’s Delight (1939)
You get to watch Clark Gable dance the very best he can and Norma Shearer do her very best Greta Garbo impression in this week’s film, Idiot’s Delight (1939). Gable is Harry Van, a World War I vet and struggling vaudeville performer when he meets Irene (Norma Shearer), while performing in a traveling show in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the assistant to the hilariously inept Madame Zulieka (Laura Hope Crews), she an acrobat. They have a brief romance before going their separate ways. Many years pass as Harry tries different acts and odd jobs in between. Fast forward to 1939 and Harry is on a train in Europe with his current act, Les…
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{Photos} No Man of Her Own (1932)
Here’s some pictures from this week’s movie, No Man of Her Own (1932). The portraits from this film are stunning. Although Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were not supposedly romantically involved at the time, the still camera sure did capture a lot of their heat! I think it knew something they didn’t… There’s a few publicity shots of Clark and Carole with Dorothy Mackaill looming strangely over them. And there’s this one, which looks like Clark is about to strangle Carole. On the last day of shooting, notorious prankster Carole gave Clark a ham with his face pasted on it. In return, Clark gave Carole a giant pair of shoes,…
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Movie of the Week: No Man of Her Own (1932)
Well, it being Carole Lombard Month and all, naturally our first Movie of the Week for October is Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s one and only film together, No Man of Her Own (1932). Gable is Jerry “Babe” Stewart, a crooked card shark on the run from a police investigator when he stops in on the sleepy small town of Glendale. There he meets the bored town librarian, Connie Randall (Lombard) who is just waiting for something exciting to happen to her. “Sometimes I go out in the woods and scream.” She says dryly. And declares the most exciting thing to happen in Glendale recently is that the drug store…
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Movie of the Week: Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
This week, Clark is roughin’ it as a 1800’s cowboy in Across the Wide Missouri. Clark is Flint Mitchell, a fur trapper from Kentucky leading a group of French and Scottish trappers through the rugged West in the 1820’s. Battling Blackfoot Indians all the way, especially their chief Ironshirt (Ricardo Montalban), he finds love with an Indian chief’s granddaughter (portrayed by Mexican actress Maria Elena Marques). When Clark was in New York City for a publicity tour for the film, he was interviewed by famed Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Hyams, who asked him about the film: “It stinks,” [Clark] said, “and you can quote me on that.” Indeed…
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Movie of the Week: Saratoga (1937)
This week is Jean Harlow’s final film, Saratoga (1937). Clark Gable is Duke Bradley, a bookie who acquires the deed to the Brookdale horse ranch because the owner, Mr. Clayton (Jonathan Hale) owes him a lot of money. When Clayton dies, his daughter Carol (Harlow), who dislikes Bradley, is determined to get the horse ranch back in the family by winning horse races to pay Bradley back. Meanwhile, Bradley tries to bait Carol’s rich fiancée (Walter Pidgeon) to place bets with him. This film is infamous for being Jean’s final film. She died quite suddenly of renal failure when the film was 90% complete. After collapsing on set while filming…
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Movie of the Week: China Seas (1935)
This week’s film is Clark Gable the disgruntled sea captain and Jean Harlow the hooker he tried to leave behind in China Seas. Gable is Alan Gaskell, a roguish captain of a ship that sails between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It’s established pretty early on that he’s been having some adult fun ashore with a Shanghai harlot, Dolly, who goes by the name China Doll (Harlow). So imagine his surprise when setting his ship off to sea that she is on board as a passenger! She confesses she is madly in love with him; he is weary of her and rejects her advances. She is green with jealousy upon the…
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{Photos} Boom Town (1940)
Here’s some photos from this week’s Movie of the Week, Boom Town (1940). With a cast consisting of Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr, the portraits are of course wonderful. There’s some behind-the-scenes photos I found in a fan magazine of Clark and Spencer filming their first scene together, ending up face first in the mud! Clark Gable with a baby and small child is always worth the price of admission in my book. Saving the best for last, the funniest screenshots from this film are from Clark’s fist fight with Spencer (well Clark and Spencer’s stunt double):
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Movie of the Week: Boom Town (1940)
This week’s movie is Boom Town (1940). 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” (Claudette Colbert), Shorty’s sweetheart from back home. She arrives to see him but falls in love with Big John instead, and they are married the night they met. A year passes and when Shorty thinks that Big John is not treating Betsy right, the two men come…
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Movie of the Week: Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
This week, Clark’s torn between Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy (poor guy) in Wife vs. Secretary. Clark is the dashing editor-in-chief of a magazine in this one. Myrna is his delightful wife, who seems to spend her days lounging around their spacious two-story New York apartment in glamorous gowns, throwing lavish parties, assisted by a full-time cook, maid, driver and butler. No kids underfoot either. Ah, to be a rich 1930’s housewife! Jean is Clark’s loyal secretary, who says how high when he says jump. A youthful Jimmy Stewart is Jean’s neglected fiancé, who is constantly snubbed by Jean’s work commitments and is growing quite tired of it. Despite the…