Movie of the Month
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Movie of the Month (December): Red Dust
Yes, I am a very bad webmistress and didn’t post this in December. Holidays and all that…But I will make it up to you and post it now and post January’s Movie of the Month next week. Two Jean and Clark movies in one month ain’t a bad month! A Free Soul (1931) is usually described as being Clark’s breakout performance. I’ll agree with that. But if A Free Soul made people notice him, Red Dust truly thrust him into super stardom. He is at his swoon-worthy best here: always sweaty and dirty-looking, hair flopped aross his face, shirt haphazardy open, caught between two lovely ladies. Clark is Dennis Carson,…
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Movie of the Month: The Secret Six (1931)
The centennial of Jean Harlow’s birth is coming up in March 2011. To celebrate, the next five movies featured will be all of Clark’s movies with the legendary Miss Harlow. (But wait! You are saying–they starred in six movies together! True, but we’ve already featured Wife vs. Secretary as Movie of the Month in July) So to start with, here’s the very first of their pairings… The Secret Six, from 1931 Clark, not yet a star, was still playing second fiddle. Billed seventh, he is lagging behind Wallace Beery, Johnny Mack Brown and Lewis Stone for screen time. Not for long, as just a few months after the release of The…
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Movie of the Month: No Man of Her Own
No surprise, since we’re having Carole Lombard month, that this month’s movie is the only Clark and Carole film, No Man of Her Own, from 1932. Thanks to the legendary romance of Clark and Carole that would begin about four years later, this film has now become a fan favorite, whereas maybe if Clark’s co-star hadn’t been Carole it would be dismissed as another soapy melodrama. But actually there is some substance in it, and even overlooking the Clark and Carole legend, it’s a good little pre-code. Clark is Babe Stewart, a womanizing card cheat. As he says to a pining Dorothy Mackaill early on, “You know I’m a hit…
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Movie of the Month: Teacher’s Pet
************************ Note: The gallery is currently not working. I am hard at work on it and I hope it will be back up soon! Sorry for the inconvienence! ************************* School’s back in, so what better time to select Teacher’s Pet as the Movie of the Month! Teacher’s Pet, made in 1958, was one of the best of Clark’s final years on screen. Unlike some of his previous films, he seems at ease, at peace and, dare we say it, actually having fun with is role (should we thank Kay Gable for all of that? I think so..) Clark is Jim Gannon, a hard-nosed editor of a New York newspaper. When he receives…
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Movie of the Month: Never Let Me Go
This month, we’re skipping ahead to 1953… Never Let Me Go pairs aging Gable with one of the top stars of the late 1940’s/early 1950’s, Gene Tierney. A simple, rather old-hat storyline: Gable is an American newsman stationed in Russia. He pursues and falls in love with Marya (Tierney), a Russian ballerina. American/Russian relations being what they were in those days, their marriage is frowned upon. Even more frowned upon? Gable’s idea of taking Marya home to the U.S. Efforts to get her passport are stalled and then altogether stopped. Gable is tricked into getting on a plane without her and is refused admission back into Russia. Back in the States, he…
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Movie of the Month: Wife vs. Secretary
This month, fittingly our one year anniversary, I am starting a new blog feature. I am going to be featuring one of Clark’s films every month, as the “Movie of the Month”. In no particular order really. Hopefully it will showcase some movies that Clark fans have yet to see and will pique their interest. So, for the inaugural month, I am selecting one of my very favorites: Wife vs. Secretary, from 1936. This film is pretty much everything you would want from a fluffy 1930’s comedy/drama. The cast is stellar: Clark, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, May Robson and a young Jimmy Stewart in a supporting role. 1936 begins what I…