Movie of the Week
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Movie of the Week: The Secret Six (1931) and Hold Your Man (1933)
This week, we’ve got a double dose of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in The Secret Six (1931)and Hold Your Man (1933). The Secret Six is really only known today for being Clark Gable and Jean Harlow’s first film together. Both of them had not quite reached star status. Jean, who had recently made a big splash in Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels, was borrowed from Warner Brothers by MGM for her small role here. Clark was billed seventh–lagging behind Wallace Beery, Johnny Mack Brown and Lewis Stone for screen time. Not for long, mind you, as the release of A Free Soul a few months later would cement Clark’s name…
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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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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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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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Movies of the Week: Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934) and Love on the Run (1936)
This week, since it’s Valentine’s Day week, we’re lovin’ it up around here with a triple dose of 1930’s Clark Gable and Joan Crawford: Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934) and Love on the Run (1936). I like all three of these films; they all fit the bill for typical 1930’s rom-coms. Chained (1934) The Love Story: Gable is Mike Bradley, a South American rancher who falls for the glamorous Diana (Crawford) on a cruise ship. Diana falls for Mike too, despite the fact that she is romantically involved with a married Manhattan businessman, Richard (Otto Kruger), whose wife refuses to leave him. She decides to leave Richard for Mike…
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Movie of the Week: Comrade X (1940)
This week, Clark Gable is a foreign correspondent in Russia trying to drag an unwilling Hedy Lamarr back to America with him in Comrade X (1940). Gable is McKinley Thompson, an American reporter living in Russia who is secretly sending news out of the country as the elusive “Comrade X”. His bumbling valet, Igor (Felix Bressart) discovers who he is and blackmails him to take his headstrong Communist daughter (Lamarr) out of Russia to protect her from prosecution. Everything doesn’t go as planned and soon the three of them are racing out of Russia with the Russian army on their tails. This film isn’t some magnificent piece of movie artistry;…
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Movie of the Week: Cain and Mabel (1936)
This week, Clark is a mechanic-turned boxer who hates-loves-then-hates-again Marion Davies’ waitress-turned Broadway star in Cain and Mabel (1936). Clark Gable is Larry Cain, a heavyweight boxer, whose publicity team cooks up a fake romance with Mabel O’Dare (Davies), an aspiring musical star, for publicity. .Clark wins the heavyweight title but his fights aren’t popular enough to earn much of a profit. Marion gets a starring role on Broadway but her shows are hardly sell-outs. “The ushers are quitting because they’re scared of being alone in the dark!” her employer scoffs.So his support team and her support team decide that if they throw them together in a romance, the…
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Movie of the Week: Command Decision (1948)
This week, Clark Gable is an American General stationed in England during World War II, commanding bombing missions over Germany in Command Decision (1948). Okay, so here’s the thing about this whole Movie of the Week premise. It’s great for me to re-watch all of Clark’s films and revisit a lot of these pictures that are otherwise buried in my computer, and it gives some structure to my Facebook and Instagram posts as well. As you can probably tell, they are not in any particular order; I figured chronological would be boring–it’s much more interesting to bounce around his filmography. Some weeks are certainly better than others; some movies have…
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Movie of the Week: Possessed (1931)
This week, wealthy Clark Gable’s in love with Joan Crawford’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks factory worker in Possessed (1931). Crawford is Marion Martin, a disillusioned small town factory worker looking for something better. After a chance meeting with Wallace Stewart (Skeets Gallagher), a drunk Park Avenue man on a train, she heads to New York to fulfill her dreams. He advises her to meet a rich man or she’ll never get along in the city. She takes his advice to heart and when two of Stewart’s friends show up, she squeezes her way into meeting them. Gable appears about fifteen minutes in the film as Mark Whitney, a distinguished attorney. He takes a…
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Movie of the Week: San Francisco (1936)
This week, ruthless nightclub owner Clark Gable chases after virtuous opera singer Jeanette MacDonald in San Francisco. Clark is Blackie Norton, a ruthless saloon-keeper in 1906 San Francisco. Despite their differences, he falls in love with Mary Blake (MacDonald), a small town minister’s daughter and aspiring opera singer whom he hires to sing in his revue. His childhood pal, priest Tim Mullin (Spencer Tracy), objects to him putting Mary on display and stopping her from her opera aspirations. Realizing that Tim is right and that she should pursue her dreams instead of letting Blackie hold her back, Mary leaves him and becomes a successful opera star. It isn’t until the…
