Movie of the Week
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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…
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Movie of the Week: Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
This week’s movie is Manhattan Melodrama (1934). Clark Gable is Blackie Gallagher, a gambling, gun-slinging gangster, who remains best friends with his childhood pal, Jim Wade (William Powell), an ambitious lawyer. Blackie’s girl, Eleanor (Myrna Loy) grows tired of the shady side of life and soon falls in love with Jim and marries him. Jim is promoted to district attorney and starts a campaign to become New York’s next governor. When a blackmailer threatens Jim’s campaign, Blackie decides to handle the situation himself and kills the man. On trial, Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie and he is sentenced to death. The conviction helps Jim win the election,…
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Movie of the Week: Run Silent Run Deep (1958)
This week it is Run Silent Run Deep (1958). Much like Somewhere I’ll Find You a few weeks ago, I realized when I sat down to watch this that I hadn’t seen it in a very long time and that I have only seen it twice. Reason being? I don’t much like it. It’s not that it’s bad movie, it’s certainly not. I suppose it is mainly that it is just not my cup of tea; I’ve actually never even formally reviewed it for the website. Clark Gable is Commander Richardson, a steel-willed Navy captain whose submarine is sunk by the Japanese early in World War II. After a year…
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Movie of the Week: Betrayed (1954)
This week’s movie is Betrayed (1954). Clark Gable is Colonel Pieter Deventer of Dutch Intelligence during World War II. He trains Carla Van Oven (Lana Turner) to be the liaison between the British and the local resistance movement, led by a spunky rogue called “The Scarf” (Victor Mature). Before she is put into position Pieter and Carla begin a romance. The team starts to suffer heavy losses after she joins them and Pieter begins to suspect she is a Nazi spy. She suspects the same of “The Scarf” but Pieter doesn’t believe her at first. Clark and (a brunette!) Lana teamed up again, although the romantic scenes in this one…