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.

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Clark is Dennis Carson, a rubber plantation owner in balmy Indochina. His no-nonsense way of life is interrupted by the arrival of Lily, or “Vantine” (Harlow), a sassy prostitute from Saigon who is on the run from the law and wants to lay low for a while. They clash at first but soon are bedfellows. Just as Vantine leaves, overseer Gary Willis (Raymond) and his lovely wife, Barbara (Astor) arrive. Vantine’s boat wrecks and when she returns to the plantation, she finds that Dennis now only has eyes for Barbara. Heartbroken, she watches their affair unfold behind Gary”s back.

Jean was a newcomer too, and this film solidified her box office appeal. Their chemistry couldn’t be denied onscreen–it defines pre-code swelter! But despite rumors to the contrary, their relationship was only a close friendship. She looked up to him like a big brother and he called her “Sis”.

Clark and Mary didn’t lack for chemistry either, as him scooping her up in the rainstorm and carrying her to her bungalow where they embrace soaking wet certainly paved the way for Clark’s tendency to swoop up his leading ladies in his films going forward!

One of the most memorable scenes (hilariously spoofed in Jean’s 1933 film Bombshell) is Vantine taking a bath in a barrel. And apparently she stayed true to character and was naked in there–as she stood up during a take, completely topless and said, “Here’s one for the boys in the lab!” The director immediately had the film destroyed to prevent it from leaking out.

The film was in production when Jean’s husband, Paul Bern, killed himself over Labor Day weekend, 1932. Production was stalled until she was ready to come back to the set. But when she did, only ten days later, she shed no tears and acted with the utmost professionalism.

Interesting to note was that when the film was in the beginning stages, it was to be a vehicle for Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. But the film changed direction and MGM wanted its two newest stars instead. Gilbert was devastated as he had hoped the film would begin a career resurgence for him.

This film was memorably remade in 1952 as Mogambo. Reset in Africa, Ava Gardner had Jean’s role and Grace Kelly Mary’s. But the lead could only be played by…Clark Gable. Naturally.