Movies of the Week: Call of the Wild (1935) and Key to the City (1950)
This week, we’ve got a Clark Gable and Loretta Young double feature in Call of the Wild (1935) and Key to the City (1950).
I’m not going to dive into the whole Loretta Young-got-pregnant-with-Clark-Gable’s-baby-during-filming story. That’s all here. This is about the film.
Clark Gable is Jack Thornton, on the hunt for a gold mine through the tundra with his sidekick Shorty (Oakie). As they struggle through the mountains in the bitter cold, they encounter Claire Blake (Young) who is stranded alone after her husband left her to search for food. They discover that Claire and her husband were after the same gold mine. Aided by their trusty dog Buck, they find the mine and along the way Claire and Jack fall in love. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as Claire’s husband reappears and a rival turns up to claim the mine as his own.
You know, I don’t watch this film very often and I forgot how good it is. Clark is ruggedly handsome here, there’s romance, adventure…doesn’t get much better.
It was filmed on location in Washington state in January and boy, can you tell. The cast was freezing and that is evident. I would say it was most definitely worth it. You can’t fake that kind of scenery on the MGM lot in Hollywood!
The romance between Clark and Loretta is sweet. You don’t have to wonder why audiences jumped to the conclusion that something was going on behind the scenes.
The supporting cast is excellent, most notably Jack Oakie as Clark’s buddy.
My favorite supporting character though, would have to be 225lb Buck the dog. Clark became fast friends with the dog and so directing those scenes became easy for William Wellman, as the dog did what Clark told him to do. When they filmed the scene where Buck is struggling to pull the 1,000lbs of weight, the dog wouldn’t leave Clark’s side. So they positioned a girl dog in heat at the other end so the dog would struggle to get to her. When the shot was complete, they took the girl dog away and Clark said, “I feel like I just double-crossed my best friend.”
Nutshell review is here
Clark and Loretta both agreed to make Key to the City fifteen years later.
Clark is Steve Fisk, the boorish mayor of Puget City, who meets Clarissa Standish (Young), the stuffy mayor of Winona, Maine at the annual mayors conference in San Francisco. They fall in love despite their differences but trouble arises as they try to make their relationship work outside the convention.
This isn’t the best romantic comedy ever made, but it’s not the worst. It’s enjoyable fluff for what it is. Clark’s character is typical for him–a stubborn rogue who chases the ladies and punches a guy or two. Clark’s back in good ol’ San Francisco (well, not really, the film is set there but not filmed there) and the theme music to the film is the same as his 1936 film San Francisco.
It’s got funny moments, like Clark stuck in his little boy costume, roaming the streets of San Francisco. Even though him getting arrested for harassing “little girl” Loretta is quite silly.
Frank Morgan is Clark’s buddy in this film and, as usual, is hilarious. Sadly, Key to the City was his final film; he died of a heart attack shortly after the film wrapped.
The fight scene at the end of the film is pretty hilarious for it’s bad effects…
Loretta’s character in this film is what I imagine she was like in real life: kind of fussy and uptight, oh-so-shocked at everything. You really wonder why Clark is bothering with her at all. You’re supposed to believe they end up married at the end, and of course she is going to give up being mayor of her city in Maine to be his dutiful mayor’s wife. Ugh. 1950, folks.
They don’t have the same spark they had fifteen years earlier, that’s for sure.
In reality, Clark dated “Atom Girl” Marilyn Maxwell for a few months during and after filming. Guess you can’t blame him…
Full review is here
Nutshell review is here
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