Gossip Friday: Elastic Man

From June 1958:

The most famous male face in pictures is also the most elastic, according to writer-producer-director George Seaton, twice an Academy Award winner and a veteran who should know what he is talking about. Its owner is Clark Gable, of course, and Seaton, who directed Gable in “Teacher’s Pet,” says he learned a lesson from guiding The King through the Paramount comedy release [currently playing].

“Most people don’t realize, and I certainly didn’t, that Mr. Gable can wordlessly run through the gamut of emotions and register, authentically, just about every reaction in the books,” said Seaton.

The screenplay has the kind of salty man-to-man and man-to-woman humor that makes full use of the famous Gable trademarks: the furrowed forehead, the Gable glance and the Gable half-smile, to underline the basic meaning of the wisecracks and double-entendre remarks. The mobility of the Gable countenance, says Seaton, was for once fully explored.