June Movie of the Month: Betrayed (1954)
Clark Gable reigned as the King of the MGM lot for 23 years. He felt safe on that big lot, protected by their scripts and directors and the familiar faces. Never very confident in his acting ability, his home playing field gave him the confidence he needed (although, ironically, two of his three Oscar nominations were for films in which he was on loan-out to other studios). Many actors free-lanced and hopped from studio to studio, but not Clark. He stayed on as MGM’s golden boy.
But times changed. Clark returned from World War II older, grayer and emotionally damaged. Newer, fresher faces were emerging on the scene and Clark had reached an age where he was too old to play youthful rogues but too young to play grandpas. Clark was not happy with any of the films he was assigned to in the first years following the war, and most of them were flops.
Clark went overseas for 18 months starting in 1952 to make three films, a strategic financial move save money on his taxes (I’ll save the boring tax details on that). In succession, he made Never Let Me Go in England, Mogambo in Africa and Betrayed in the Netherlands. By the time he finished filming Mogambo, Never Let Me Go had been released and flopped. This put him at a serious disadvantage in his contract negotiation. MGM flat-out refused the profit participation that Clark wanted (the re-release of GWTW made Clark sour on the fact that he never received any part of the film’s profits) and Clark wouldn’t sign without it, so his career with MGM came to an end.
When he returned to California after filming, the very last thing he did on the MGM lot was pose for one last portrait sitting with Clarence Sinclair Bull to promote Betrayed. Afterwards, he cleaned
out his dressing room and off he went. After this rather sad tale of Clark’s departure was printed, MGM publicity head Howard Strickling (also a longtime friend of Clark’s) responded in true fashion: “Clark Gable is one of the most popular and best-liked personalities to ever work at MGM. this goes from the bottom up and top down. Everyone regretted seeing him leave. This was unanimous. As you know, Clark left because he wanted to. MGM made every effort to have him stay. On the last day of shooting on Betrayed, Clark worked in the morning and there was one long parade of friends and well-wishers from every department from executives to back lot. Everyone wished him well and all expressed hope he would return. I am certain Clark could be be elected mayor of MGM if ever an election were held.”
Really the fact that it is the last MGM film Clark made is the only reason that Betrayed is memorable. His last film for the studio that raised and bred him for stardom is not exactly a crown jewel in his cap.
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, while at the same time Carla begins to suspect The Scarf.
The film was an enormous flop, but regardless Clark was listed among the Top 10 box office attractions due to the re-release of Gone with the Wind. Upon hearing that, Clark cracked, “You know I didn’t win that for Betrayed!”
The film fails for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s slow-paced and rather plodding. We don’t have enough time to care about the characters. And while it’s hyped up as another steamy pairing of Gable and Turner, their love scenes are few and far between, seeming an afterthought. Also, by 1953, the war-weary public had tired of World War II pictures. Happy, cheerful pictures seemed to be doing well at the box office; musicals were booming again.
Despite this, Betrayed is one of Clark’s few color pictures and I actually think he looks quite handsome in it. In comparison to the following year’s The Tall Men, when his hair was dyed and extra makeup was applied to make him appear younger, in Betrayed he is graying at the temples, has a few wrinkles around his twinkling gray eyes and looks radiant in uniform and wool peacoats. It’s too bad he doesn’t have much to do other than alternatively scowl at or flirt with Lana Turner and peer suspiciously at Victor Mature.
Filming was done in eight short weeks, as Clark was nearing the end of his “tax exile.” The exteriors were shot on location in Amsterdam and are gorgeous.
Lana Turner is sporting a different look: brunette! She was actually supposed to be a blonde in this film but had had her hair dyed for her previous film, Flame and the Flesh, and Betrayed was rushed into production before she could dye it back to blonde. Interestingly, Lana was the first choice to play flirty “Honey Bear” Kelly in Mogambo, but lost the part because her boyfriend Fernando Lamas beat her up before the trip. She was then swapped with Ava Gardner, who was originally supposed to have the role of Carla in Betrayed, to give her time to heal. So Ava went to Africa and Lana went to Holland.
Read more about the film here and it is available on DVD through the Warner Brothers Archive Collection.