Movie of the Month: Teacher’s Pet

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School’s back in, so what better time to select Teacher’s Pet as the Movie of the Month!

Teacher’s Pet, made in 1958, was one of the best of Clark’s final years on screen. Unlike some of his previous films, he seems at ease, at peace and, dare we say it, actually having fun with is role (should we thank Kay Gable for all of that? I think so..)

Clark is Jim Gannon, a hard-nosed editor of a New York newspaper. When he receives an invitation from a college professor to speak in her journalism class, he writes her a scathing letter about how journalism can’t be learned in a classroom. His managing editor finds out and demands that he go to the college and apologize to the professor. Imagine his surprise when he arrives in the classroom that this professor is not an elderly stuff shirt, but a very attractive, very personable blonde, Erica Stone (Doris Day). She bitterly reads his letter aloud to the class, of course completely unaware that he is sitting there right in front of her. So ashamed of himself (and so attracted to her) is he that he decides to remain in the class under an alias, “Jim Gallagher”, setting out to prove that he is right that college is nothing but “amateurs teaching amateurs how to be amateurs”. Erica picks up on Jim’s writing ability right away and he becomes her star pupil. He sets out to woo Erica, but runs into trouble with her fellow professor boyfriend, Dr. Hugo Pine (Gig Young), who is not only young and attractive, but seems to be a genius and knowledgeable of all subjects. As Erica and Jim grow closer, he struggles with telling her the truth of his identity and admitting that she was right about “eggheads”.

The best scenes of the film involve Jim trying to compete with Hugo: at a nightclub where Hugo excels at dancing, bongo drums and various trivia, when Jim asks for the bookstore to bring him the books Hugo has written and the books arrive—in mountainous stacks!

Clark is at his comedic best here. He really seems to let his guard down and just go with the role.

The film might best be remembered for its hit theme song sung by Miss Day. You can hear it on the film page.

Doris Day is one of the few Gable leading ladies who is still alive. She had nothing but nice things to say about him: “I could actually feel the magnetic force of his personality. There was something very affirmative about him, and a directness that suggested great inner strength.” Mamie Van Doren, who played Clark’s stripper friend Peggy in the film, is also still with us and still blonde and buxom. She said of Clark, “He was as masculine as they come…and extremely nice to me.” Mamie famously called Doris out for acting like a spoiled star with a disagreeable attitude in her autobiography. Doris always refused to discuss Mamie in interviews. Well, at least they both thought Clark was a class act, if they could agree on nothing else!