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Gossip Friday: No Strange Cats on Strange Cargo
From March 1940: Disappointment smacked down all the let’s-be-there-when-it-happens gang, who under one pretext or another managed to clutter up the sound stage on the first day of shooting for MGM’s Strange Cargo. That’s the picture in which, you know, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable share top billing. And for weeks, the rumor has hottened Hollywood, that Joan and Clark were about as friendly as a couple of strange cats, and that when they got together, the temperamental fur would fly all over the set. So what happened? So Joan smiled at Clark, and Clark smiled at Joan, and it remained for Joan’s famous dachshund “Puppchen” to provide the only…
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{New Article} 1935: Behind the Scenes with Joan, Clark and Bob
Here is one of those articles that is utterly pointless and serves only as a publicity piece from MGM for Forsaking All Others. I don’t think there was ever any real concern that there was going to be a battle royale for star status between Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery but nonetheless: When Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery were announced as the stars of “Forsaking All Others,” under the ace direction of “Woody” Van Dyke, the local gossip columnists assumed their favorite cat-that-ate-the-canary expression and sat back and waited for the worst to happen… …of course, there was that fascinating angle of Mr. Clark (star) Gable…
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Movie of the Week: Dance Fools Dance (1931) and Laughing Sinners (1931)
This week, we’ve got a Clark Gable/Joan Crawford pre-code double feature: Dance Fools Dance (1931) and Laughing Sinners (1931). These two films were made back-to-back, as Clark, a rising star in MGM’s roster, and Joan, one of MGM’s shiniest stars, were engaged in heated love affair. Clark’s of course second fiddle to Joan in both of these. In Dance Fools Dance, Joan is Bonnie Jordan, a rich girl suddenly thrown into the real world after her father dies and she finds out all his money is gone. She goes to work as a writer for the local newspaper. One of her assignments is to go undercover and get a story on…
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Movies of the Week: Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934) and Love on the Run (1936)
This week, since it’s Valentine’s Day week, we’re lovin’ it up around here with a triple dose of 1930’s Clark Gable and Joan Crawford: Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934) and Love on the Run (1936). I like all three of these films; they all fit the bill for typical 1930’s rom-coms. Chained (1934) The Love Story: Gable is Mike Bradley, a South American rancher who falls for the glamorous Diana (Crawford) on a cruise ship. Diana falls for Mike too, despite the fact that she is romantically involved with a married Manhattan businessman, Richard (Otto Kruger), whose wife refuses to leave him. She decides to leave Richard for Mike…
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Movie of the Week: Possessed (1931)
This week, wealthy Clark Gable’s in love with Joan Crawford’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks factory worker in Possessed (1931). Crawford is Marion Martin, a disillusioned small town factory worker looking for something better. After a chance meeting with Wallace Stewart (Skeets Gallagher), a drunk Park Avenue man on a train, she heads to New York to fulfill her dreams. He advises her to meet a rich man or she’ll never get along in the city. She takes his advice to heart and when two of Stewart’s friends show up, she squeezes her way into meeting them. Gable appears about fifteen minutes in the film as Mark Whitney, a distinguished attorney. He takes a…
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Gossip Friday: Runaway Race for Rhett?
From February 1937: ...I note that Joan Crawford is gaining strong support for the role of Scarlett O’Hara, that Melvyn Douglas and Franchot Tone are threatening Leslie Howard’s lead in the race for Ashley’s role and that Clark Gable’s runaway race for the part of Rhett Butler is stirring up determined opposition. Those who want Clark can see nobody else in the role–those who don’t wax pretty savage in their counterblasts. As, for instance: “All I can say is ‘Heaven forbid Gable in the role of Rhett!’ and you can tell the horde who had the stupidity to choose him that they had better read the book over again. Such…
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Gossip Friday: What a Smash
From February 1937: When they were making “Love on the Run,” Mr. Clark Gable also had lines to learn, walked around the set uneasily, rumpling his hair and glaring at Miss Crawford, who was innocently playing her operas. He suddenly walked over to her, picked up her pile of records, flung them on the floor, smashed them to flinders and said: “There! How do you think anybody can learn lines with all that racket!” He then quietly walked away and Miss Crawford either wept or looked about to. It was one of Gable’s japeries. He had bought a lot of dime records to smash.
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Movie of the Week: Strange Cargo (1940)
This week, Clark Gable is a no-good, very bad convict and Joan Crawford is the naughty girl he’s chasing in Strange Cargo. Gable is Verne, a thief who has been imprisoned for years in a dirty jail on an island in New Guinea. Out on work duty one day, he comes across Julie (Crawford), a cafe singer. She turns him in when he breaks out to try and be with her. She is then banished from the island for harboring a criminal. When Verne manages to escape again along with fellow inmates, Julie joins them on their voyage to the mainland. Both are uneasy by the presence of Cambreau (Ian…
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Gossip Friday: Carole Out, Jean In
From October 1936: Carole Lombard in a screen romance with Clark Gable–would that spell box office? I am asking you. Either one of these two alone is sufficient to lure the customers into the theater, but the two of them together would bring in enough shekels to pay the rent and keep the wolf far, far away. That is why, come next year, Carole will be co-starred with Clark in “Saratoga.” Yes, I know it was intended for Joan Crawford, but I am told there are other plans for La Crawford. When Carole finishes “Morning, Noon and Night” for Paramount she’ll move to Metro for this one picture. And that…
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{Photos} Dancing Lady (1933)
This week’s Movie of the Week, Dancing Lady, being the big all-star MGM musical that is was, had quite the plethora of publicity photos taken for it. There are some lovely shots of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford together: Most of the publicity shots are of Joan alone. There’s a whole set of her in this beaded dress, and they are beautiful: But then there are several of these of her half-naked in this odd outfit: And a bunch of her in the gym, even though it’s only a brief scene: This one is cute: Clark and Joan were friendly on set, not as friendly as they had been in…
