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Movie of the Week: Test Pilot (1938)
This week, it’s Clark Gable as a fearless test pilot, Myrna Loy as the woman he loves and Spencer Tracy as his best buddy in Test Pilot (1938). Clark is Jim Lane, a boozing, womanizing army test pilot who walks to the beat of his own drummer. On one trip, his plane starts leaking gas and he lands on the field of a Kansas farm, where Ann Barton (Loy) lives with her parents. Their sparring turns to mutual attraction soon after and by the time Jim’s best friend and mechanic, Gunner Morris (Tracy) arrives to help fix the plane, they are in love. When Jim brings the plane home to…
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Movie of the Week: Men in White (1934)
This week, Clark Gable is a workaholic intern at a hospital and Myrna Loy is his neglected fiance in Men in White. Clark is George Ferguson, a medical intern at a prestigious New York hospital. He is serious about his profession and works night and day. During this time period, medical interns and nurses even lived at the hospital, having little time for social lives. Myrna Loy is his heiress fiance, Laura, who flits around being frustrated that he has no time for her. (I’m not quite sure how they even found time to date and get engaged when he’s seemingly always working?) She wants him to open up his…
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Movie of the Week: Too Hot to Handle (1938)
This week, Clark Gable is a rogue newsreel reporter and Myrna Loy is a determined aviatrix in Too Hot to Handle (1938). This film is an interesting look behind the scenes at the now-extinct-thanks-to-television-and-internet newsreel business. Gable is Chris Hunter, a newsreel cameraman who is always in the middle of the action. Walter Pidgeon is Bill Dennis, a rival newsreel cameraman who is constantly trying to out-scoop Chris. Both of them are bored in Shanghai since they can’t get anywhere near the action of the Chinese-Japanese war. When his boss (Walter Connolly) starts demanding action shots of the war, Chris obliges by making up fake shots using toy airplanes…
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Gossip Friday: Helping a Friend
From February 1937: Clark Gable’s influenza attack has helped indirectly to furnish Myrna Loy’s new home. The two co-stars of “Parnell” haven’t worked for a week, because Clark wasn’t well enough to appear on the set. So Myrna used the time to go shopping. Her chief purchases were pots and pans for the house she is building with her husband, producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
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Movie of the Week: Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
This week, Clark’s torn between Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy (poor guy) in Wife vs. Secretary. Clark is the dashing editor-in-chief of a magazine in this one. Myrna is his delightful wife, who seems to spend her days lounging around their spacious two-story New York apartment in glamorous gowns, throwing lavish parties, assisted by a full-time cook, maid, driver and butler. No kids underfoot either. Ah, to be a rich 1930’s housewife! Jean is Clark’s loyal secretary, who says how high when he says jump. A youthful Jimmy Stewart is Jean’s neglected fiancé, who is constantly snubbed by Jean’s work commitments and is growing quite tired of it. Despite the…
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Movie of the Week: Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
This week’s movie is Manhattan Melodrama (1934). Clark Gable is Blackie Gallagher, a gambling, gun-slinging gangster, who remains best friends with his childhood pal, Jim Wade (William Powell), an ambitious lawyer. Blackie’s girl, Eleanor (Myrna Loy) grows tired of the shady side of life and soon falls in love with Jim and marries him. Jim is promoted to district attorney and starts a campaign to become New York’s next governor. When a blackmailer threatens Jim’s campaign, Blackie decides to handle the situation himself and kills the man. On trial, Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie and he is sentenced to death. The conviction helps Jim win the election,…
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Gossip Friday: Praise for The Queen
From October 1938: To her husband she’s Minnie. To her public she’s Myrna Loy, but to Clark Gable she is The Queen. … “At first I was a little afraid of her,” Gable admitted. “I thought she was mysterious but I soon learned that there was no mystery about her at all. I found her to be down to earth folks, treating the lowliest worker with the same respect and friendliness as those in the upper brackets. Anybody can talk to her and she listens intently. “She is a comfortable person. She has definite ideas and is always nonchalant about them. She also gets what she wants for she has…
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CMBA Blogathon: Why Test Pilot (1938) Should Be Your Third Clark Gable Movie
We interrupt Carole Lombard Month to bring you this post, which is part of the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles Blogathon. I’ve selected Test Pilot to talk about because, in my humble opinion, it should be the third Clark Gable movie you ever see if the first two are Gone with the Wind and It Happened One Night. Here are the reasons why: 1. It is truly a textbook example of a Clark Gable film. It’s got it all: adventure, romance, comedy, snappy dialogue and some intense drama. Clark is Jim Lane, a boozing, womanizing army test pilot who walks to the beat of his own drummer. On one…
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{Photos} Parnell (1937)
Parnell is widely known as Clark Gable’s worst film. I have always disagreed. While the script could have used some work and is far from historically accurate, there is great chemistry (as always) between Clark and Myrna Loy. It is said that the film was a failure because Clark didn’t play his usual smirking rogue, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Sure, his character is lacking that Gable sass, but hey he can’t just play the same character every film, can he? Hmmm…. Some beautiful portraits with Myrna: Some great on the set pictures: And of course the screenshots:
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October Movie of the Month: Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
This month, Clark Gable is doin’ what he does best as the fast talkin’ rogue, Myrna Loy is his lady and William Powell is his conscience in Manhattan Melodrama. Gable is Blackie Gallagher, a gambling, gun-slinging gangster, who remains best friends with his childhood pal, Jim Wade (Powell), an ambitious lawyer. Blackie’s girl, Eleanor (Loy) grows tired of the shady side of life and soon falls in love with Jim and marries him. Jim is promoted to district attorney and starts a campaign to become New York’s next governor. When a blackmailer threatens Jim’s campaign, Blackie decides to handle the situation himself and kills the man. On trial, Jim has no…