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Gossip Friday: We All Make Mistakes
2020 From October 1931: Mark Hellinger tells a good one. It seems that a little over a year ago Leslie Howard was authoring and directing a play on Broadway and was muchly in need of a young man to play the love interest. A young man called at the theatre and asked for a job and the producer sent him to talk to Howard. Howard gave him a try-out and then reported to the producer that the young man he had picked up was utterly impossible in the role of the hero whom women adored. he just wasn’t the type. So, said young man was fired. Now it’s so happened…
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Movie of the Week: A Free Soul (1931)
This week is Clark Gable’s breakout role as a ruthless mongrel in A Free Soul. Clark Gable is Ace Wilfong (perfect bad boy name, I’d say), a gangster on trial for murder who is represented by upper class defense attorney Stephan Ashe (Lionel Barrymore). Stephan, while successful as an attorney, is an alcoholic who is frequently an embarrassment to his family, including his high spirited daughter, Jan (Norma Shearer), who catches Ace’s eye at their first meeting. Stephan gets Ace cleared of the charges and Ace starts pursuing Jan once he is free, much to the chagrin of Jan’s stuffy fiancé, Dwight (Leslie Howard). Jan is quickly swept up…
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Gossip Friday: Watch This Boy!
From August 1931: Every reader of Adela Rogers St. John’s interesting Hollywood stories in New Movie [magazine] will want to see the talkie built at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios from her novel, “A Free Soul.” The story makes a very effective vehicle for Norma Shearer. The motherless Jan Ashe has been raised by her father, a hard-drinking lawyer, to do as she likes. Conventions are something to break–until she discovers that she can’t find happiness in smashing the rules of life. There’s a murder trial sequence that will surely get you. “A Free Soul” is superbly played. Miss Shearer steps further upward as the reckless Jan, Lionel Barrymore is admirable as her…
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Spotlight on: Norma Shearer
It is quite common to read that Clark Gable slept with every one of his leading ladies. And while that statement has been buzzing around for so long that many people take it as fact, it’s not true at all. In fact, I think the number of leading ladies he starred opposite that he wasn’t romantically involved with far outnumbers the opposite. Perhaps that is why Norma Shearer doesn’t get much attention as one of his onscreen lovelies–in fact she is one of the few that I can think of that I haven’t even heard a rumor he had slept with her! Nonetheless, Ms. Shearer is an interesting footnote in…
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Nutshell Reviews: A Free Soul (1931)
In a Nutshell: A Free Soul (1931) Directed by: Clarence Brown Co-stars: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore Synopsis: Gable is Ace Wilfong, a gangster on trial for murder being represented by upper class defense attorney Stephan Ashe (Barrymore). Stephan, while successful as an attorney, is an alcoholic who is frequently an embarrassment to his family, including his high spirited daughter, Jan (Shearer), who catches Ace’s eye at their first meeting. Stephan gets Ace cleared of the charges and Ace starts pursuing Jan once he is free, much to the chagrin of Jan’s stuffy fiancé, Dwight (Leslie Howard). Jan is quickly swept up into a passionate affair with Ace, excited…
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July Movie of the Month: A Free Soul (1931)
I began writing “Movie of the Month” posts in July two years ago, to start something new to celebrate the first anniversary of the site. For the first one, I selected Wife vs. Secretary because it’s one of my personal favorites and the following July I selected It Happened One Night because of its importance. I’m continuing the tradition of selecting an “important” Gable film in July with A Free Soul, the film that made Clark Gable a star. Gable is Ace Wilfong, a gangster on trial for murder being represented by upper class defense attorney Stephan Ashe (Lionel Barrymore). Stephan, while successful as an attorney, is an alcoholic who is…
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{Moustaches for Movember Blogathon} Clark Gable: Evolution of a Moustache
This post is part of Bette Classic Movie Blog’s Moustaches for Movember Blogathon. Movember is a campaign in which men grow moustaches over the month of November to raise funds for prostate cancer. You can learn more about the cause here. You think of Clark Gable and you think of that familiar moustache (well, that and maybe the ears…) It’s funny that the mustache has become so synonomous with the image of Clark Gable, considering he didn’t want one to begin with. Clark was a clean freak, the kind who took showers multiple times a day and who reportedly shaved his chest hair because he considered all that extra…
