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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: Please Sign My Cake
From November 1933: An autograph nut hunted up Clark Gable at the auto station in downtown Los Angeles where he and Claudette Colbert are making scenes for Columbia’s “Midnight Bus,” and asked Gable to autograph his birthday cake. the fan brought along an icing-writing device, much To Gable’s amazement and amusement. The mob that hung around the bus depot so complicated work that Director Frank Capra thought up two devices to thin the crowd. He had studio carpenters bring saw horses and planking enough to fit a banquet table for 200, then had the studio put on a free feed for that many. In the meantime, the same carpenters put…
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Movie of the Week: To Please a Lady (1950)
This week’s movie is To Please a Lady (1950). Clark Gable is Mike Brannon, a decorated war hero and a ruthless race car driver who will do anything to win. Stanwyck is feisty Regina “Reggie” Forbes, who writes a no-holds-barred weekly syndicated newspaper column. She sets her sights to rip apart Brannon after he runs another racer off the track into a fatal crash. She confronts him about the crash following a race and is put off by his blasé attitude. Furious by his indifference, she writes a scathing column about how heartless he is. After that, Brannon is suspended from auto racing and can’t find a job racing anywhere;…
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Gossip Friday: Not a Diva
From October 1936: Clark Gable is in the Metro commissary eating lunch. He sits at the long table reserved for the writers and the directors. There is only one other actor, Spencer Tracy, who ever sits at this table and mingles with the boys. Seldom do the tourists glimpse the stars dining in the Metro commissary. Robert Taylor may be seen there, but I have never seen Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, William Powell, etc. Gable, finishing his lunch, gets up and walks to the sound stage where he is working. This particular day he happens to be working in the flicker “Love on the Run.” On the way to the…
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Movie of the Week: Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942)
The Movie of the Week this week is Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942). This is one of the few Clark Gable films that when I sat down to re-watch it, I realized I have only seen it maybe three times total. After watching it, I determined that is because, well, I don’t like it very much. Let’s not beat around the bush: it’s not very good. Clark and Lana Turner were hyped up as “The Team That Makes Steam” so it seems strange to me that MGM would thrust them into this plodding war correspondent story. Lana isn’t really given the opportunity to be the sex goddess she was known…
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Gossip Friday: Back from the Dead
From March 1937: When Clark Gable was ordered home to bed with a cold, he left protesting that he could finish out the day all right. But he scarcely had left the studio before word was all over the colony that he had collapsed on the set. I was at the Brown Derby about 5 o’clock (asking an intern for something to cure a cold) and there received the news of Mr. Gable’s supposed collapse, and even considerable detail about what he said and who carried him out to an automobile. All false, of course, but it shows what happens. By 8 o’clock the rumor-mongers had slain Mr. Gable, and…
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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…
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Movie of the Week: Dancing Lady (1933)
This week, Clark Gable’s a grumpy Broadway director in Dancing Lady. Clark made no qualms about which film of his was his least favorite out of all of them–this one. In 1957, he recalled, “MGM assigned me to do a bad part in Dancing Lady with Joan Crawford—a picture I didn’t like. But as bad as the part was, it wasn’t as bad as my health…I’d lost a lot of weight. They’d been working me hard and I was tired. I told myself, ‘If I have a few operations, that will take care of my health and the part in Dancing Lady too.’ I had my appendix and tonsils out,…
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Gossip Friday: Police Dog Pup?
From October 1931: Clark Gable hadn’t been on the lot for more than a few months before they named a salad after him on the lunchroom menu–avocado, lettuce, grapefruit, cottage cheese. he is that popular. Gable is of rough-hewn timber. Men like him. And he has those dimples for the ladies. Shaggy brows. Unruly hair. The kind of gray eyes you’d hate to meet if he were mad. Under it all is an elfish charm, bordering upon the naivete. Shy, sort of. A bit fierce. Yet warm as blazes when you know him. Like a police dog pup.
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{Photos} Night Nurse (1931)
For this week’s Movie of the Week, I don’t have any behind the scenes photos, as Clark Gable was just the lowly devious chauffeur, so was not in a position to command any behind the scenes interest. But here are some screenshots of a young and burly Clark: I do find it rather funny that the first time this evil chauffeur appears onscreen he is wearing polka dot pajamas! Poor Barbara. Knocked out cold. By a man in polka dot pajamas and a silk dragon robe no less! The chauffeur uniform isn’t exactly flattering, but look how young and chiseled he looks here, with his hair flopping onto his face.…