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Movie of the Week: Hell Divers (1931)
This week, Clark Gable is at odds with Wallace Beery (again) and plays a fearless pilot (again) in Hell Divers (1931). Clark is Steve Nelson, a budding Navy pilot constantly at odds with Windy Riker (Beery), who has been in the service for years and has no patience for newbies. When Windy stages a farce that makes Steve’s girl Ann (Dorothy Jordan) leave him, their relationship becomes hostile. After a drunken brawl, Wally ends up in jail and misses the boat, causing Clark to be promoted to his position. This film is not one of Clark’s best, but it’s interesting to see a young Clark in uniform, battling it out…
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Gossip Friday: Missing a Friend
From December 1955 (Louella Parsons): Mrs. Clark Gable has become so much the wife of The King that she is seeing few of the old friends who were so good to her in the dark days when life was pretty desperate for her. It’s understandable that a married woman must accept her husband’s friends and make his pals hers, but there is one case where I think Kay is remiss–that of a certain actress who was very good to her during the days when other of her friends shied away from the then Mrs. Spreckels for fear of publicity. Of course, I may be wrong and there may be some…
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Movie of the Week: The White Sister (1933) and Night Flight (1933)
This week, we’ve got a Clark Gable-Helen Hayes double feature: The White Sister (1933) and Night Flight (1933). In The White Sister, Clark Gable is Giovanni Severa, a pilot in the Italian Air Force. He meets Angela (Hayes), an aristocratic daughter of a prince (Lewis Stone). Her father opposes their romance but they steal moments together anyway. When Giovanni goes off to fight in the 1914-1918 war, Angela waits for him so they can get married. When she learns he has died in combat, she knows she will never love again and joins a convent. Clark is quite dashing here, in a uniform and all full of romantic prose. It…
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Gossip Friday: A Fine for Clark
From April 1959: One rainy, stormy day in Pima, Arizona, a trailer-truck looked out of the midst and headed directly for an approaching car. The driver reacted swiftly, cutting his wheels to the right. With a sudden screech of brakes, both vehicles halted. Clark Gable emerged from his auto unhurt. A patrolman arrived, and finding both men all right, started to write out a ticket for Gable, charging him with ‘illegal passing.’ Clark grumbled something and got back into his car. On the day of the hearing, crowds of newsmen gathered at the courtroom. “Hey,” shouted one, “bet you Gable doesn’t even come himself!” “Yes,” agreed another, “he’ll probably send…
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Gossip Friday: The One That Got Away
From July 1934: Clark Gable, screen actor, can talk about the “one that got away” and without danger. Fishing off the Coronado Islands today from a live bait boat, with Garry Fleischman, Hollywood, a friend, Gable hooked a large barracuda. He had the fish within about 20 feet of the boat when suddenly there was a new tug on his line and it jerked toward nearby rocky cliffs. Gable never saw “the one that got away,” but the bait tank attendant from his more lofty perch, reported it was a large sea lion which had taken Gable’s barracuda.
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{New Article} Gable’s Mystery Romance
In 1952, Clark Gable headed for an extended trip overseas. The plan was, to avoid paying income tax, he was to stay out of the United States for 18 months, during which time he would make what would ultimately be his final three films for his home studio of over 20 years, Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The three films were Never Let Me Go (filmed in London), Mogambo (filmed in London and Africa) and Betrayed (filmed in Holland). Of course, the King of Hollywood was not going to wander the streets of Europe alone. He was quickly spotted with a young model named Suzanne Dadolle. I wrote a piece on her…
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Movie of the Week: Red Dust (1932) and Mogambo (1953)
This week, we’ve got Clark Gable in the original and the remake of the story about a man in a foreign land torn between a prim married lady and a good-times girl in Red Dust (1932) and Mogambo (1953). In both films, Clark is an American living in a foreign land with a job to do, who gets distracted when a fun-loving gal shows up. After a brief dalliance with her (she falls in love, he thinks it just a fling), a dignified couple show up to work/do research. Clark soon falls for the wife, bad girl gets jealous, love triangle ensues. Setting: RD: Set on a rubber plantation in…
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Gossip Friday: That Red Dress
From 1945, Hedda Hopper’s memory of the infamous Mayfair Ball in 1936 (my recap of this incident here): Hollywood first got exclusive at the Little Club in the Ambassador where only the bon ton and the elite could cavort and caper on bathtub gin. But I think Hollywood snootiness flowered much later on at the Mayfair dances. Something happened there I’ll never forget. The Mayfair numbered Hollywood’s ultra-smart set. A Hollywood copy of the London West-Enders, of course, and oh, my dear, so formal. For a time its balls made news all over the world and I doubt if there was ever a more publicized and flash-bulbed Peacock Alley anywhere.…
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Movie of the Week: The Tall Men (1955) and Soldier of Fortune (1955)
This week is a double dose of 1955 Clark Gable, chasing Jane Russell in the Western The Tall Men and Susan Hayward in the foreign drama Soldier of Fortune. Clark Gable is Ben Allison, who along with his brother (Cameron Mitchell), join a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in 1866, headed by Nathan (Robert Ryan). En route, they save Nella (Jane Russell) from an Indian attack and she joins them on the journey. Ben and Nella share a cabin to ride out a blizzard and fall in love. Soon they realize that they have different futures in mind–Ben wants a ranch and a small family life, while Nella…
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Gossip Friday: On His Arm
From May 1942, fan letter to magazine: Los Angeles, May 28, 1937. I stood with many thousands at Wrigley Field, as busload of stars pulled in to watch the boxing match that night. I saw a great, handsome man emerge in a tweed coat and trousers, crepe sole shoes, and hat down over one eye, Behind him, his wife, Carole Lombard, dressed almost exactly like him. “Clark Gable!” I whispered, and he immediately pushed his hat back and grinned like only he can. I grabbed his right arm (Carole was on the other) and buried my head so that the police couldn’t see that I didn’t belong there, and walked…
