Movie Review: Lone Star (1952)

Genre: Western  

Director: Vincent Sherman  

Starring: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Broderick Crawford, Lionel Barrymore  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1845, Texas faces a choice between maintaining independence as a republic or joining the United States ("annexation") but risking a war with Mexico. Influential ex-US President Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) favors annexation and is perturbed that Texas legend Sam Houston (Moroni Olsen) is leaning towards independence. Cattle baron Devereaux Burke (Clark Gable) agrees to help change Houston's mind, as long as he profits from the subsequent war. In Austin, Devereaux tangles with ambitious independence leader Thomas Craden (Broderick Crawford), and initiates a romance with newspaper editor Martha Ronda (Ava Gardner). 

What Works Well: This fictionalized version of Texas history pleasingly leans into the politics, presenting two competing and starkly different visions for the state. Themes include slavery as an obstacle to statehood, Mexico's reaction, European meddling, and relationships with the Apache. At the heart of the drama are uncompromising men like Devereaux Burke and Thomas Craden who stand to profit in money or power, a sharp distillation of politics into the art of personal ambition. Clark Gable navigates a complex arc featuring crass dealmaking, frontier survival, romance, and finally a cause to believe in. A quality cast provides able support.

What Does Not Work As Well: In an otherwise cerebral drama, the listless action scenes appear slapped together, and land awkwardly within a narrative that clearly cares more about political skullduggery and less about the bullets and arrows. The Apache are stereotypical warriors with no voice, and after a needlessly boisterous climactic stand-off full of implausible murderous intentions, the juvenile ending surrenders meekly to nauseating cheerleading.

Key Quote:

Andrew Jackson: I'm frightened. For the first time in my life, I am frightened for the future of the United States.

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Movie Review: Susan Lenox (Her Fall And Rise) (1931)

A torrid drama and romance, Susan Lenox features the only teaming of Greta Garbo and Clark Gable in a sometimes overheated love story mixed with the struggles of a woman defining her own way in life.

Helga is born to an unmarried mother who dies during childbirth, and raised by cruel uncle Karl (Jean Hersholt). As soon as the adult Helga (Garbo) reaches marrying age, Karl arranges for her to wed the boorish Jeb (Alan Hale). Helga wants no part of a loveless marriage and escapes into a stormy night, ending up at the cabin of engineer Rodney Spencer (Gable).

They fall in love, but when Rodney has to travel to Detroit, Helga has to again escape the clutches of Karl and Jeb. She joins a traveling carnival and assumes the identity of Susan Lenox, cozying up to the show's leader Wayne Burlingham (John Miljan) for safety. When Rodney comes looking for her he is disgusted by her indiscretion, rupturing their relationship and leading Susan towards a new bohemian lifestyle.

Clocking in at a quick 76 minutes, Susan Lenox is an adaptation of the at-the-time scandalous (and posthumously published) 1917 novel by David Graham Phillips. Director Robert Z. Leonard works from a tight screenplay (co-written by four people) to slim down the 900 page book into a compact story of one woman taking on the world and determined to deal with men on her own terms. And Leonard sneaks in some clever introductory scenes using nothing more than shadows on the wall to summarize Helga's difficult upbringing.

Despite an obsession with the objective of snaring a man for legitimate marriage, the story's early feminist streak is impressive. Helga refuses to marry the man assigned to her, strikes out on her own during a stormy night, wins Rodney's heart, and when fate tears them apart, does what she needs to do to survive and then thrive. As the years roll on she gains a world weariness but never loses sight of her sense of self-worth, and keeps her eyes on the one prize that matters.

Many of the dialogue scenes exhibit signs of awkward clunkiness, and the heat between Garbo and Gable reaches only lukewarm temperatures, her aura of sophistication floating well above his well-intentioned gruffness. Despite the film's brevity the scenes between them are prolonged and stray into repetitiveness, until a most abrupt ending ties everything up with a sharp emotional U-turn.

Better are some of the set designs, including the final location of "Puerto Sacate". The dancehall bustles with shady hustlers, drowning miseries or seeking fortunes at a peripheral and seedy port hub. Susan Lenox absolutely knows what she does not want out of life, but will need to transition through unlikely outposts to secure what she craves.

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Movie Review: Band Of Angels (1957)

A Civil War drama, Band Of Angels is stranded between old and new representations of racism and eventually falls between the cracks.

In Kentucky just before the Civil War, Amantha Starr (Yvonne DeCarlo) is the daughter of a cotton plantation owner who is unusually kind to his slaves. Upon her father's death, Amantha is shocked to discover her mother was a slave, and so therefore she is half negro. Brutal slave traders holding her father's debts immediately capture and ship her to New Orleans, where wealthy businessman Hamish Bond (Clark Gable) buys her at auction for $5,000.

Hamish owns multiple properties and treats all his slaves with dignity, and indeed has raised Rau-Ru (Sidney Poitier) as a son, but Amantha remains unsure what Hamish wants from her. Eventually a romance develops between them and he offers her freedom, but she elects to stay. Hamish is hiding dark secrets about his past, while various other suitors enter Amantha's life as she struggles with her identity. The eruption of the Civil War severely disrupts Hamish's business, while Rau-Ru finds the dream of true freedom within grasp.

Based on the book by Robert Penn Warren, Band Of Angels deserves some credit for adopting a relatively enlightened stance and featuring multiple dignified black characters carving out a place in a shifting societal landscape. Sidney Poitier's outspoken Rau-Ru is the most prominent, but the intriguing Michele (Carolle Drake) is another of Hamish's slaves grappling with loosely defined captivity, the complications of freedom, and quiet infatuation.

Despite the good intentions, Band Of Angels stumbles and stalls rather than building momentum. Director Raoul Walsh is unable to ever ignite the film as it trundles from scene to scene with little passion. The intention to duplicate the grand drama of Gone With The Wind with more modern sensibilities is clear, but Band Of Angels does not come close to replicating the grandeur of the 1939 classic. Neither the writing nor the acting are at the requisite level, and indeed many scenes unfold with a stiff and artificial theatricality.

Walsh and writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts also manage to fumble the most pertinent discussions around racism. Amantha openly resents her blackness, Rau-Ru is angry at everything, and Hamish's relative kindness appears to stem from embers of guilt rather than any core belief. Although Gable is absent from large chunks of the film, Hamish's dark background is by far the most compelling aspect of the story, and Band Of Angels would have greatly benefited from showing samples of his formative years. Instead Walsh leans heavily on Gable, who is excellent, to recall the past, reducing the film to plenty of talking and spurning the opportunity for a more powerful cinematic experience.

Elsewhere, and between bouts of self-hate, Amantha too easily falls in love with every man who sets eyes on her. There is a fiery preacher and ardent believer in freedom, a handsome military type, the gruff Hamish, and a slimy next-door plantation owner. They take turns abusing and rescuing her, not necessarily in that order, as Band Of Angels desperately tries to define itself. In search of stability and fulfilment Amantha wastes too much time purring at the wrong targets, much like the film itself.

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Movie Review: Boom Town (1940)

The adventures and loves of two oilmen over many years, Boom Town enjoys plenty of star power but sprawls for too long with predictable ups and downs.

The rural town of Burkburnett, Texas, is the bustling mucky centre of activity for prospective oil drillers. Wildcatters "Big John" McMasters (Clark Gable) and "Square John" Sand (Spencer Tracy) literally bump into each other and team-up, borrowing equipment they cannot afford from Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan) as they try to strike it rich. Their first attempt is a bust, and they barely stay one step ahead of local sheriff Harmony Jones (Chill Wills). The two Johns cut Aldrich in on their next exploratory oil well, and this time they strike oil.

McMasters meets and quickly marries Betsy McMasters (Claudette Colbert) unaware that Sand was also trying to win her heart. Over the years the two men embark on a strained on-again off-again partnership, their fortunes rising and falling with the wild fluctuations of the international oil business. Sand never loses his feelings for Betsy, but she sticks with McMasters through good times and bad. McMasters eventually moves into the big leagues of New York City corporate life, where he falls under the spell of exotic businesswoman Karen Vanmeer (Hedy Lamarr). His extramarital dalliances provide Sand with a further incentive to try and win back Betsy's heart by any means necessary.

Directed by Jack Conway, Boom Town re-teams Gable and Tracy from 1938's Test Pilot, as well as Gable and Colbert from 1934's It Happened One Night. With Hedy Lamarr adding silky seductiveness in the last third, the star power certainly helps but does not fully overcome the limited material. The John Lee Mahin scripts sets the tone early, then unfortunately just repeats the cycle of ups and downs with mechanical efficiency but without gaining genuine soul.

The love triangle dynamics between McMasters, Sand and Betsy are always just a bit off. Tracy was starting to get resentful of Gable's star billing and shows it by delivering a generally downbeat and disengaged performance. Colbert's Betsy goes through the film riding the fence between the two men, loyal to McMasters but never severing her emotional ties to Sand, an unconvincing role that comes across as both passive and indecisive.

Just as the romantic liaisons are interesting but not engrossing, the business aspects of the story are curious but superficial and quickly repetitive. The wealth and happiness of the two men ride the rollercoaster of oil booms and busts, test wells proving to be either duds or gushers, money made and money lost in an instant, fortunes sometimes riding on coin tosses. Conway keeps it all moving briskly and throws in one genuinely impressive fire disaster scene, but the cyclical fortunes all start to meld into each other and go on for longer than necessary.

The film often looks the part, and is aesthetically at its best in the early scenes. Conway recreates the chaotic muddy roughness of Burkburnett, a macho rough and tumble place where everyone has a claim and a dream of striking it rich, but few have the combination of resources and smarts required to turn paper and equipment into a fortune.

Boom Town sometimes ignites, but often marks time with predictable ticks and tocks.

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Movie Review: Call Of The Wild (1935)

A gold rush adventure story, Call Of The Wild features spirited settings and characters but only elemental human drama.

The bustling frontier town of Skagway, Alaska in 1900 at the height of the gold rush. Prospector and gambler Jack Thornton (Clark Gable) meets Shorty Hoolihan (Jack Oakie), who has recently been released from prison after serving time for mail theft. Shorty claims to have seen a map indicating the location of a gold-rich plot of land. Jack and Shorty team up to find the fortune, and soon tangle with the pompous Mr. Smith (Reginald Owen), a rich prospector on his own quest. Jack purchases Buck, a fierce and powerful St. Bernard, to be part of his sled-pulling dog team.

Once in the wild, Jack and Shorty stumble upon Claire Blake (Loretta Young), who is on a similar expedition to find the gold. With her husband missing, Claire is at first unwilling but then joins them on their journey to Dawson City in the Yukon. The trio then set off by raft to follow the path indicated on the map. As they near their destination, Jack and Claire start to fall in love, but others are also closing in on the precious riverside land.

A partial adaptation of the Jack London classic novel, Call Of The Wild is a rough and ready adventure directed by William A. Wellman. The emphasis is on recreating the chaos and greed that fuel a gold rush, and Gable and Oakie do a fine job bringing to life two prospectors chasing the dream and perhaps enjoying the expedition more than the outcome.

From taming Buck the dog to subjugating Claire to their will, Jack and Shorty are not here to be nice. They are intent on conquering the land, the animals and the women all in search of riches, as long as their is fun to be had along the way. Wellman recreates a quite impressively anarchic Skagway and a Dawson City consumed by greed, both filled with the wannabe rich and those who leach upon them. And the film also spends plenty of time in the wilderness enjoying the outdoors and capturing the dangerous beauty of remote winters in a rugged land.

The film does get bogged down in too many dog-related chapters and not enough character development. Although the book is primarily about Buck, on the screen this becomes a weakness. Too many scenes feature the antics of Buck, and the dog emerges as the most animated and dominant character in the film, to the detriment of the humans. Some interesting parallels are drawn between the pull of the wild on Buck's instincts and men reverting to primordial behaviour to survive the conditions, but these themes are underdeveloped.

Jack, Shorty and Claire are just about the same from start to end, and little new is learned about them during the 89 minutes of running time. Claire suffers the most, showing hardly any grief due to the separation from her husband, and falling in love with Jack just because the script seems to demand it.

Featuring an energetic spirit but riding on a thin layer of snow, Call Of The Wild has plenty of dog but limited bite.

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Movie Review: Test Pilot (1938)

An aviation drama, Test Pilot in an excellent combination of airborne thrills and complex on-the-ground emotional turmoil.

Jim Lane (Clark Gable) is a dashing test pilot tasked with the dangerous job of flying and testing the speed and altitude limits of new and experimental aircraft. His sidekick and mechanic Gunner (Spencer Tracy) is a lifelong companion, and the two men have a deep friendship. Lane gets his assignments from the US military through businessman Drake (Lionel Barrymore).

On a cross-country flight to set a new speed record, Lane encounters trouble and lands in a Kansas field, where he meets feisty farm girl Ann Barton (Myrna Loy). The two hit it off immediately and get married within a day. After Jim and Drake have a falling out, Anne is properly exposed to Jim's world of risk taking, hard drinking and the constant danger of death. Gunner perceives Ann as a distraction and a threat to the friendship between the two men. Although Jim does his best to make the marriage work, the spectre of tragedy hovers over the couple and takes an emotional toll.

Directed by Victor Fleming, Test Pilot is a perfect mix of adventurism and human drama. The airborne photography celebrates the burgeoning birth of the aviation era for both military and civilian uses, but the film also soars on the ground: this is a story of love, friendship, and the compromises needed to make life happen.

A love triangle with a difference, Test Pilot gains most of its momentum from Jim Lane as the irresistible centre of attention for both Gunner and Ann. The destiny of the two men is inexorably linked, and Gunner is Lane's guardian as much as Lane is Gunner's reason to live. When Ann marries Lane on a whim, the careful equilibrium between the two men is disrupted. Fleming and his team of script writers (including Howard Hawks) handle the ripple effects of the unexpected marriage with a clever sensitivity, with Gunner carrying the paradoxical burden of wanting Lane to be happy but realizing that Ann does not know what she signed up for. Spice is added through the hint of attraction that Gunner also senses towards Ann.

Up in the air, Test Pilot offers plenty of thrills and action, with regular interludes of flying, racing, and mid-air mishaps. The special effects team members earn their salaries through some terrific model work, with more than one airplane encountering serious trouble and landing with spectacular inelegance.

The perfectly cast trio of Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy infuse Test Pilot with potent star power. Gable as Jim Lane is all about dashing charisma, a man who laughs in the face of death and drowns the reality of his absurd risk-taking in large volumes of alcohol. Tracy is much more cerebral as Gunner, the mechanic on the sidelines of Lane's life and therefore in a better position to assess Lane's trajectory.

Loy has the most difficult role as Ann Barton, and is exceptional in first finding infatuation with a man who literally drops from the sky to scoop here away from a boring farm life, then coming to terms with what it means to marry a man who fences with death as a career. Lionel Barrymore adds depth as businessman Drake, and Test Pilot is an early look at the world of industry comfortably holding hands with the military to advance weapons of war.

Test Pilot soars when the machines are in the sky and is just as enthralling when the stars are on the ground.

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Movie Review: Mutiny On The Bounty (1935)

Hollywood's first adaptation of the famous events that helped shape marine history, Mutiny On The Bounty is a grand and ambitious seafaring adventure. Thanks to stellar performances, quality execution and the timelessness of the struggle against abuse of power, the film has lost none of its impact, and remains an exceptional achievement.

The time is 1787, and English ship crew members are treated no better than slaves, often press ganged into service against their will and severely disciplined by pompous officers for the smallest infractions. Captained by the authoritarian Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton), HMS Bounty sets sail from Portsmouth on an arduous two year return journey to Tahiti. Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), the Bounty's lieutenant, is more sensitive to the crew members' needs, and finds Bligh's methods distasteful. Also on board are inexperienced officers, including Fletcher's friend Byam (Franchot Tone).

Bligh takes every opportunity to abuse, humiliate, and torture his crew members. After a long and difficult journey the Bounty arrives in Tahiti, where the men get a respite for a few months while the ship is loaded with supplies. Fletcher and Byam meet and fall in love with two local beauties. Soon after setting sail again, Bligh returns to his autocratic methods, and with memories of Tahiti fresh in his mind, Fletcher snaps. He seizes control of the Bounty, and casts Bligh and his loyalists adrift in a small boat. But for Bligh, Fletcher and Byam, there are many more choppy seas to navigate.

Directed by Frank Lloyd as an adaptation of the novel (by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall) that dramatized the real event, Mutiny On The Bounty is an ambitious epic, and an early milestone in what the cinematic art form can deliver on a big budget, with big stars and unconstrained ambition. The film quickly creates an impressive level of tension on board a relatively small ship sailing the high seas, and notably sustains the drama throughout the 132 minutes of running time.

Lloyd divides the story into four tidy segments: pre-sailing, the journey to Tahiti, the stay on the island, and then the mutiny and its aftermath. Each segment serves its purpose, with the key characters introduced and rounded into individuals early on, the Captain's brutality emphasized on the long journey across the Pacific, the men exposed to an entirely different and enticing lifestyle in Tahiti, and finally emotions boiling over, swords drawn, and destinies and lives altered forever with an audacious act of mutiny. The script (by Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman and Carey Wilson) keeps the drama at a simmering level through every chapter.

While the epic scope of the film stands out, from impressive scenes of the Bounty traversing the ocean to the hordes of crew members populating every corner of the ship and then the natives bringing Tahiti to life, Mutiny On The Bounty draws its true power from the conflict between the three central characters.

Captain Bligh is a phenomenal navigator but a hateful, antagonistic leader. Fletcher Christian is much more people-oriented and in tune with the needs of the common man. Byam is caught in the middle, drawn from the upper classes where he need not worry about the crew members, mindful of his position of privilege, but friends with Fletcher and easily able to appreciate other perspectives. While Bligh and Fletcher will spin off in opposite directions as a result of their actions, Byam will be the most exposed both when the mutiny erupts and later at the court martial.

The film presents life upon the open sea as a series of challenges to be overcome with bravado, muscle, perseverance and willpower. From severe storms to a lack of wind, days and weeks of boredom to brief moments of exhilaration when land is sighted, the rigours of long voyages on the ocean both compliment Bligh's skills and condemn his methods.

The performances of Charles Laughton and Clark Gable (without a moustache) are an absolute delight. Both actors create men who strongly hold on to core beliefs in the face of terrible adversity. Laughton snarls his way towards making Bligh an authority figure worth despising, while Gable's charisma brings the idealistically heroic Fletcher to life as initially tolerant but ultimately forced into rogue action.

Franchot Tone is unfortunately not of the same calibre and often seems overwhelmed. The cast also includes Donald Crisp, Henry Stephenson, and Spring Byington, while future stars James Cagney and David Niven are uncredited extras.

Mutiny On The Bounty is a rousing saga, a transformational story told with artistry and conviction that has stood the test of time.

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Movie Review: The Misfits (1961)

A long-winded contemporary western drama, The Misfits sadly proved to be the last film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. It is an almost insufferable exercise in navel gazing, a sorry story about lonely people looking for solace in all the wrong places.

In Reno, Nevada, Roslyn (Monroe) finalizes her divorce, with the emotional support of Isabelle (Thelma Ritter). They then meet truck driver Guido (Eli Wallach), and through him his friend Gay Langland (Gable), an old fashioned cowboy. Isabelle tries to get Guido's romantic attention, but he is immediately smitten by the beautiful Roslyn, who in turn is both fascinated and repulsed by Gay's blatant machismo.

Guido offers Roslyn his secluded desert home to de-stress from her divorce, after which Gay and Guido invite Roslyn to join them as they attempt to round up wild Mustang horses in the desert wilderness. On the way they meet Gay's old friend Perce Howland (Montgomery Clift), a penniless rodeo cowboy. As Roslyn finds herself attracting the attention of all three men, the group joins Perce as he competes at a local rodeo event, before heading to a dry lake to try and corral some horses.

Written by Arthur Miller (Monroe's soon to be ex-husband) and directed by John Huston (apparently hard on the bottle), The Misfits is a project that just did not work. Miller's script is talky, dreamy and exceedingly laborious. Roslyn, Guido, Gay and Perce are uninteresting and unintelligent, all the behaviour on display conveying boring people too quick to express shallow emotions and waves of anger. The attractions are inexplicable except as acts of desperation, never a good basis for attempted romance. And the love/hate attitude that Roslyn displays towards Gay is simply irrational. Either she enjoys his alpha male persona or she does not, and Miller can't decide what kind of man his leading lady craves.

Huston's directing is stale. Scenes go on for too long, the story never finds an arc to hold on to, and the climactic but endless Mustang chase in the desert is filled with cowboys-never-change hokum.

The film's many failures are quite the pity, because the acting talent is clearly abundant. Despite any end-of-life issues facing Gable and Monroe, they both effortlessly dominate the screen. Gable is his usual uncompromising presence, filling his scenes with larger than life male bravado and living proudly according to his code. Monroe is a wispy, breathy presence, displaying nothing but vulnerability in what is either a terrific acting performance or simply by placing herself on the screen. Wallach, Clift and Ritter lend plenty of talent in support, all three conveying lives bereft of purpose and drifting towards a great emptiness.

Gable died within two weeks of the end of filming after suffering a heart attack. Monroe died within 18 months, having never completed another film. The Misfits is unfortunately more of a final crooked memorial for two enduring legends, rather than a successful movie.

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The Movies Of Clark Gable

All movies starring Clark Gable and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Susan Lenox (Her Fall And Rise) (1931)

It Happened One Night (1934)

The Call Of The Wild (1935)

Mutiny On The Bounty (1935)

Test Pilot (1938)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Boom Town (1940)

The Hucksters (1947)

Lone Star (1952)

Mogambo (1953)

Band Of Angels (1957)

Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

The Misfits (1961)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Mogambo (1953)

An adventure romance set in darkest Africa, Mogambo makes good use of its setting and star charisma to overcome an overwrought love triangle.

Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) runs a big game hunting and animal capture business deep in the African jungle, his base accessible only by river boat. His associates are the sympathetic John "Brownie" Brown-Pryce (Philip Stainton) and the hard-drinking Boltchak (Eric Pohlmann). Eloise "Honey Bear" Kelly (Ava Gardner) arrives at Victor's outpost one day hoping to connect with a rich maharajah friend, but he is long gone and she is stranded. Undeterred, Kelly makes herself comfortable and tries to win Victor's affections.

Next to arrive are English couple Donald Nordley and his wife Linda (Donald Sinden and Grace Kelly). He is an anthropologist who wants to study gorillas, while Linda is faithful to her husband but stuck in a passionless marriage. She is immediately attracted to Victor, who also falls in love with her, ignoring Kelly. But Honey Bear will not give up easily, and as the party moves ever deeper into dangerous gorilla territory, Linda has to decide if Victor is worth destroying her marriage for, while Kelly waits for her opportunity to regain Victor's attention.

Mogambo means passion in Swahili, and the passion overflows throughout the film. Kelly and Linda lust after Victor, he is passionate about his lifestyle, and Donald is passionate about capturing the sights and sounds of gorillas in their natural habitat.

Despite the obvious shortcomings, it is really difficult to dislike Mogambo. This is old fashioned Hollywood filmmaking at its most gloriously hokey, director John Ford, as far as possible from his comfort zone of westerns, mixing location shooting with stock footage, ignoring the obvious mismatches in colour and lighting, and stirring in an overcooked love triangle layered so thick with gooey syrup that even the gorillas shake their heads.

In Mogambo, the mere presence of Clark Gable is enough to bring women to their knees. Victor does not need to actually do anything or reveal any personality. Gable may be too old for the role, but it doesn't matter: the jungle heat dominates. Victor's gruff exterior and "lord of the jungle" posture is enough to make first Kelly then Linda melt into hopeless puddles. Honey Bear does not hide it, while for the sake of appearances Linda tries to but fails and literally falls into his arms. It's the sort of romance-by-hero that makes no sense, and yet in deepest Africa, surrounded by local tribes, wild animals, monsoon rains, a rudimentary yet cozy lodge and the life of the hunter, the overheated emotions seem to perfectly match the surroundings.

On her way to securing her only nomination for the Best Actress Academy Award, Ava Gardner is easily the brightest flower in the jungle, her Honey Bear filled with earthy wise cracks, self-deprecation and no small amount of determination to make the best of her situation. Meanwhile, on the cusp of stardom, Grace Kelly's soon to be established cold blonde persona is out of place in the rough, and Linda knows it. She is only there to support her bland husband Donald, but Victor gives her a reason to dream about an alternate life filled with both animals and animal magnetism. Gable is Gable, a no nonsense take-me-for-who-I-am-and-I'll-take-you-any-way-I-like persona. In Mogambo there are baby gorillas and adult gorillas, but only one king gorilla.

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Movie Review: Gone With The Wind (1939)

One of the all-time grand epics, Gone With The Wind is a key milestone marking the beginning of modern cinema. The adventures of a headstrong southern belle before, during, and after the Civil War are given a luxurious treatment that has withstood the test of time with remarkable ease.

With the winds of war looming, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) is blossoming into womanhood on the Tara plantation in rural Georgia. Combining beauty with an intractable will to get what she wants, Scarlett uses her womanly charms to make every man weak in the knees. Yet she is rejected by the one man she truly loves, the reserved Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). At a grand barbecue and banquet event, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a successful maverick businessman and a lone voice in warning that the North will have an advantage in the upcoming war thanks to a stronger industrial base. Rhett sees in Scarlett the same qualities of rebellion and determination that he possesses, but she wants nothing to do with him. Ashley decides to marry the genuine and nearly angelic Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland).

Scarlett: All I know is that I love you! And you don't love Melanie!
Ashley: She's like me, Scarlett. She's part of my blood and we understand each other.
Scarlett: But you love me!
Ashley: How could I help loving you — you who have all the passion for life that I lack? But that kind of love isn't enough to make a successful marriage for two people who are as different as we are.

In an act of impetuous revenge, Scarlett marries Melanie's brother Charles, a man she barely knows. War erupts; Charles enlists but dies of pneumonia, leaving Scarlett a young widow. She visits Atlanta and reconnects with Rhett, now getting rich by smuggling war supplies. She is still not interested in him, her heart set on Ashley, who is serving in the Confederate Army. With Atlanta beginning to come under attack, Ashley asks Scarlett to look after the pregnant Melanie. She does so under horrific conditions, as Atlanta is sacked by the Union and burned to the ground. With Rhett's help Scarlett and Melanie find their way back to a destroyed Tara, where Scarlett will have to start from nothing to try and rebuild her life.

Based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 best seller, Gone With The Wind clocks in at close to four hours, but never loses momentum. The second half may not carry the emotional punch of the exceptional opening two hours, but the story of Scarlett O'Hara and her ever tumultuous relationship with Rhett Butler builds remarkable power, and the destiny shaped by her decisions demands to be revealed.

Gone With The Wind was the vision of independent producer David O. Selznick. He purchased the rights to the book and assembled the cast, borrowing Clark Gable from MGM in a deal that gave MGM distribution rights. Selznick also launched a high-publicity search for an actress to play Scarlett, and eventually settled on the little known Englishwoman Vivien Leigh. Gable and Leigh would forever be associated with Rhett and Scarlett, and their performances give the film its primary thrust as two strong willed characters charting a passionate course in life, destined to deal with each other but rarely in full harmony. Every scene with both Rhett and Scarlett on the screen simply crackles with love-hate intensity, two souls too alike to find serenity, but also unable to navigate life without each other.

Scarlett: But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett: For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett: Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett: I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know. The rest doesn't mean much to me.

Leigh's performance is particularly affecting, especially in the first half of the film. She brings to Leigh a threatening sensuality combined with on-call coquettishness, Leigh's eyes alternating between batting flirtatiously at a line-up of suitors, and penetrating straight to their essence to measure their ability to serve her ambitions. She is also quite stunning in a morning-after scene, turning Rhett's domination into her own contented pleasure, casting doubt on who actually commanded the night.

Gable's screen persona of rebel with a personal cause allows Rhett to instantaneously dissect Scarlett's spirit while simultaneously falling in love with her. Gable's Rhett is gruff, resourceful and rich, a powerful combination and the only one capable of wrestling Scarlett into submission, should she ever allow it.

Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland provide capable support, but Ashley is too bland and Melanie too good to contribute anything other than background staidness compared to the Scarlett and Rhett show.

Selznick spared no cost in producing Gone With The Wind for almost $4 million, an astronomical amount for the era and possibly the most expensive film made up to that time. The film is packed with memorable visual moments, including Scarlett and her dad at Tara, the burning of Atlanta, the train station bursting with injured soldiers, the harrowing journey back to Tara, and Scarlett grasping her home soil and vowing to never be poor again. Max Steiner's mammoth orchestral score, highlighted by the gallant Tara's theme, adds to the timeless quality of the experience.

Scarlett: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!

Director Victor Fleming (with help from uncredited co-directors George Cukor and Sam Wood) astutely hides any stage set constraints, and gives Gone With The Wind an expansive ambiance. He plays with lush colours, lighting, silhouettes, shades and shadows, not to mention gorgeous costumes to create a rich visual experience, opening the door for what the movies can achieve as a full sensory experience. The internal shots benefit from exalted mansions representing Tara, the adjacent Twelve Oaks, and other locales visited or owned by Rhett and Scarlett on their intertwined journeys.

The glory of the south may have been defeated, Gone With The Wind of a devastating war. But the story of Scarlett O'Hara lives on, thanks to an unequalled cinematic achievement.

Scarlett: Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?
Rhett: I'm going to Charleston, back where I belong.
Scarlett: Please, please take me with you!
Rhett: No, I'm through with everything here. I want peace. I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Scarlett: No! I only know that I love you.
Rhett: That's your misfortune. 
Scarlett: Oh, Rhett! Rhett! Rhett, Rhett! Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

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Movie Review: The Hucksters (1947)

A critical dissection of the post-War advertising world, The Hucksters blows hot and cold. The drama surrounding the business of marketing resonates with a satisfying edge. In comparison, the romance elements appear contrived and stagger into somewhat bedraggled predictability.

In New York, wily advertising executive Victor Norman (Clark Gable) is looking to re-start his career after serving in the Second World War. He approaches Mr. Kimberly (Adolphe Menjou), head of the Kimberly Advertising Agency, to seek a position. Victor hangs around on a freelance basis to help Kimberly deal with his most difficult client: Evan Evans (Sydney Greenstreet), the domineering and egotistical head of the Beautee Soap company. Evans gives Kimberly $10 million worth of business every year to make Beautee the best selling soap in America, and terrifies Kimberly's executives with impossible demands.

Victor proves his ability by convincing widow Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr) to endorse Beautee soap, and the two become romantically involved. However, local lounge singer Jean Ogilvie (Ava Gardner) also has eyes for Victor. With clumsy missteps besetting the relationship between Victor and Kay and opening the door for Jean, Evans throws the next impossible demand Victor's way: secure the services of two-bit comedian Buddy Hare (Keenan Wynn) and turn him into a success on a radio show to be sponsored by Beautee soap. Victor has to deal with talent agent David Lash (Edward Arnold), please Kimberly, satisfy Evans, secure a job, and choose the right woman for his future.

The Hucksters is based on the best-selling (and at the time sensational) book by Frederic Wakeman, Sr., and some elements do not translate well to the screen. Victor's attempted courtship of Kay at a sleazy motel burns too much time and smacks of incompetence totally at odds with his character, while a pivotal conversation between Victor and talent agent David Lash is inserted without context and as a result is catastrophically fumbled.

Clark Gable, 20 years older than Kerr and 21 ahead of Gardner, is hazily unconvincing as the romantic lead, but moves comfortably through the minefields of the corporate world, creating in Victor Norman a believable executive oozing confidence and quick to enact solutions to problems that others find intractable.

The Hucksters was Deborah Kerr's debut in Hollywood, and although competent, she is not the best thing in the movie. Her friendly but conservative character of Mrs. Dorrance has absolutely nothing in common with the slick and resourceful Victor Norman, and there is simply no reason for the two of them to fall in love, leaving Kerr in an awkward lurch as the leading woman who must fall for the leading man due to convention rather than conviction.

In contrast, the lively Ava Gardner as Jean Ogilvie positively sparkles, and Jean's earthy talents appear to be the perfect fit for Victor. Both actresses would go on to become major stars, Kerr by careful design and Gardner through the happy discovery of her performance in The Hucksters.

Director Jack Conway steers the movie to its best moments in the scenes focusing on Victor's interactions with Kimberly and Evans. Sydney Greenstreet steals every scene he is in with overwhelming presence. His portrayal of the insufferable tycoon Evans is a treasure, surrounded by yes men and yes women and outwardly demanding their immediate agreement with all his opinions. The dynamics between Evans, Norman and Kimberly are at the heart of the movie, filled with fascinating lessons in personal and corporate leadership as well as examples of human behaviour under pressure.

In a movie packing mixed content, the business drama is a sharp deal, but the romantic triangle needs to be liquidated at a discount.

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Movie Review: It Happened One Night (1934)

A romantic comedy bundled into a road movie, It Happened One Night sparkles with wit, two transcendent performances, and an early harbinger of women's charge towards independence.

Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) is at war with her wealthy father Alexander (Walter Connolly), who is holding her prisoner on a yacht. Although she has eloped with her lover King Westley (Jameson Thomas), Alexander refuses to acknowledge the marriage and is looking to have it annulled. Fed up, Ellie makes her escape by jumping off the boat, swimming ashore, and boarding a bus headed to New York, where she hopes Westley is waiting.

Also on the bus is resourceful but independent-minded journalist Peter Warne (Clark Gable). Peter and Ellie end up sitting on the same bench and quickly irritate each other. As the bus lurches from stop to stop and detectives hired by Alexander crawl across the landscape looking for the runaway heiress, Peter realizes that his travel companion is the scoop of his life. He helps her avoid detection by pretending that they are a couple, sharing a hotel room and hitch-hiking together when the bus starts to attract too much attention. Although Peter is initially just seeking the big story and Ellie just wants to get to New York, they are gradually and unmistakeably drawn to each other.

A breezy comedy, a likable romance, an unexpected commercial hit, and a huge boost to the careers of Gable, Colbert and director Frank Capra, It Happened One Night was the first movie to win the five major Academy Awards for Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay. It held that unique distinction until One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) matched the achievement.

The movie crackles with sharp dialogue exchanges and an undercurrent of cute lust. The hitch hiking scene, with Ellie lifting her skirt to stop a car, and Peter hanging a blanket to split the hotel room in half and provide Ellie with privacy, are both legendary movie moments instantly associated with It Happened One Night. Other magical scenes include Ellie and Peter bickering like an old married couple to throw off the snooping detectives, and Alexander attempting to talk his daughter out of properly marrying King Westley while walking her down the aisle.

The romance between Ellie and Peter rings true because neither of them undergo a sudden, dubious transformation. Both remain faithful to their characters, with Peter gruff and impatient to the end, and Ellie never losing her sense of entitlement and whiff of snobbishness despite her growing dependence on Peter. Gable and Colbert bring the pair together with a chemistry the builds from a mixture of mutual stubbornness and matched determination.

Gable plays Peter as strictly unimpressed with Ellie and her class, yet finds within the corners of his ink-stained reporter habits enough sensitivity to help a woman alone in the rough and tumble world of real people. But Peter is always doubling down on his macho credentials, and legend has it that the sale of men's undershirts tanked irreversibly when Gable took off his shirt to reveal a bare torso.

When Colbert jumps off her father's yacht and into the water, her Ellie takes a stand for women who refuse to have their destinies determined by men. And throughout the journey, Colbert gives as good as she takes from Gable, Ellie never bowing to his badgering, and reasserting her independence at every opportunity despite occasionally floundering in the strange environment of the common people, where the bus schedule is not even adjusted to meet her needs.

Capra makes sure that for all the coldness of a trip centred on an inhospitable bus ride, the heart of It Happened One Night beats warm, the two characters generating first sparks and then heat as they throw their destinies together for better or for worse. Many romantic comedies have followed in the footsteps of It Happened One Night, but few have matched its hearty celebration of unlikely love flourishing on an accidental journey.

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