The Misfits (1961)

A divorced hot chick (Marilyn Monroe) and her landlady (Thelma Ritter) meet up with a tow truck driver (Eli Wallach) and his cowboy friend (Clark Gable). They later swap out the landlady for a troubled ranch hand (Montgomery Clift), then go rustling Mustangs. They all fall over Marilyn while she falls out of her dress.

Clark Gable was 59 going on 109 and would pass just after filming wrapped. He had said that working with Marilyn was going to give him a heart attack and, well, it seems he was right. He got in shape for the roll, quitting booze and losing weight, but too little, too late. There was a doctor on call but it was for the troubled Monroe and Clift. This would also prove to be Marilyn’s last film, dying of a semi-accidental drug overdose a year and a half later. Of the five principles, only Eli Wallach would see 1970, leaving us in 2014 at 98.

Maybe because he wasn’t playing the romantic lead, I liked Montgomery Clift’s performance. He played a neurotic, self-destructive cowboy. A role I suppose he could relate to. Except for the cowboy part. I’ll again repeat Marilyn’s quote about him: "the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am".

Not what I was expecting. There is a whole lot of ogling of Marilyn to the point where it seems to serve the dual purpose of making a point and appealing to men who like ogling Marilyn. She was 34 or 35 here and still effectively playing the 20-something bombshell, if maybe carrying a bit more weight than normal. It was said that they suspended production for two weeks so she could detox but that may have been a ruse to cover director John Huston’s gambling losses.

The four main characters (excluding Ritter’s landlady) are trying to figure out where they fit in. The aging cowboy out of touch in the new west, the tow truck driver dealing with the dead wife he worshiped, the young ranch hand not sure where he is going in life, and of course the divorcee who based her identity on the men who want her. You know, Misfits. They seem to come to terms with their issues, but it is not altogether clear.

The Misfits is an interesting film. Here we say goodbye to two icons of classic Hollywood. However I don’t know what to make of the overt “male gaze” aspect of the film. It felt very intentional. I may not see it again, but I do find myself thinking about it. AMRU 3.5.

"Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dyin's as natural as livin'. The man who's too afraid to die is too afraid to live."

Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

A publishing executive (Clark Gable) and his wife (Myrna Loy) are madly in love, but odd circumstances lead her to question his relationship with his secretary (Jean Harlow). After all, she’s Jean Harlow.

I selected this film because it sounded like silly nonsense. Nonsense with huge start power. But Larry Karaszewski did a Trailers from Hell video on it saying it was far smarter than the title implied. And it was.

We can forgive Loy’s Linda for reaching her conclusion. She isn’t jealous by nature and we see the bits of misinformation that leads her astray. Even though it’s all innocent (not a spoiler), her conclusion is quite reasonable. And it doesn’t help that her mother-in-law doesn’t doubt it for a moment. Plus, Gable’s Van is terrible at explanations. Even the perfect wife can have doubts.

Gable is exuberant and energetic as young Gable was. Always fun to watch. I was always mystified with the collective infatuation with Jean Harlow, figuring it mostly a product of her early demise. Here, though, she is quite charming as the dedicated secretary. Maybe I found her so much more likable because she wasn’t playing trashy. Jimmy Stewart was her would-be fiance. Gloria Holden had a small role. She always gave me that weird feeling.

If I were to criticize anything about the film it would be that they didn’t stick the landing. Not totally. I suppose Linda realized that she was wrong. I wish that point was more clear, but that’s picking nits. Wife vs. Secretary is clever, witty, and charming all the way through. The leads bubble with chemistry and its a fun ride. Way better than its title. AMRU 4.

“You’re a fool, for which I am grateful.”

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Entitled bitch Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) learns that the man she is infatuated with (Leslie Howard) is marrying his cousin (Olivia de Havilland), then the war of southern aggression takes the men’s attention away from her, and all the while she is pursued by the cad Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). After losing her precious way of life she learns to be self sufficient, saves Tara, gets her man, and lives happily ever after. Promise.

Chalk this up as another ‘How the hell did I not see this until now’ film. I’m sure this is because I have seen bits and pieces and, well, I have issues. Costume melodramas aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse and I have reveled in my dislike for this kind of film. I have called the Wizard of Oz the greatest bad movie ever and this the worst great movie ever. Not that anyone could say the line Fiddle-dee-dee without sounding like a complete fraud, but some of the acting was horrendous. But mostly I have an extreme distaste for the idolization of the old South, where the idle rich live in lavish comfort on the backs of unimaginable cruelty. And make no mistake, some of that is here, but more on that later. So, after seeing fifty candles on my cake I actually sat down and watched all seventy hours of this epic, romantic, quasi-historic costume melodrama. Here is what I have to say.

There are no likable characters in the film, said one son, with the exception of de Havilland’s Melanie, and she was just a paper-thin generic goodie character used as a foil for horrid Scarlett. To disagree somewhat, I did like the cad Rhett Butler. He knew who he was and owned up to it. He pursued Scarlett because she was just like him. Selfish, manipulative, and driven. Oh, and she was hot. And rich. This may be Gable’s best roll, even though he dismissed it as a woman’s picture. But if you really liked Scarlett as a protagonist, then you are a terrible person.

The third leg in this love triangle is Ashley Wilkes, played by a middle aged ugly man. I guess they didn’t want people rooting for him too much. Seriously, Howard was pushing fifty during filming! He loves Scarlett (I guess) but marries his cousin because that’s what the Wilkes always do. I suppose. Then the war, then all hell breaks loose, then our story resolves. Back to my principal issue.

Slavery is the single greatest evil my nation perpetrated on other humans, and that is saying something. The best thing you can say about the institution is that it was worse in other places. America didn’t need to continuously import slaves to replace the ones dying in the fields, like in the Caribbean. They lived long enough to produce new slaves. If that’s your saving grace, then, again, you are a terrible person. Slavery is never justified by the gifts of civilization and Christianity. And you cannot reminisce for the old south without acknowledging the great and terrible evil that allowed it to exist. The Old South needed to die just as the aristocracies of old Europe. Let’s get back to the film.

What I had missed about Gone With the Wind was there is more than one way to enjoy the story. You could feel sorry for Scarlett or the loss of plantation society as many people do. But the events depicted are not necessarily a treatise on the loss of something grand or the cruelty of the North, but a statement that War is Hell and here are events that happened. Enjoying the story does not necessitate sympathy with slaveholders.

Stepping away from the heavy narrative for a moment, I'd like to shout out to Scarlett's dad played by Thomas Mitchell. He also appeared in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Stagecoach, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington all in the SAME YEAR! Olivia de is pushing 101, almost as old as my uncle.

Gone With the Wind is an amazingly beautiful film. The sets, the photography, the editing, it all comes together wonderfully. And the copy I saw was a fairly poor transfer. I can only imagine what a fully restored 4k edition would look like. And for a film that’s two minutes shy of four hours, it never drags. That’s coming from me, charter member of Short Attention Span Theater fan club. I will see it again. AMRU 4.

I don’t leave you with a film quote (of course there were many to choose from), but one from Leslie Howard, who died four years later, a causality of the war:

“I hate the damn part. I'm not nearly beautiful or young enough for Ashley, and it makes me sick being fixed up to look attractive.”

Night Nurse (1931)

Young Lorna Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) wants ever so much to be a nurse, but without the proper degree (high school) she isn't qualified. But bumping into a chief surgeon on the way out appears to have solved all that. She is paired by sassy blond Maloney (sassy blond Joan Blondell) who shows her the ropes. At the midpoint of the film, Lorna gets a private gig and the drama begins. She is taking care of two young girls who are ever so sorry they have been such a bother and promise to be good, really they do! They are slowly dying of starvation and the twitchy attending physician and the cruel chauffeur Nick (Clark Gable) seem to like it that way.

Classified pre-code mostly because Stanwyck and Blondell have occasion to undress to reveal their overly complicated undergarments. In one scene they share a bunk for no clear reason, then suddenly shiver inexplicably as if cold. While a bootlegger is a protagonist, this is during the great social experiment, and drunkenness must shown in a definitely negative light. One character exclaims that she's a dipsomaniac and she likes it. Dipsomaniac is an old fashioned word for alcoholic but I suspect filmmakers wanted us to think she was saying nymphomaniac, which also fits.

James Cagney was suddenly a big star so he turned down the role of Nick, allowing nobody Gable to take it. I like the jargon thrown in there in an attempt to make it sound credible, like "Have you tried the Murphy drip?" There are nice elements like the point of view shot from an ambulance at the beginning, and it holds your interest, but otherwise Night Nurse is standard fare for it's time. AMRU 3.

"Says me in a big way, sister"

Red Dust (1932)

Clark Gable is the hunky proprietor of a rubber plantation in Indochina. Gene Raymond (not the Match Game guy) and Mary Astor are an educated, proper couple. He surveys the ranch while she gets plowed by our man Clark. Jean Harlow is the whore on the run, who knows what goes on. 

Ah, to be Clark Gable in pre-code Hollywood. 

This film has it all: racism, adultery, prostitution, more racism. Not sure where the red dust fits in. There were dust storms, maybe it was red. It looked grey to me. 

Jean Harlow had the famous water barrel scene, where she bathes, presumably nude, in the plantations drinking water. According to legend, she stood up to reveal her hoo-ha's and said "This one's for the boys in the lab". That footage does not seem to exist. Here's another tid-bit I learned from IMDb: during the filming, Jean Harlow's husband committed suicide. She took a leave of absence, and when she returned her revealing outfits were gone. In five years she would be dead. That girl had a sad life. 

Mary Astor had an interesting quote about actors: There are five stages in the life of an actor: "Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor Type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor?" I just found that funny. 22 years after her death, we are squarely in the Who's Mary Astor zone. Personally, if I were Clarkie, I wouldn't have given her a second look. Jean Harlow was on the set, after all. Maybe I'd feel differently if I lived on a plantation in the middle of a rainy jungle usually devoid of women. 

And I'm no Clark Gable. I hope he wore his rubbers. 

AMRU 3.5.

It Happened One Night (1934)

Clark Gable was loaned out to 'Poverty Row' studio Columbia as punishment for being difficult. Myrna Loy turned down the lead because she didn't want to be in another movie set on a bus. Lead actress Claudette Colbert called it the worst movie of her career and refused to go to the premiere. Then this low budget picture won Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. The first film ever to win all five big awards. Columbia was Poverty Row no longer.

Colbert runs away from her rich daddy to be with sugar-daddy husband in New York (Daddy is trying to get it annulled), Gable is a fired newspaper reporter looking to get work again. They meet up in a bus station. She (the prodigal Babe-in-the-Woods) needs help getting to New York and he needs a story. They agree to help each other, sorda.

Claudette Colbert was cute as a spoiled heiress, but after seeing Myrna Loy in The Thin Man, I wonder if Loy could have been even better. Remembered as being the first "screwball comedy", I'd classify it as a romantic comedy by today's standards. Friz Freleng is said to have pattern some of Warner Brother's cartoon characters after Gable and others.

Clever, witty, fun, this movie is a treat. I must see it again, and in fact, I did. I returned it late just so that my wife could watch it. She liked it as well. AMRU 4.