Happy 4th of July!!

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

Nothing is better than eating watermelon on 4th of July. Every one have a fun and safe  holiday!!

The Easiest Way(1931).

The Easiest Way(1931). Drama film directed by Jack Conway. Adapted from the 1909 play of the same name written by Eugene Walter and directed by David Belasco. Cast: Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable and Anita Page.



Laura Murdock and her family live in poverty, because their unemployed father Ben, would rather have his children support him. Her parents want Peg to mary Nick, because he can support her, but.. Laura wants to marry for love.

One day, while working at a department store, Laura is approached by a man, who offers her a modelling job at his agency. Laura accepts the offer and befriends Elfie, another model, who tells her what is really expected of her.

Soon after, Laura is called in to meet Willard Brockton, the head of the agency, who, convinces her to join him for a drive in the park. Laura quickly becomes a successful model. Her mother refuses to see her because she is living with Brockton in his luxury apartment.

When Laura visits her sister Peg, who is now married to Nick and has started a family. Hardworking Nick, thinking she is a bad influence on his wife, asks her to leave.

While vacationing with Brockton in Colorado, Laura meets newspaper reporter Jack Madison and they fall in love. When Jack takes a overseas assignment, Laura, promises to leave Brockton and wait for him to return. Feeling used Brockton, asks her to return all of his gifts and then sticks Laura with the room bill. Destitute, Laura takes a job at Macy's department store and asks Elfie to loan her some money...  Elfie angry, refuses and slams out the door in a huff.

Later, Ben visits Laura telling her that her mother is gravely ill, but still does not want to see her. After her mother's death, Laura calls Brockton for help.. he takes her back on the condition that she break it off with Jack. Soon after, Jack returns from South America looking for Laura. Brockton eavesdrops on the telephone conversation and threatens to tell Jack about their relationship.

Elfie drops in on Laura, asking to borrow money, Laura gives her a piece of jewelry. Elfie then advises Laura to marry Jack and leave Brockton, before she finds herself working in speakeasy picking up men. Laura's plans to elope with Jack ends when Brockton returns home and sees her packed bags and informs Jack about their relationship. Heartbroken, Jack leaves and Laura goes to Peg's on Christmas Eve. Laura stands in the street and watches her family enjoying the holiday... Will she come up with the courage to join them?

It is fin watching Robert Montgomery, in one of his early roles. Clark Gable plays a small role(no mustache), as Bennett's working class brother-in-law. Constance Bennett and Marjorie Rambeau, are both worth watching.

Marjorie Rambeau (July 15, 1889 – July 6, 1970), when her parents separated, she and her mother moved to Nome, Alaska where young Marjorie dressed as a boy, sang and played the banjo in saloons and music halls. Her mother insisted she dress as a boy to keep way the attention from the drunken men.

She made her Broadway debut on March 10, 1913 in a tryout of Willard Mack's play, Kick In.












In 1921, Dorothy Parker memorialized her in verse:

If all the tears you shed so lavishly
Were gathered, as they left each brimming eye.
And were collected in a crystal sea,
The envious ocean would curl up and dry
So awful in its mightiness, that lake,
So fathomless, that clear and salty deep.
For, oh, it seems your gentle heart must break,
To see you weep.

Her silent films with the Mutual company include: Mary Moreland and The Greater Woman (1917).

By the time talkies came along she was in her early forties and she began to take on character roles in films: Min and Bill, The Secret Six, Laughing Sinners, Grand Canary, Joe Palooka, and Primrose Path, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1940, Rambeau had the title role in Tugboat Annie Sails Again as well as second billing under Wallace Beery, in 20 Mule Team.

Other films include: Tobacco Road, A Man Called Peter and Broadway.

In 1953, she was again nominated for an Oscar, for Torch Song.

In 1957, she appeared in a supporting role in, Man of a Thousand Faces about the life of Lon Chaney, although she never worked with the real Chaney in silent films.

According to author and New York Mirror theatre critic Bernard Sobel the Reuben sandwich was invented for Marjorie Rambeau upon a visit to Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen in New York City.

Rambeau was married three times with no children: The first was in 1913 to Canadian writer, actor, and director Willard Mack. They divorced in 1917. She then married another actor, Hugh Dillman McGaughey, in 1919. They divorced in 1923. Dillman later married Anna Thompson Dodge, widow of automobile magnate Horace Elgin Dodge, Sr. Rambeau's last marriage was to Francis Asbury Gudger in 1931, with whom she remained until his death in 1967.

She died at her home in Palm Springs, California .

Night Flight (1933).

Night Flight (also known as Dark to Dawn) is a 1933 aviation drama film produced by David O. Selznick. Directed by Clarence Brown. Cast: Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Clark Gable and Helen Hayes. It is based on the 1931 novel of the same name which won the Prix Femina the same year, by French writer and pioneering-aviator Antoine de Saint Exupery. Based on Saint-Exupery's personal experiences while flying on South American mail routes, Night Flight recreates a 24-hour period of the operations of the fictional airline, Trans-Andean European Air Mail.

A mother is very worried about her very ill son in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. Everyone is waiting for a very important package containing a life-saving medicine to be delivered by the night flying Trans-Andean European Air Mail, the very next day.

In Santiago, Chile, pilot Auguste Pellerin leaves for Buenos Aires, the airline's headquarters, with the medicine. Bad weather makes his flight a dangerous one and the shaken Pellerin, is thankful to land safely, even though the airline's ruthless director general of a mail service, Riviera, fines him for being late.

Riviera, is a harsh boss who respects his pilots even while driving them ever harder and his no-nonsense tactics worry inspector, Robineau.

Meanwhile, pilot Jules Fabian and his wireless operator, H. Guimet, have left Punta Arenas and do not like the looks of a sudden rainstorm in front of them.

Fabian's wife Simone, is waiting at home for him and has prepared a special dinner to celebrate his first night flight.

Meanwhile, Guimet wants to land in nearby Bahia Blanca, Argentina, but Fabian decides to push ahead, because he does not want to be fined for being late. They radio to headquarters that they are flying blind, but their transmission is cut off. As time wears on Fabian, fly's off-course by the storm.

After Robineau, returns to the office following a dinner with Pellerin, Riviera reprimands him for socializing with the pilot and forces him to punish Pellerin for a fabricated offense, to teach him a lesson.

Riviera, calls a Brazilian pilot to take the mail to Rio and the pilot's wife pleads with him not to go.

Simone, now realizing that her husband is very late, arrives at headquarters after Riviera refuses to give her any information over the telephone.

While Simone waits anxiously for news, Fabian and Guimet, who believe that they have passed the worst of the storm, are forced to jump from their plane when the plane runs out of fuel. The storm has driven them over the ocean and both men jump to their death.

At the airport, Simone realizes that Fabian is dead and hysterically accuses Riviera of treating the pilots like machines. Riviera, insist the night mail must go through, sending the Brazilian pilot onto Rio.

Despite his wife's worries, the pilot makes his run safely and on time. The serum reaches the hospital and the ill child's life is saved.

This all-star cast performs in this awesome film about pilots, with some great aerial footage... This was Lionel's fifth and final teaming with his younger brother John, playing the ruthless director general of a mail service who asks pilots to risk their lives on a daily basis flying over the Andes. Clark Gable, was very impressive as a doomed flyer.

Helen Hayes Brown (October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993), career spanned almost 70 years. Her mother, Catherine Estelle, was an aspiring actress. Her father, Francis van Arnum Brown, worked at the Washington Patent Office and as a manager and salesman for a wholesale butcher.

Hayes began a stage career at an early age. She said her stage debut was as a 5-year-old singer at Washington's Belasco Theater (on Lafayette Square, across from the White House.)

By the age of ten, she had made a short film called Jean and the Calico Doll, but moved to Hollywood only when her husband, playwright Charles MacArthur, signed a Hollywood deal.

Her sound film debut was in, The Sin of Madelon Claudet, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

She followed that with starring roles in, Arrowsmith (with Myrna Loy), A Farewell to Arms (with actor Gary Cooper, The White Sister, What Every Woman Knows (a reprise from her Broadway hit) and Vanessa: Her Love Story.

Hayes, returned to Broadway in 1935, where for three years she played the title role in the Gilbert Miller production of Victoria Regina, with Vincent Price as Prince Albert, first at the Broadhurst Theater and later at the Martin Beck Theater.

In 1953, she was the first-ever recipient of the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theater, repeating as the winner in 1969.

She returned to Hollywood in the 1950's, and her film star began to rise. She starred in, My Son John (1952) and Anastasia (1956), and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly stowaway in the disaster film, Airport (1970).

She followed that up with several roles in Disney films such as Herbie Rides Again, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and Candleshoe. Her performance in Anastasia was considered a comeback—she had suspended her career for several years due to the death of her daughter Mary, and her husband's failing health.

In 1955 the Fulton Theater was renamed for her.

In 1983 the Little Theater on West 45th Street was renamed The Helen Hayes Theater in her honor, as was a theater in Nyack, which has since been renamed the River-space-Arts Center.

It is unclear who or when Hayes was called the "First Lady of the Theater". Her friend, actress Katharine Cornell also held that title, and each thought that the other deserved it. One critic said that Cornell played every Queen as though she were a woman, whereas Hayes played every woman as though she were a Queen.

In 1982, with friend Lady Bird Johnson, she founded the National Wildflower Research Center, now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. The center protects and preserves North America's native plants and natural landscapes.

The Helen Hayes Award for theater in the Washington D.C. area is named in her honor.

They Met in Bombay (1941).

They Met in Bombay(1941). Drama/adventure/romance/war film. Directed by Clarence Brown. Cast: Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell and Peter Lorre. In the beginning, Lana Turner was announced as the female lead.

While the Duchess of Beltravers travels to Bombay, India.. jewel thief Gerald Meldrick has a perfect fake made of her treasured "Star of Asia" necklace. Gerald then goes to India, posing as a Lloyd's of London detective, who's there to protect his clients' jewelry.

Registering at the same hotel is Baroness von Duren, to whom Gerald notices right away. Unknown to Gerald, the baroness is actually Anya von Duren, a thief who also has plans to steal the necklace.. Gerald soon becomes suspicious of Anya, after she asks him how someone might steal the necklace.

That evening, Anya arranges to dine with to the duchess and pretending to be a friend of her relatives, Anya follows her to her suite. After the duchess falls asleep, Anya steals the necklace, after which Gerald sneaks into the duchess' room and switches the real necklace with the fake.

He then goes to Anya, takes the pendant from her and convinces her that he is letting her off with a warning. Anya's gratefulness soon ends when she discovers that he has switched the necklaces and the next day she confronts him.

Gerald, suggests that they become partners and they narrowly escape arrest when police Inspector Cressney discovers the theft. Forced to flee on a steamer, they have to deal with Captain Chang, who wants the reward for their capture.

Gerald and Anya,  jump ship after learning that Chang plans to turn them in. Now living in Hong Kong, Gerald and Anya are in love and living in poverty. Anya, wants to live a normal life, but.. Gerald, thinks otherwise.

One day, Gerald, who was once a British officer, poses as "Captain Huston" in a scheme to confiscate money from a Chinese merchant accused of stealing from the army. Gerald has some soldiers to help him and is so convincing that he is ordered to report to the Hong Kong Garrison for duty.

Because the Japanese army is advancing, all Europeans and friendly Chinese must leave Chang-lin, and Gerald is ordered to lead a regiment there. He cannot leave the barracks, but arranges for Anya to meet him at Chang-lin. She is there when he arrives and the evacuation is planned until Japanese troops refuse to allow anyone to leave.

Gerald, risks his own life destroying Japanese machine guns and is seriously wounded before the battle is over. When Gerald is released from the army hospital, he plans his and Anya's escape, unaware that he is to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Will he attend the award ceremony or leave before they are arrested?




What starts out as a fun jewel thieves adventure/romance film... turns into a wartime adventure. Which, kind of dragged on for me..

Jessie Ralph (November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944), she made her Hollywood debut in 1916, she only became a permanent Hollywood actress in 1933. She was nearly 70 at this time, so her roles were restricted to those of older ladies.

Her best known roles are as Greta Garbo's maid in Camille, and as W.C. Fields' mother-in-law in, The Bank Dick.

She starred in 55 movies altogether, 52 between 1933 and 1940 She retired in 1940, after her leg was amputated and she died 4 years later at the age of 79.

Her husband, Bill Patton (1894–1951), was a bit- part actor in Westerns.

Donut Dunking lessons and It Happened One Night.

When I was putting together my Mae Murray, invented the tradition of dunking donuts in coffee post. Click here to view post. It reminded me of this charming scene from:

It Happened One Night (1934). Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews(Claudette Colbert), locked up in the cabin of her father's yacht goes on a hunger strike to get back at her father, who wants to have her marriage to a playboy aviator annulled. 

When she finally escapes, travelling cross-country by bus, Ellie meets up with "down-on-his-luck" reporter, Peter Warne (Clark Gable).

After spending the night at a motor-lodge, Peter cooks her breakfast of a scrambled egg, a donut, and black coffee. Following Peter's lead, Ellie plunges her donut into the cup.

PETER: Say, where did you learn to dunk, in finishing school?

ELLIE: Aw, now, don't you start telling me I shouldn't dunk.

PETER: Of course you shouldn't. You don't know how to do it. Dunking's an art. Don't let it soak so long. A dip and--plop, into your mouth. If you let it soak so long, it'll get soft and fall off. It's all a matter of timing. I ought to write a book about it.

Please click here to read It Happened One Night(1934) movie reiew

A Beautiful Tribute for Judy Lewis daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable.

Judy Lewis was born Judy Young on November 6, 1935. Her parents were the Hollywood actors Loretta Young and Clark Gable. Because of the morality clause in both their contracts and the fact that Clark Gable was married, Loretta Young brought Judy up as her adopted daughter.

When Judy was four, her mother married advertising executive Tom Lewis. By the time Judy was nine, she had two half brothers, Christopher and Peter.

This video, produced by her brothers and features Peter Lewis performing his composition 'Pictures Of The Past'. Judy passed away on November 25, 2011.


 

Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931).

Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)(1931). Cast: Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. Directed and produced by Robert Z. Leonard. The music was by William Axt, the cinematography by William H. Daniels, the art direction by Cedric Gibbons and the costume design by Adrian. The film's supporting cast includes: Jean Hersholt and Alan Hale.

This film was the only teaming of Greta Garbo and Clark Gable, when she was an established star and he a promising young actor. Reportedly, they did not get along well, Garbo thought Gable was vulgar and he thought she was stuck-up.

Because, Helga was born out of wedlock, her unkind uncle, Karl Ohlin, wants to marry her off as soon as she comes of age, to farmer Jeb Mondstrom.

The night before their wedding, Mondstrom tries to rape Helga, because she is a pretty girl. She is able to get away from him and runs away during a terrible rainstorm.

 

Taking shelter in a nearby house, she quickly becomes friends over dinner with, Rodney Spencer and his dog named Major.. even though he thinks something is wrong with her.

They spend the next day fishing, flirting and falling in love. Rodney, proposes just before an going on a short business trip, but.. the fun soon ends when Ohlin and Mondstrom, come looking for her. They shoot and kill the dog while he is protecting her as she escapes.

She jumps on a circus train headed for Marquette and quickly becomes friends with Madame Panoramia, the tattooed lady. She changes her style and name to Susan. Helga writes Rodney asking him to meet her in Marquette, but.. the circus owner Burlingham's, takes advantage of her and her situation when he realizes she is in hiding.

When Rodney finds out about their relationship he calls her a tramp. Heartbroken, Helga goes from one man to another until, she becomes the glamorous mistress of wealthy politician, Mike Kelly. Rodney, goes into a deep depression..

Later, Helga, meets Rodney at a dinner party and tries to humiliate him in front of everybody, but.. when he leaves, she realizes that she still in love with him. She travels from city to city looking for Rodney, winding up as a singer in a dive in Latin America.

She has learned that Rodney is working on a construction crew in the jungle and plans to wait for him, even though, millionaire Robert Lane wants to marry her. Will Rodney ever reunite with Helga and forgive her?

Greta Garbo, plays the vulnerable young woman, who grows into a more sophisticated woman, that you will have high hopes for until the very end..

Clark Gable, is not wearing his famous mustache, but once you get past that... he gives a good early performance.

Alan Hale, Sr. (February 10, 1892 – January 22, 1950) studied to be an opera singer and also had successes as an inventor. Among his innovations were the folding theatre-seat, the hand fire extinguisher, and greaseless potato chips.

His first film role was in the 1911 silent movie, The Cowboy and the Lady. He played "Little John" in the 1922 film Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery, reprised the role sixteen years later in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, then played him yet again in Rogues of Sherwood Forest in 1950 with John Derek as Robin Hood's son, a 28-year span of portrayals of the same character.

His other films include the epic, The Trap(1922) with Lon Chaney, Sr., Skyscraper(1928), Fog Over Frisco with Bette Davis, Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen with Baby LeRoy and William Frawley, The Little Minister with Katharine Hepburn, and It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; all released in 1934, Stella Dallas(1937) with Barbara Stanwyck; High, Wide, and Handsome with Irene Dunne and Dorothy Lamour,The Fighting 69th with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien; They Drive By Night with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart, Manpower with Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, and George Raft, Virginia City with Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, and Humphrey Bogart and as the Sgt. McGee in the movie This Is the Army with Irving Berlin(1943). He also co-starred with Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland in the western film Dodge City (1939) where he played the comical Rusty Hart, sidekick to Flynn's character, Sheriff Wade Hatton.

Hale directed eight movies during the 1920s and 1930s and acted in 235 films.

Hale's wife of over thirty years was Gretchen Hartman (1897–1979), a child actress and silent film player and mother of their three children. He was the father of lookalike actor Alan Hale, Jr., best known as "the Skipper" on television's Gilligan's Island.

Alan Hale, Sr. died in Hollywood, California on January 22, 1950 following a liver ailment and viral infection.

The Call of the Wild (1935).

The Call of the Wild(1935). Adventure film adaptation of Jack London's novel of the same name. A prospector heading for the Alaska gold rush rescues a sled dog from its cruel master. Cast: Clark Gable and Loretta Young. This was also the last film released under the 20th Century Pictures' name before it merged with Fox Film Corporation to create 20th Century-Fox.

During the gold rush, prospector Jack Thornton, plans to return to Chicago from the Yukon's, but loses all his money in a card game. Shorty, just released from jail after a six-month sentence for mail tampering, tells Jack about a letter with a map he read, before being arrested. The letter was written by a dying prospector, Martin Blake, to his son John, who lives in San Francisco.

Shorty, draws the map from memory and admits that he may have not remembered everything and then adds that John Blake and his wife, are on their way in search of the mine.

While looking to buying a dog team, Jack and Shorty meet a very mean cutthroat prospector, Mr. Smith, who wants to buy a untrained St. Bernard named Buck. But.. it is Jack, who buys the dog. Although, Buck runs away, he returns later that night during a snow storm and curls up to sleep beside Jack.

While, on the road they meet up with Blake's wife Claire, who is surrounded by wolves, she then tells them Blake has been gone two days looking for food. Believing, that Blake is now dead, Jack forces Claire to come with them to Dawson, for her safety.

 

 The three become fast friends overtime and decide to become partners.

After, losing most of their provisions crossing a river, Jack refuses to sell Buck, to Smith, for the money that they need. Until, Jack gets drunk and brags that Buck can pull a sled loaded with 1,000 pounds 100 yards, Smith bets $1,000 against Buck that he cannot. Jack accepts and Buck barely makes it.

As they leave Dawson, Blake, unknown to them, is brought in barely alive. At night, Jack sits with Claire by the fire and explains the "Law of the Klondike".. if there is something you want, you just take it. Which, Claire finds hard to believe.

They eventually find the gold and Shorty, leaves for town to file a claim. As the winter closes in, Buck is tempted by the "call of the wild", while Jack and Claire, alone in the cabin, consummate their love.

Recovered, Blake leads Smith to the gold. When they find the cabin, Smith orders one of his men to knock out Blake. Smith, then takes the gold from Jack and Claire, at gunpoint.. but, dies with his men when their canoe overturns in rapids.

After Buck finds Blake, Jack carries him to the cabin, where he and Claire tend to his wounds. Will Claire, go back to Blake or stay with Jack?

Fun Facts:

The World Premiere was held at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. However, the public would not accept the killing of Jack Oakie at the end so a new ending keeping Oakie alive was filmed before national release.

Like many films of the era, this production was originally slated to film in the Southern Sierra Nevada near Sonora. In fact, production had already begun when a warm front melted the snow and forced a expensive move to Washington state.

Loretta Young had a romance with Clark Gable while making this film, resulting in the birth of an out-of-wedlock daughter, Judy Lewis. For years, Ms. Young claimed she went away for a while, found the girl and adopted her.
Please click here to read the post " In Memory of Judy Lewis".

In 1994, Judy Lewis revealed the truth (which had long been the subject of speculation because of her resemblance to both parents) in her book "Uncommon Knowledge".

Madeleine Carroll was originally set for the female lead, but it was eventually given to Loretta Young.

This is a very entertaining film, with Gable and Jack Oakie, playing very believable roles as best friends. Gable, makes the perfect adventurous gambler, who takes many risks for his fortune. Loretta, is very beautiful in this film and she and Gable, make a very handsome couple.

 Katherine DeMille (June 29, 1911 – April 27, 1995), was born Katherine Lester in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was orphaned as a child by the death of her father, an officer in the Canadian Army who died in World War I combat and loss of her mother to tuberculosis in 1920.

When she was nine years old, she was found in an orphanage and legally adopted by film director Cecil B. DeMille and his wife Constance.

She first appeared as an uncredited "Zeppelin Reveler" in Madame Satan (1930) and made thirty film appearances until she retired from films in 1956.

DeMille married actor Anthony Quinn on October 3, 1937. They had five children: Christopher(born 1939), Christina(born December 1, 1941),Catalina (born November 21, 1942), Duncan (born August 4, 1945)and Valentina (born December 26, 1952).

Their first child, Christopher, was found drowned in the lily pond of W.C. Fields at age two.

DeMille accepted the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on behalf of her husband, who was not present at the ceremony. They divorced in 1965, following his affair with costume designer Jolanda Addolori.

Katherine DeMille died from Alzheimer's disease in Tucson, Arizona in 1995, aged 83.

Pawsome Pet Pictures: Clark and Carole

Mom and Dad with their hens

Gone With The Wind(1939).

Mitchell the author first titled the book, "Tomorrow is Another Day", from the last line. Some of the other titles included: Bugles Sang True, Not in Our Stars and Tote the Weary Load. The title Mitchell finally chose is from the first line of the third stanza of the poem, "Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae" by Ernest Dowson:

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind, Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng, Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind...

Scarlett O'Hara uses the title phrase when she asks if "Tara" is still standing or is it "gone with the wind" which had swept through Georgia."

The title is a metaphor for the way of life that existed in the South prior to the Civil War. When taken in the context of Dowson's poem about "Cynara", the phrase "gone with the wind" is about someone who has lost his passionate feelings for his "old passion", Cynara.

Video: First of 5: Making of "Gone With The Wind" .

Mogambo(1953).

Mogambo(1953). Directer: John Ford. Cast: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Donald Sinden. The film was adapted from the play by Wilson Colliso. Kelly won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress (1954), and the film was nominated for two Oscars, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Gardner), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kelly). Mogambo is a remake of the classic film Red Dust (1932). The earlier movie also featured Gable in the lead role.

After trying to capture a black leopard, safari guide and big game hunter Victor Marswell returns home, only to find a young woman in his outdoor shower. The unexpected Kelly, tells Victor that she traveled from New York at the invitation of Maharajah, who left for India leaving her stranded. Kelly, is furious when she learns she will have to wait until next week, for the boat to take her back to America.

She wins over Victor and they begin romantic relationship. Kelly also makes fast friends with Leon Boltchak and Brownie, Victors helpers. Kelly is heartbroken when Victor comes to tell her that the boat has arrived and orders her to pack.

After telling Kelly an awkward goodbye, Victor welcomes British anthropologist Donald Nordley and his wife Linda, who have come to study gorillas. Victor is angry when he hears their plans, and refuses to take them. Soon, Donald becomes ill because of a tsetse fly vaccination, Victor doctors him, but his attitude angers Linda, and she slaps his face.

Later that evening, Donald recovers and Linda apologizes to Victor.

Everyone, is surprised to see a disheveled Kelly show up with the skipper, who tells them that the steamer had engine trouble and will take about four weeks to repair.

The next morning, Linda goes for a walk in the jungle and Victor goes out looking her, saving her just in time from the black leopard. On their way back to the camp, Victor and Linda are caught in a wind storm, Victor carries her home and sparks begin to fly. Kelly witnesses the romantic moment, and throws barbs at them throughout dinner.



Victor suddenly changes his mind and agrees to take the Nordleys to gorilla country. Brownie suggests that Kelly join them on safari and catch a flight to Cairo. Will Kelly make her flight or be the Victor..? I know.. I know.. that was a bad play on words. :)

Grace Kelly was not the first choice for the role of Linda Nordley. Gene Tierney dropped out because of health problems. The movie was filmed on location in Okalataka, French Congo, Mount Kenya, Thika, Kenya, Kenyan Rift Valley, and Fourteen Falls near Thika. Also the Kagera River, Tanganyika Isoila Uganda, and at the MGM British Studios.

The film offers some of the best wildlife shots taken of the African continent. Most of the music is performed by the native tribes. The film shows a traditional Africa that has long since passed. This type of scenes is why I love this film.. but the love triangle is still the focus. Clark Gable's performance is amazing. How often does an actor have the opportunity of portraying the same character 20 years later? In "Red Dust", Gable was also amazing.

FUN FACT:

While filming Mogombo, Clark Gable and Grace Kelly began an affair that lasted for several months.

Pre- Code: Strange Interlude(1932)

Strange Interlude(1932). Romantic drama. D: Robert Z. Leonard. Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, May Robson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Robert Young, Ralph Morgan, Henry B. Walthall and Mary Alden.

In a small New England town, shortly after the World War, writer Charlie Marsden returns home from Europe to visit the woman he is secretly in love with.  There he finds Nina Leeds, angry with her father for preventing Gordon from marrying her before he died in a plane crash during the war. Announcing, that she is going to move to Boston to work as a nurse in a sanitarium for wounded soldiers.

One year later, Nina is called home when her father becomes ill. By the time she arrives home with, Dr. Ned Darrell, and Sam Evans, her father has already died.

Later when, Nina confesses to Charlie that her obsession with Gordon has caused her to be promiscuous with men, Charlie, even though he wants to marry her, realizes that Nina needs a strong man, suggests that she should marry Sam. Wanting a normal married life, Nina agrees.

Nina, soon realizes her mistake, when Sam's mother confides in her that insanity runs in the family and they should not have any children. Mrs. Evans then tells Nina that Sam knows nothing about the "family curse" and suggests Nina, have children by another man.

Nina, soon regrets her marriage and when Ned visits, she tells him about the Evans curse and the two decide to conceive a child. During their afternoon together, Nina realizes that she loves Ned, but.. Ned is not ready to get married and to prevent Nina from telling Sam, Ned announces that Nina is pregnant and that he is leaving for Europe for a year. After Ned's leaves, Nina gives birth to a son, named Gordon.

Realizing that he made a mistake, Ned returns and begs her to run away with him but, Nina, realizing that Sam would be destroyed, tells him that she is happy with the way things are.

Ned and Charlie, become silent partners in Sam's business and Sam makes them all wealthy.

Later when Ned, Charlie, Nina and Sam come to watch Gordon, now a collage athlete compete in a regatta, Ned announces that Gordon plans to marry, Madeleine. Nina, objects and asks Ned to stop the marriage and tell Sam the truth about his paternity. When Ned refuses, Nina decides to tell Charlie the truth. Gordon wins the regatta and Sam, overcome with excitement, suffers a fatal heart attack.

After the funeral, Gordon and Ned get into an argument and Gordon hits Ned, causing Nina to blurt out that he has struck his own father. Gordon, misunderstands and says that he always knew Nina and Ned were in love and gives them his blessing. Ned is about to tell Gordon the truth, but.. will Nina have a change of heart and stop him?

Fun Fact: This was the first film in which Clark Gable's trademark mustache appeared.

By the end of this emotionally moving film, you feel sorry for just about everyone in it and they all deprived themselves of happiness. Great acting, especially for Norma Shearer and Clark Gable

 May Robson (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942).  In 1884, after being widowed, she became an actress simply to support her children.

Over the next several decades, she flourished on the stage. She starred in the 1916 silent film, A Night Out, an adaptation of the play she co-wrote, The Three Lights.

She made several other silent films, then successfully transitioned to talkies.

 She made 45 films during the 1930s. Among her starring roles was 1931's The She-Wolf, in which she was cast as a miserly millionaire businesswoman based on Hetty Green.

She also starred in the final segment of the anthology film, If I Had a Million (1932) as a rest home resident who gets a new lease on life when she is given a $1,000,000 check by a dying business tycoon.

She played the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1933), Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1936), Aunt Elizabeth in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and a sharp-tongued Granny in A Star Is Born (1937).

Miss Robson was top-billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at age 82.

Her last film was 1942's Joan of Paris.

Red Dust(1932)

Red Dust(1932). Directed by Victor Fleming. The picture is the second of six movies Clark Gable and Jean Harlow made together and was produced during the Pre-Code era of Hollywood.

After Vantine arrives at the plantation, hiding from the authorities in Saigon, she quickly adjusts to life on the plantation. Carson resists her and he wise cracks at first, but soon gives in, and they quickly begin a sexual relationship.



Carson soon loses interest in Vantine when the Willises arrive. Carson is immediately attracted to Barbara, and after sending Gary on a long surveying trip, he spends the next week seducing Barbara, as heartbroken Vantine watches.

He talks Barbara into leaving Gary for him, but changes his mind after learning how deeply Gary loves Barbara. He decides to send both of them home.

Carson turns Barbara's feelings against himself by pretending that he never loved her, at which point she shoots him. This provides a cover for Vantine and Carson to save Barbara's marriage.

Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937), was a film actress and sex symbol  of the 1930s. Known as the "Platinum Blonde" and the "Blonde Bombshell".

Harlow performed in several films, mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence, before making the transition to more developed roles and achieving fame under, MGM.

Pre-Code: Men in White (1934).

Men in White (1934) is a Pre-Code film with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, and directed by Ryszard Bolesławski. Because of the illicit romance and the abortion in the movie. The Legion of Decency claimed the movie as unfit for public viewing.

After working all day at the hospital, intern Dr. George Ferguson, is not really looking forward to a dinner date with his fiancee, Laura Hudson. Because later that night, he may have to return to the hospital for a patient, who needs a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, George, can't keep his date with Laura, whose wealthy father John, is now also patient in the hospital. Things even become more complicated after, George disobeys a senior doctor's orders which saves a young girl's life. George learns that the transfusion patient has died and telephones Laura, who is not too happy with him. Laura, who has had enough of him putting her off, refuses to see him and the devastated George, returns to his hospital dormitory room.

Barbara Dennin, a student nurse, comes to George's room and asks to borrow notes for an upcoming examination. George and Barbara share their doubts about the medical profession and then give into temptation.

Later, hospital board members, concerned over rising operating costs, ask Hudson for a large donation and then promise him that they would give George a prestigious appointment, in appreciation. Hochberg, does not believe that George, would ever agree to it.. George, confides to Hochberg that, because of the problems that he is having with Laura, he is having second thoughts about his hospital career.

Soon after, George learns that Barbara is seriously ill from a botched abortion and needs emergency surgery. On orders from Hochberg, Laura goes with George to help with Barbara's surgery. Just before Barbara falls asleep, she tells George that she loves him, which is over heard by Laura. During the operation, Laura faints and later refuses to see George. Will George ever be able to make it up to Laura?

A very entertaining medical drama with Gable/Loy/Allan, in a romantic love triangle, to spice things up.

Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1908 – 27 July 1990) was an English actress who's most memorable performances were as David's young mother in, David Copperfield and as Lucie Manette in, A Tale of Two Cities and Mark of the Vampire.

By the 1950s, Allan had made the transition to character parts: The Heart of the Matter (1953). In 1958, she appeared as Boris Karloff's wife in The Haunted Strangler.

Great On Screen Couples: Vivien Leigh and Birthday Boy Clark Gable.

Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable, are possibly the best known classic movie couples and their performance in the film, Gone with the Wind(1939), is one of the most romantic stories of all time.

Rhett and Scarlett, first meet at the Wilkes Twelve Oaks Plantation barbecue. Rhett is "a visitor from Charleston" who was expelled from West Point and is not received by any family not even his own. Rhett's attraction with Scarlett begins when he overhears her telling Ashley how much she loves him.

They meet again after the death of Scarlett's first husband, Charles Hamilton, while she is staying with Charles' sister Melanie and their Aunt Pittypat in Atlanta during the war. Rhett, now a blockade runner, creates a scandal when he bids on Scarlett at a fund raiser dance.

As the Yankees are approaching Atlanta, Scarlett stays behind to help deliver Melanie's baby and begs Rhett to get them out of the city. Once they have escaped Atlanta, Rhett, having a change of heart, joins the withdrawing Confederate soldiers for their last stand against General Sherman. Before he leaves, Rhett wants a kiss from Scarlett, but she refuses.. he steals a kiss from her and she slaps him and tells him that she hopes he is killed. He leaves Scarlett behind to find her way home.

Several months later, Scarlett returns to Atlanta, hoping to receive money from Rhett to pay Tara's taxes, only to learn that he is in military jail. Scarlett pretends to be concerned about Rhett's life being in danger, when Rhett realizes that she is lying, he tells her that he has no money to give to her and she storms out.

She then meets Frank Kennedy(her sister Suellen's boyfriend) she sees that he has done very well for himself and then lies when she tells him that Suellen is married to someone else. After, they are quickly married and Frank, pays the owed taxes on Tara.

Later, Scarlett is shocked when she sees Rhett free from the Yankees and he is shocked that she has rushed into yet another marriage to a man she does not love.

Frank Kennedy, is killed during a raid on the shanty town after Scarlett is attacked and Rhett saves Ashley Wilkes and his group by making up a alibi for them.

While Scarlett is mourning Frank's death, Rhett comes with a marriage proposal and he tells her that he will win her love one day because they are both the same. Rhett secretly hopes that Scarlett will love him as much as he loves her..

After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Rhett promises to restore Tara to the way it used to be, while Scarlett builds the biggest mansion in Atlanta. They have a daughter named Bonnie Blue Butler.

Scarlett, still pining away for Ashley and now upset about gaining weight after having the baby, lets Rhett know that she does not want anymore children. In anger, he kicks open the door that separates their bedrooms to show her that a locked door will keep him out.

When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett comforts Ashley and Ashley's sister India, who hates Scarlett, walks in on them. She spreads a rumor about what she claims to have seen. Later that night, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett to attend a birthday party for Ashley dressed in a red dress. Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so everyone knows that she does not believe the rumors.

At home later that night, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk, where he tells Scarlett that he could kill her if he thought it would make her forget Ashley. He carries her up the stairs in his arms, telling her, "This is one night you're not turning me out." In the morning she wakes up happy but Rhett returns to apologize for his behavior and says that he will give her a divorce. Rhett decides to take Bonnie on an long trip to London only to find out, that Bonnie wants her mother. Rhett returns and Scarlett is happy to see him, but he continues to be distant. She tells him that she is pregnant again. They get into an argument and Scarlett, lunges at Rhett and falls down the stairs and has a miscarriage, Rhett is over come with with guilt. As Scarlett is recovering, their daughter, Bonnie, falls off a pony and dies.

When Scarlett's realizes that she is really in love with her husband, it is too late and he leaves her with his famous line: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

I can not imagine any one else playing Scarlett O'Hara, but the beautiful Vivien Leigh, who was at the peak of her career. Scarlett's love for Ashley foolishly takes over her life and keeps her away from Rhett, who truly loves her. I feel the same way about Clark Gable's performance as Rhett Butler. Even though he did the right thing in the end. I wished that he would have stayed with Scarlett.