Clark Gable: let's talk about how great he was (or wasn't because of course this is DL)

Meh.

"If Pa had once inch less he'd be the Queen of Hollywood."... Mrs Clark Gable aka Carole Lombard

"He had a tight asshole but he couldn't live forever.".. George Cukor

From what I've read, he really stood up for Hattie McDaniel and was a frequent guest at her parties. That makes him alright in my book.

He and Claudette Colbert made Oscar laugh and were rewarded--how rare.

Amway found his acting style to be annoying. His characters after he became a "star" always played too damn smug. He broke away from that persona only several time such as in his failed WW2 bomber movie Command Decision.

R5, I believe MGM loaned him out to Columbia to teach him a lesson I guess the lesson was how to star in an Academy Award-winning film.

Loved his swagger.

R5 that's definitely one of the 2 pairings I mentioned. The other one is easy enough to guess. But despite some critiques about his acting, Peter Warnes and Rhett Butler were very different characters and Gable played both convincingly.

Also heard his grandson (a very handsome guy who dabbled in movies) died of a drug overdose last year Sad.

He put more cream on women’s faces than Noxzema.

Has no sex appeal for me, but seems like he'd be damned fun to be around...when he wasn't broody. He taped his ears back, so I wonder how bad they stuck out.

They stuck out this bad.

Other than GWTW, I wonder if many non-film-fans would know him. That and It Happened One Night are probably his only films that get played regularly. I like him.

Judy started her M-G-M career with this little ode designed to keep up his mystique.

R14 The Misfits is played fairly regularly and Red Dust is on occasion too. Anyway 2 movies is more that most old screen stars get.

Pre-mustache Gable got his big break in the 1930s version of Top Gun. Likewise demonstrating to the public the latest in US Naval technology.

Vivien Leigh wanted nothing to do with him - beyond acting - on the set of GWTW.

She thought he was crude and was not amused by his show and tell session with the cock-sock Lombard had knitted for him before filming began.

I wonder if he was well he hung.

Also did he ever have sex with guys ?

Supposedly, he had a gay past that he covered up. He used his first much-older wife to get into Hollywood and then divorced her once he started making it

Supposedly, he also had horrendous breath because of either bad teeth or bad dentures.

Very hot in Mutiny on the Bounty (without his mustache).

Also, catch him in MGM's musical answer to Warner's 42nd St, Dancing Lady with the fabulous Joan Crawford.

I heard he had really stinky breath.

R14 I've seen a few youtube reactors react to "It happened one night" so it's definitely somewhat known outside of the classic film fan circle, mostly for being considered the 1st rom com (though it seems a sin to call it that now) and for being one of the 2 films in history to take the 5 major oscars

R18, I read she would intentionally mess up take after take in the scene where he had to sweep her off her feet and carry her up the grand staircase. She knew he had a bad back but he was a pro so he soldiered on. That type of behavior comes across as rather petty and vindictive, not to mention unprofessional.

R24: From what I’ve read, Miss Leigh wasn’t too fond of Gable, although they hardly hated each other. She found him too casual about the work, while she spent every minute reading the novel, reading the script, and preparing for shooting. She resented his close relationship with director Victor Fleming, as she felt Fleming was focusing more on the Rhett character than hers. She continued to work with the film’s former director, George Cukor, in private because she wasn’t getting the direction she sought from Fleming.

Read Steven Galloway's "Truly, Madly" for Leigh's side of the story

I like him for not wanting to play Rhett Butler. He was afraid he couldn’t pull it off and that he’d be hated by every woman who’d fantasized about being Scarlett. Speaks volumes about either humility or insecurity and either one is better than arrogance, which is more like what you’d expect.

I hardly think Vivien Leigh would be so unprofessional as to willfully and vindictively mess up takes on any film, much less GWTW. She wanted to get it all done, do it perfectly (which she certainly achieved) and move on more than anyone else on that set.

R27, I stand corrected. It was Victor Fleming who made him do 22 takes.

A Quote: Clark charged his pal with slave-driving tactics, commenting loudly on the cruelty making him carry Vivien Leigh up a flight of stairs 22 times: “Clark,” retorted Fleming, “I’ll let you in on a secret…. The third take was okay–you carried her upstairs the other 19 times for exercise!”

Though I have read elsewhere Vivien was involved in some way.

R23 - IHON is the first of THREE films winning all 5 top awards, the others being One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs.

(Alas, it's the only one of them not to cheat its way into this position - both Louise Fletcher and Anthony Hopkins won lead Oscars for their supporting turns, while both Gable and Colbert rightfully won as leads).

R24 I sincerely doubt that. Everybody was under intense pressure to finish "the damned thing" and I can't imagine a Hollywood newby with stage and film training as a serious actress would slow down the shooting and possibly injuring her co-star out of sheer malice. Besides, if you watch the film, she doesn't do anything after he picks her up and starts to climb the stairs so, if she messed the take, it would have been before he picks her up. People make up the craziest stories.

r30, r24 has already graciously apologized and corrected him or herself.

Oops. Point taken.

Read Judy Lewis' "Uncommon Knowledge" to learn about his affair with the Virgin Loretta Young who conceived their love child and went on to "adopt" her! I would assume there's a Related Datalpunge Thread? EVERYONE in Hollywood knew except Judy herself. Google her you see her parents. His family was all white trash otherwise. The son lives in Malibu crazy with guns last I remember.

He was Clark Gable.

R29 stop with the tired tale of “cheat” to an Oscar. Actors voted them into the lead category and the full Academy approved of it.

R33 I dont remember, how did Judy find out? Did Loretta finally tell her or did she find out some other way?

She looked in a mirror.

Loretta Young set up a bank account under a false name thinking that Clark might want to support his child. He never acknowledged Judy or contributed a dime to her welfare.

He did Movie Star acting...like Joan. People didn't go see Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, they went to see Rhett Butler in the persona of Clark Gable.

In her Letterman interview Maureen O'Sullivan talks about chatting with Gable on the set of Strange Interlude.

I read somewhere that William Holden had an illegitimate daughter. He had two sons and a stepdaughter from his marriage to Brenda Marshall, and then had a vasectomy. Audrey Hepburn was in love with him, but she wanted very much to be a mother, so they 'broke up' (not that he wasn't also seeing lots of other women at the time).

from 11.20

R36, first giveaway was her giant ears, then later a boyfriend told her (!) then much later she confronted Loretta. She and Loretta were estranged over it when Loretta died because of Loretta's uptight religious beliefs and Hollywood reputation as a saint.

R36, He was particularly concerned about his crying scene with Melanie after Bonnie’s death, but he pulled it off.

The Story of Clark Gable and Loretta Young's Daughter

R38 he acknowledged her, if not legally, personally. Judy said her father would visit her fairly often.

Wrong, r46

[quote]She and Loretta were estranged over it when Loretta died

Wrong, r43...

R45 damn that ending with the look he gives LY in that scene....gives this frau born 20 years after his death heart palpitations. No one has come close...not the Brad Pitts or George Clooney's or Johnny Depps.

Sorry R47 I guess I misheard.

Related

Perfect casting as Rhett Butler.

His casting was a no-brainer.

When GWTW premiered in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre The Fox was still a segregated house and Miss McDaniel was not be allowed in for the premiere. Clark Gable was so outraged he told MGM “if Hattie can’t come, then neither will” I. Hattie asked Clark to to go to the premiere as a favor to her, Knowing that she would be blamed if Gable wasn’t there. Clark attended the premiere and MGM bosses were so grateful to Hattie that the lobbied for her For the best supporting actress award at Oscars.

Clark Gable also lobbied For the black actors on GWTW To use the same bathrooms as the white actors. He was a good guy.

R50 why bring that disgusting trash into this thread?

First, I'd like to know what that woman her told her was "date rape" because those definitions can be very ambiguous, second Loretta literally put her kid in an orphanage and did not admit until she was elderly that she had a child out of wedlock because of her prudery and religion. 3rd it's all hearsay anyway 4th its buzzfeed, that should tell you plenty. So please kindly do fuck of with trying to tarnish a man's memory on something so flimsy as that "evidence"

Yeah...right.

R53, it was the Lowe’s Theatre, not Fox. Lowe’s owned MGM, which released the film.

Judy Lewis proves my grandma's famous saying about illegitimate babies, "a baby will daddy itself."

I like him. Not much to dislike if you ask me. I do prefer his younger self in movies but I liked Teachers Pet and I love The Misfits ( one of my top ten favorites).

[quote]MGM bosses were so grateful to Hattie that the lobbied for her For the best supporting actress award at Oscars.

And not that cunty Olivia de Havilland! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

R55 looks awful. And Jill Clayburgh as Lombard?

On another note if they ever do a biopic on him, Diane Kruger (From Inglorious Basterds fame) should play her, she looks so much like her it's eery.

[quote]Clark Gable also lobbied for the black actors on GWTW To use the same bathrooms as the white actors. He was a good guy.

No, it made it easier for him to get BBC.

I am sure he got BBC already...he was rich and probably got the best radios available that could pick up all sorts of international radio stations.

R56 you are correct. It was the Lowe’s not the Fox, I stand corrected. R53

[quote]I stand corrected. [R53]

Sit, r63, sit.

Except you're all wrong: it was Loew's.

Loretta really had no other choice in 1935 except an abortion. Surely, she would have married Gable if he'd been willing and available.

Her actions might seem crazy now but try and put it all into the context of the times. I suppose she could be blamed for keeping the truth from her daughter but mothers do crazy things all the time.

He had that "thing" - more charisma than acting ability - that translated onto the screen in films like SAN FRANCISCO and BOOM TOWN, opposite his good friend Spencer Tracy, and even later in MOGAMBO, opposite Ava Gardner. It was Tracy who gave him the nickname "The King."

He also joined the Army Air Corps after Lombard's death, attained the rank of Major, and got a buttload of medals, including a Distinguished Flying Cross.

R60 Kruger looks nothing like Carole Lombard plus she has an accent. Neither did Jill Clayburgh and that ruined the illusion but as I remember Brolin pulled off a pretty good imitation of Gable, as he did years later of Ronald Reagan.

R66 Agreed. In those days being an out-of-wedlock mother was the ultimate shame for the mother AND the child, maybe even worse than being gay because it happened within the confines of polite society. Loretta did a bad thing by today's standards but by 1930's standards she did the best she could for herself and Judy.

Bad girls don't have babies.

Diane Kruger is nothing like Carole Lombard

R68/R71 google "Carole Lombard Diane Kruger" and see I am not alone in thinking that. Agree to disagree.

Ruth Gordon had a child out of wedlock but she had to lay low in NY for a couple of years.

That hussy!

Loretta Young was a terrible hypocrite of a fundie. She told Judy Lewis she was a living sin. She herself had more abortions than the MGM roster combined.

Remember how a few years ago, her convicted pedophile son tried to spin some crap story about Gable’s “date rape” of her in order for one last shot at redemption?

Clark Gable is an underrated actor. Always believable in whatever he did. Many of the matinee idols from that period were a lot more talented than they were given credit for - John Gilbert, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power…though I think Power was beginning to gain some mass credibility by going back to the stage and taking on meaty roles before he died suddenly.

R75 see R50, someone already tried to being that shit up.

[quote]Ruth Gordon had a child out of wedlock but she had to lay low in NY for a couple of years.

With Jed Harris. A most fascinating woman she was.

Loretta young's lovely son

"Lewis, along with 13 other men, were charged with child molestation and filming and distributing child pornography, being indicted with soliciting boys ranging from ages 6 to 17 to perform lewd acts in their movies. In April of that year Lewis pleaded "no contest" to the child molestation charges, which meant he was considered guilty of that charge. Potentially facing a sentence of up to life in prison, in June of that same year he was sentenced to probation and a $500 fine."

I'm supposed to belive the women that married THAT?

My father rarely commented on actors but liked Gable very much and absolutely loved Peter O'Toole. Barbara Stanwyck was his favorite actress. At least some of his opinions were right.

Carole Lombard told Alice Marble that Clark had “a dinky little thing.”

R77 - that shit won't flush.

Some clever person could check Loretta's timeline to see if she was still making movies during the 9 months of her Judy pregnancy.

Alice was a a spy during the war! And she helped force the US(L)TA to desegregate the US Championships.

It looks like Loretta was making The Crusades in early 1935 and then didn't work again till 1936. Judy was born in November, 1935.

R78, Jed Harris was one of the most disliked Broadway producers, worse than David Merrick.

First time I saw “GWTW” was at a 1974 anniversary reissue in 1974 on a big screen.

When the camera panned down the staircase to reveal Clark Gable in closeup, there was a large audible sigh throughout the packed theater.

[quote]Loretta Young was a terrible hypocrite of a fundie.

Catholics aren't 'fundies'

Devout!

[Quote]Catholics aren't 'fundies'

R88, there are plenty of Catholics who are as extreme as any fundamentalist/evangelical. John Paul II saw to that when he reinstated the pope's right to appoint bishops (not just cardinals) and moved the Catholic Church to the right. Why do you think Francis's occasional progressive/liberal statements get attacked so much by Catholics (especially from those in the U S and Africa)?

Boring, bad.church history^

Then tell us, r91, how the American Conference of Bishops isn't stacked with conservatives? Sure, they aren't the 700 Club, but they sure do pull a lot of strings, don't they?

No, actually they don’t. They are a policy advisory body. They have little actual influence. The bad ones just get to make a lot of noise.

Funny how all those policies they advise come out of politicians' and priests' mouths later. Funny how it makes more progressive churches worry about being caught being progressive and getting negative attention. Funny how radical one man shows like the Catholic League get funded. No, they don't pull any strings at all.

Put down the grape juice and relax.

I don’t know a single practicing Catholic who spends a minute wondering about papers issued by the Conference of Bishops . And they have no sway at the Vatican.

Naive.

A more complex reaction was offered by film historian David Stenn, who has written biographies of Jean Harlow and Clara Bow, as well as writing about a notorious rape case involving a Hollywood dancer at a studio party that he turned into the documentary “Girl 27.’’ He calls the new account “a film historian’s nightmare.’’

“It’s entirely conceivable that Loretta Young’s version is true,’’ Stenn says. “It’s also possible that her Catholic guilt caused her to reframe the narrative decades later. It speaks to the tragic and unjust attitudes of the era. Not only did Loretta have the shame of premarital sex, but [she] had the burden of pregnancy. Judy told me her mother told her, ‘You are my mortal sin.’ ”

Stenn says that in the context of 1930s Hollywood, what Gable is accused of doing “is not only conceivable, but was acceptable. Millions of women wanted to be in Loretta Young’s position. If you look at Gable’s films that preceded [‘The Call of the Wild’], there are films where he manhandled women and they love it.

“So I find it highly conceivable either way,’’ Stenn continues. “She was devout, but she was also a successful career woman, a very tough person and a survivor. If she had another opportunity to work with Gable, she would have considered the box-office potential.

“If the story is true, there’s something deeply poignant about her only understanding what happened many decades later,’’ Stenn says. “It shines a light on an ugly period of Hollywood and its treatment of women.’’

Who could resist Clark Gable in 1935?

R83 Young spent most of her pregnancy in Europe where Judy was born, placed in an orphanage and then "adopted" returning to the US with Loretta when Judy was almost two years old.

. . .

Getting back to Gable, he really changed the American ideal of manhood which was personified in the 1920s and very early 30s by MGM's metrosexual Billy Haines and Robert Montgomery.

R101 I consider him a precursor of Brando in that sense, that he was the 1st major star to flaunt his sex appeal and act like he had an actual libido. Most other men were maybe cute or handsome but never really sexual.

Excuse me, r102??

Fuck you, R102

I was about to mention Valentino as the exception HOWEVER he never really wore his libido on his sleeve from the films I've seen him in EXCEPT maybe The Sheik films or maybe the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse. But you are right, he should get at least an honorable mention.

Fey Leslie Howard had zero sex appeal.

Loretta dodged a bullet. She could have had Jack Oakie's child.

I doubt if Loretta became pregnant by a one and done with Clark.

If they enjoyed an extended on location affair, how can it be considered rape?

Pauline Kael wrote about Gable. He was sexually aggressive with a bold open challenge to women. But not romantic. His unspoken question was Well, what do you say, sister? If she said no, she was almost failing nature's test. She'd become overcivilized, afraid of her instincts, afraid of being a woman.

More Kael on Gable. He had cocksure masculinity and one of the few actors never thought to be - even a little bit - homosexual. There was also something tough and slightly shady about him that redeemed his virility act. There was the gleam of a bad boy in him, he looked as if he'd been around.

All of that is true but he could also play sentimental even vulnerable when he wanted. That rounded him out.

R110 - I love that - a hint of Bad Boy and he looked like he had been around!

Puttin on the Ritz.

He's so adorable dancing. Makes you question the story that he didn't want to dance in Gone with the Wind.

I can't find the one with clips I wanted, but this one isn't bad -

George Clooney is his illegitimate son.

Clooney has the same sort of appeal, but nowhere near as much of it.

Maybe Clark is the original Toothy Tile?

[quote] #3: The Whole Bad Breath Thing is … Probably True. In 1933, Clark Gable suffered a severe gum infection resulting in having to have most of his teeth removed. After they were replaced by dentures, (a pretty price, paid by his then wife and wealthy benefactress), and bearing in mind that dental surgery in the early 1930s was hardly what it is today, it is highly likely that Gable did in fact suffer from halitosis.

[quote] If they enjoyed an extended on location affair, how can it be considered rape?

She said pull out please and he kept hammering her until he bred her.

On how many occasions, R119?

Did guys in the olden days pull out?

R121, If they were Catholic.

R119 Hawt!

Loretta called her “walking mortal sin” which sounds even worse.

R20 Well, constantly.

R120 Well, constantly.

Years ago watching a ME-TV rerun of Highway Patrol I noticed a pretty actress who didn't fit at all with the usual hard looking television actresses of that period. It was Judy and looking her up I first learned of her story.

From the filming of that episode it would be another six or seven years before Loretta told her the truth.

This is a CLARK GABLE thread, so can we PLEASE stop talking about that hypocritical hag Loretta Young? Take it somewhere ELSE!

Key...

Even in that short trailer her acting is strikingly awful.

[quote] She said pull out please and he kept hammering her until he bred her.

A woman can get pregnant from pre-cum.

There was a biographical film of sorts OP.

In 1976 James Brolin and Jill Clayburgh starred in Gable and Lombard.

Granted it was limited to their love story, but it’s something.

R130 she won an oscar. She seemed pretty good in the 1st one she did with Gable. Its funny she was supposedly so meek and religious because her characters seemed to be waaay into the D

I bet George Clooney doesn’t have stink breath. That’s appealing R117

R134 eh his leading ladies seemed to love him, stinky breath and all.

George Clooney? I have to laugh.

Who were the other famous actresses who had torrid affairs or one-nighters with Gable besides Loretta and our DL Saint Joan? Did Ava or Grace score on Mogambo?

I think Grace did. Ava had Frank at that time.

Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, and most likely Jean Harlow.

R137, Lana Turner

So many great films. Red Dust is a favorite of mine. Also love Test Pilot with Loy and Tracy and Run Silent, Run Deep. Really, he was an original and they broke the mold. Talent, looks, charisma and not a bloated egomaniac.

The Misfits is a great film, maybe closer to a masterpiece. I don't understand why it would be considered problematic.

Loretta had Judy’s ears pinned back when she was a kid. I think Judy said she met Gable once as a teenager. She recalled he asked her about her questions about her life, interests, hobbies etc…. She didn’t think anything of it until n years later.

Clark James Gable the grandson of Clark Gable died on 2019 of an overdose. He was best known as the hipst of the show cheaters. Clarks dad John Clark gable walked out on Clark and his older sister when they were quite young and didn’t have much to do with them. His stepfather was Jason Scheff of the band Chicago and he raised them.

When the grandson died his father John Clark refused to help financially with Clark’s funeral and wouldn’t allow him to be buried in the gable family plot,

“Wife vs. Secretary” and “Saratoga” are guilty pleasures of mine, both with Gable and Harlow.

When Clark Gable was paired with future wife Carole Lombard in "No Man of Her Own" (1932), both were married to other people. He to Rhea Langham, she to William Powell. They didn't like each other at first. He was taken aback by her salty language and bawdy humor, plus she was in a foul mood, coming off a loan out to United Artist that fell apart. She found him conceited and not much of an actor.

They had become amicable during the shoot, and at production's end, Gable gifted the "prima donna" a pair of ballerina slippers. Lombard, in turn, presented him with packaged ham with his picture on it. It would be another four years before they would meet again, at Lombard's Mayfair Ball, and under different circumstances.

He looked beautiful in parts of "Red Dust."

That was one fine man.

[quote]Amway found his acting style to be annoying.

Amway? He'll never make Double Diamond!

Wasn't he a conservative and Lombard Democrat?

R149, Clark supported Eisenhower in the 1950s.

Selfish user, dishonest, sleeping around on Lombard, impregnated Loretta Young who he raped, married twice for money, stinking breath, tiny cock (as his wife noted), gay for pay and then homophobic.

Such a nice guy.

HIs body was so hairless I wonder if they had to paint the scruff onto his face, as in r146.

R18 Leigh was a cunt to a lot of people on set including the "darkies". She was not a friend to the them but Gable got along great with everyone.

My grandmother said when she saw GWTW when it was released and you first saw Rhett at the bottom of the stairs most of the women in the theater almost swooned.

R152, He shaved his body hair, even his pits.

R154, See R87.

I always liked Gable.

My mom told me my aunt nearly fainted when he carried Vivien Leigh up the stairs in GWTW.

(My mom wasn't a Gable fan - my aunt was.)

In his '30s pictures, especially, he's so dynamic. I also love him in Mogambo, with Gardner and Kelly fighting over him.

[quote]George Clooney? I have to laugh.

Worse - MGM groomed beautiful, shit for talent, Robert Taylor as "the great lover" to succeed Gable in the late 1930s. Taylor had absolutely no presence, no acting ability.

Gable and Stanwyck in a pre-code called Night Nurse (1931).

His style of acting went out after WW2, but sometimes it's needed, and there's no actor who can do it convincingly. When I saw Robert Redford's limp performance in Out of Africa, I thought the role needed a big personality and presence like Clark Gable.

Lana did not bed Clark.

R160 Robert Taylor had no presence? When he went to England to make A Yank At Oxford , in 1937, thousands of fans mobbed the dock when his ship landed. Crowds of girls and women waited under his hotel room balcony for him to make an appearance. When he flicked a cigarette off the balcony, several women were injured trying to grab it. He was like the Beatles. And he wasn't without talent, either.

^ That proves Taylor had screen presence? It proved he was pretty and attracted females.

Robert Taylor was the ultimate mama’s boy.

When he eloped with Stanwyck, the news of their marriage leaked and was announced on the radio before the couple had returned to California to break the news to Taylor’s mother.

By the time they arrived home, she had been made aware of the marriage and was inconsolable.

Taylor spent his wedding night cradling his distraught mother while Stanwyck fumed.

So glad this thread has survived.

1) Robert Taylor was about as sexy on screen as Franchot Tone. I don't get it at all but tastes change I guess.

2) Carole Lombard and Gable were not the happy couple they appeared to be. Lombard was killed flying home early (with her controlling mother) because Clark was cheating.

3) Clark Gable had a blind ambition and his real gift was making his career seem like something he could care less about.

4) that blind ambition got his dick in George Cukors' mouth (among others) and ultimately that secret got G.C. replaced on GWTW. and finally 5) If Clark Gable had a little dick, our favorite mantrap Joan Crawford would never have kept up their years-long affair.

Clark Gable is pretty much the only male actor (besides Brando) who remains as sexy on screen today as he was in his heyday.

You're delusional with #4, R166.

R167, Cukor did likewise with Aldo Ray years later.

There was some random gay movie featuring a protagonist who had visions of him while trying to maintain a relationship with a FAR hotter English guy that I thought was unrealistic because no one born after 1980 would have a clue as to who the fuck clark gable is unless they have one of those vintage fetishes.

I’m talking about Gable’s size, R166/R168.

R170, Then you should have cited #5.

R164 And how did he attract females? By walking down the street? No, by being in movies. Maybe he had no screen presence to you, but he obviously had it for a lot of people or they wouldn't have flocked to his movies.,

R169 Yeah I'm sure no one born after 1980 ever saw Gone With The Wind.