BEFORE: I was buying new boots yesterday, and after striking out at Famous Footwear (the boots they had in my size were Doc Martens, and I just couldn't buy lesbian boots) I had better luck finding manly boots at the KMart next door, but I almost boycotted the store after wondering, "Why does KMart mistreat their customers so badly, by playing "Mambo #5" while they're trying to pick out boots?" I mean, we all agree it's the worst song ever, and people prefer to shop while in a good mood, so why would they play music that makes me want to trash the store? I soldiered through and found a pair of size 13 boots, which is great because my wife reminded me that once you buy new boots, you almost guarantee that it won't snow again this winter. It's sort of a reverse Groundhog Day thing.
The romance chain has been a big bust so far - all I've really learned is that fairies like messing with human love affairs, New York in the late 1800's was boring as hell, and that female reporters can't help sleeping with their bosses. Oh, and news editors like to scream a lot. Clark Gable carries over from "Love on the Run", so what will I learn tonight?
THE PLOT: A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who's actually a reporter looking for a story.
AFTER: Oh, and I forgot that I learned that Clark Gable often played a bad person. A cad, a bounder, someone who mistreats women, but a man who they also seem to go crazy for. Ladies of the 1930's, you really need to work on your self-esteem. You could do so much better, so why didn't you?
There are so many things in common with "Love on the Run", I have to remind myself that I watched them in reverse order. Last night's film was released two years later, and so it was probably thrown together to capitalize on the success of "It Happened One Night" - maybe that's why it felt sort of half-written. Both films feature a runaway socialite bride, traveling with a reporter played by Clark Gable, who's surreptitiously filing details of their journey with his newspaper. And in both cases, I bet you can guess what happens to this mismatched pair as they travel. Jeez, in neither film the fact that this guy is turning his affair into a headline is enough to spoil the romance. What gives, ladies?
And this was a popular film - both TCM and Jeopardy! reminded me this week that not only was this the Best Picture winner for 1934, it also was the first film to win the "Grand Slam" - Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Plus it's considered the first "screwball comedy", so that's a whole genre sparked by its success. Also, Friz Freleng once said that Bugs Bunny was based on the personality of a minor character here (Oscar Shapely), combined with the way that Clark Gable ate carrots in this film.
I liked the insights into the personality of the socialite, who's so sick of being told what to do and who to see and even who to marry, but she doesn't even know the proper way to dunk a doughnut, or not to cut in line for things. She can't really survive in the world of the common people without help, but then sometimes they turned things around to make her the smart one, like in the famous hitchhiking scene. And this was scandalous at the time, to show that much of a lady's leg on the screen. Ah, the wonderful Hays Code years...
Also starring Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, with cameos from Alan Hale, Ward Bond.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bus tickets
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