User reviews

Clark Gable is a newsreel photographer doing stories on the China-Japan war in Shanghai, Walter Pidgeon is his rival, and Myrna Loy an aviatrix in "Too Hot to Handle," a 1938 film from MGM. Gable and Pidgeon know each other well and besides stealing each other's film, they fake stories so they can scoop one another and satisfy their bosses. They were way ahead of their time there. The funniest scene is Gable staging an airplane dropping a bomb over the house of a family. It's a toy airplane. Hilarious! Loy plays Alma Harding, trying to break air travel records so she can get money for an expedition to the Amazon to find her brother, who is presumed dead. When Pidgeon fakes a delivery of serum by Alma, a childhood friend, it goes wrong when the plane catches on fire after crashing. Gable saves her life and gains her trust. Whether or not it's justified is another matter.

Everyone is great in this movie, including Walter Connolly, who plays Gable's frustrated boss, Pidgeon, Loy and Gable. Gable is irresistible with that smile of his, and Loy is excellent as a determined woman who nevertheless succumbs to Gable's charms. Pidgeon plays a more boisterous part rather than his usual gentlemanly ones, and he comes off very well.

This is a fast-talking film where the action moves along at a rapid pace. A great example of a '30s comedy, tinged with romance, that you won't want to miss.

WARNING: These comments may reveal portions of the film plot.

This is what I enjoy about classic films -- good writing, good directing, and a tongue-in-cheek attitude. It's a good laugh watching Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon both try to woo Myrna Loy. Don't take the film too seriously, and you'll enjoy it too!

Acting: Gable, Pidgeon, and Loy all are great, although Loy doesn't quite carry off the "missing brother" pathos as well as she does the brave pilot parts.

Writing: Also good, with lots of silliness to go around, while creating a solid romantic comedy.

Direction: Jack Conway let the actors do their best, and they did it well.

Effects/Cinematography: Why did they always speed up the fight sequences in those old films? Anytime there is action, the film picks up speed. The good news is, that the actual flying sequences look pretty realistic, considering that at one point Gable climbs onto the wing of a plane to get a good shot of a ship at sea that is on fire!

Other: Makeup, music, soundtrack, etc. all are solid, but these were not a big focus for films in the 30's, so there is nothing that stands out.

OVERALL: Check it out. I'm finding myself more and more of a Gable fan all the time, and this is the kind of movie that helps that image.

I happen to be a big fan of old newsreels. From the dawn of sound films until around the mid-60s the newsreel was the source for visual news coverage. After that television and then cable television took over. I look at the educational channels when they have old 30s and 40s newsreels running.

The cameramen played by Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon are not too different from the print reporter characters that are a staple character in Hollywood films. These two have a friendly rivalry trying to scoop each other for news. The rivalry gets a little intense when aviatrix Alma Harding (Amelia Earhart) played by Myrna Loy gets ensnared in the rivalry and becomes the focus of their hormones.

The writing is sparkling with zingers and the direction is crisp. The plot moves from one madcap situation to the next. Among the supporting cast I should single out Walter Connolly and Henry Kolker as the rival bosses of Gable and Pidgeon who are driven to their respective wits end by the antics of their cameramen.

I defy anyone to watch this film and not split a gut laughing.

I first saw this movie when I was in my 20's, and thought it was incredibly funny, exciting, and totally out of the realm of believability. But in addition to all that, it was the magic between the characters that made it so much fun. Gable and Loy, A list stars who could carry any picture on their own, seemed to let their status go by the wayside as they just jelled on screen. Walter Pigeon was great as always, and every great character actor in the world was on board somewhere, it seemed, during it's 86 minutes or so... I loved it then, still do, and watch it once a year just because it makes me feel so good.

Okay, this isn't Shakespeare. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy were the number one box office draws of 1938 and it seems that what made them famous was not believability but that their films were so much fun. Gable's films were always high on the action, romance and fun while Ms. Loy became famous for her wonderful banter in the THIN MAN movies. So, in this case, you merge the two into a very light adventure film filled with laughs and some marvelous dialog--and a romance that doesn't always work. It's certainly NOT the best film they did together, nor is it the worst and fans of both are sure to enjoy the film because it is pure "1930s MGM formula". Now modern viewers might not find the film so magical--after all, the plot is pretty tough to believe and the characters seem pretty cartoonish. But, given my love for this genre and these actors, I don't mind terribly. Sure, it's not super-memorable, but it was more than worth the energy I spent watching the film.

Clark is a "get it at ANY cost" cameraman for a company specializing in newsreels. He meets Loy my accidentally causing her plane to crash. Instead of being mad, she unbelievably praised Clark for saving her life (hey lady, it was HIS obnoxious actions that CAUSED the plane crash in the first place!). The rest of the film is on again/off again romance between them with Walter Pigeon trying to horn in between them. It's not at all believable and awfully silly, but the action and comedy bits are pretty cool, so they make up for the deficiencies and result in a decent and watchable flick. But, for persnickety people like me who delight at spotting problems with movies, take a look at the Amazonian villagers. They are all Black Americans who look and dress EXACTLY like extras from a TARZAN movie--and look not one bit like South American Indians!

A sometimes thrilling adventure that is first and foremost a Clark Gable vehicle. He's as cocky and quick-witted as ever. There are some good lines and a few good laughs, but his performance completely dominates and overshadows this movie, even when he's in a chicken suit. You would think that a movie with Myrna Loy would have some great zingers back and forth with the male lead. This happens too few times, however, and Loy looks like she doesn't want to be in this movie. This is some of the least amounts of chemistry from either of these two actors that I've ever seen.

I liked the story a lot, with its focus on the "backstage" of early newsreels. Much of the satire is still true today, and this movie doesn't look dated because of it. There are some holes and only Gable is truly worth watching. There are also a few too many racist references that might make a modern viewer uncomfortable.

It's still worth watching though, even if just for the antics of Gable and the jokes about the news business.

This was two-thirds of a great movie, but my god what a two-thirds! The media satire and the romantic comedy elements are where this was strongest. The expedition to find the lost brother didn't add too much for me except make this at least 20 minutes longer than it had to be, although they did find a way to tie it back to the opening scenes. Gable and Loy were obviously great. Walter Connolly was a hoot, although I could have used a little more of him. Where the film doesn't age as well is in its approach to primitive cultures, although this would have been par for the course when this was made. It was more than a little ironic to have an isolated South American tribe's ritual being filmed as entertainment and then have them (in the context of the film) react to watching film clips as if they were dark magic. Overall, while a bit overlong --particularly dragging in the middle-- there was plenty of madcap banter and surprisingly au courante digs at #FakeNews. Most of the journalists staging newsreels for public consumption would not have been out of place as CNN field reporters covering the first Iraq War.

Random aside: There was a throwaway line about "Dromedary Cigarettes." Oblique reference to Camels?

The epitome of the madcap comedy/adventure genre! From the Japanese invasion of China to the bustle of midtown Manhatten to the Amazon jungle, never a dull moment. This could have served as the prototype for the "Indiana Jones" films or "Romancing the Stone".

War correspondent Gable is not beyond inventing a scoop if none is readily available. Myrna Loy, playing a sort of Amelia Earhart role, is duped by a rival news organization into a ploy to beat Gable at his own game. How the action moves from China to New York to a burning ship off the east coast to South America is....too complicated to describe in a short review. This may not be the best Gable film or the most convincing role ever played by Myrna Loy (although it's quite similar to her "Thin Man" roles), but it is highly entertaining. Both the filming and the story may be a little simplistic for today's taste and is certainly a far fetched plot but it's a good rip-roaring yarn nevertheless. I'll downgrade it to a 9 out of 10 only because the transfer that I saw wasn't up to the highest standards.

It's a joy to watch Myrna Loy and Clark Gable play opposite each other, but this story about an aviatrix (Loy) and a newsreel photographer (Gable) leaves much to be desired, primarily due to its convoluted story.

Gable plays Chris Hunter, the globetrotting photog who competes against Bill Dennis (Walter Pidgeon) for the most sensational film clips. Dennis hires pilot Alma Harding (Loy) to fly a bogus mission of mercy so he can film it. From this point on, it's a free for all in love and business, especially since the characters seldom hold to the truth.

Halfway through, the film changes from a wisecracking romance to an adventure, as the two newshounds travel to the Amazon to rescue Alma's brother, who was presumably captured by cannibals. Don't look too closely or the gaping seams in this story will spoil the onscreen antics.

After this, Gable will star in "Gone with the Wind" and Loy will star in "Another Thin Man". And another. So better projects will soon follow.

The kings and queens of comedy are here in this 1930s comedy-exotic-travel-adventure. Walter Connelly is the newspaper boss who has sent on-scene action reporter Hunter (Clark Gable) overseas to China to get the latest, hot, south seas action caught on film. Hunter's nemesis is Bill Dennis (Walter Pidgeon), and every scene is a competition to see who can top who, or who can put one over on the other. If Clark Gable is present, then Myrna Loy must be in here too, and she is... as Alma Harding. A fun, fast paced good-natured contest between the two reporters. Alma's brother is missing, and she talks Hunter (Gable) into helping to find him. Did you spot Marjorie Main as the secretary in the newsroom? She was only 48 in this one... she would go on to be nominated for Ma Kettle ten years later! Gable had recently gotten HIS Oscar for It Happened One Night. Myrna Loy received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. Even Walter Pidgeon was nominated for TWO Oscars in the 1940s. What a cast of pros! Obviously, they never left the back lot of Hollywood, but for the general public who had never traveled very far, this would have been very exciting and exotic. Of course, Hunter gets caught up in his own web of deception, but he must figure out how to win back the lady, as well as his job. This is a fun, exciting story, and worth every minute. Shown on TCM now & then. Directed by Jack Conway, MGM bigshot who made TONS of stuff with Gable and Loy. Catch this one when you can! You won't be sorry.

This movie stars Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon as rival newspaper men. They basically spend the entire movie trying to out scoop each other. Myrna Loy is the woman both are interested in and she goes down to the amazon to look for her missing brother. There are a few funny moments but not many, unless your a fan of the stars, don't bother to watch.

When I saw the first time this movie I was a teenager and now after 15 years I have the same feelings, it's a masterpiece, really a great movie of the '30s. Yes I'm a fan of Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. Everybody can enjoy the speech the timing, the screenplay. Gable at his best, don't forget that in '38 Gable and Loy were nominated King and Queen of Hollywood. Why?

Just watch the movie and immediately realized!Let's have a lot of fun and malencony of a period that will never come back again.

Walter Connoly was a great actor and his part of journalist was remarkable.

Really a must to see for all of you who like the golden period of Hollywood and the movies of his king and queen.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE is a screwball mixture of comedy, action and romance but most of it is too incredible even though it is well played by the star trio--Gable, Loy and Pidgeon.

Throughout the story, the tricks and downright deception (including lots of unethical behavior) are the dominant factors that keep the plot spinning. Walter Catlett has a high time as a temperamental newsreel boss who wants wartime footage from Gable, the kind that will scoop a rival newsreel company. This rivalry pits Gable and Pidgeon against each other for the entire running time and includes rivalry over a woman aviatrix (Myrna Loy), who needs their help in finding her brother missing in the Amazon.

The strands of the story are woven uneasily in a mixture of comedy and drama that doesn't always work. Clark Gable has the pivotal role as one of the world's most conniving newsreel photographers. He has one hilarious scene at the start where he's faking an aerial bombing in China, calling all the shots and getting everything mixed up due to the language barrier. It's Gable at his comedic best.

But the script is overly busy in too many directions and the hi-jinks become tiresome before the story is over. Certainly not the best of Gable's MGM movies, even though he's paired with Myrna Loy. Walter Pidgeon has a livelier part than usual and makes the most of it.

Summing up: A major disappointment, considering the cast.

Slick playboy newsreel filmmaker Chris Hunter (Clark Gable) is working the Chinese-Japanese war. His bosses are not happy with his work or his attempted reporting. He uses every underhanded trick to get the action shots even if he has to fake it. He literally runs into pilot Alma Harding (Myrna Loy) and recruits her despite his many tricks and lies.

Clark Gable's devious cad is loads of fun. His pairing with Myrna Loy is easy money but the story takes too many turns. This should be a lot simpler. Hunter needs to learn his lesson in China and the most obvious way is for him to deliver a real serum to war-torn Chinese refugees. After his many lies are exposed, he could try to do real reporting about a real outbreak but nobody would believe him. He and Alma would deliver the life-saving serum against all odds. That's the better story move. Nevertheless, there are some fun flying footage and some good banter. The action is good with rear projection and miniature work. It's good but I keep thinking that this could be better.

From Chinese battlefields to home offices in Manhattan, to Amazonian tribal lands, Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon are cameramen working for competing newsreel organizations. When Myrna Loy crash lands in the middle of one of their shoots, all Gable sees is a great story .... at first. When he and Pidgeon learn that she is trying to put together enough money to find and rescue her missing brother, lost somewhere in South America, they forge a truce.

Pidgeon is definitely a third wheel in this movie, which is probably why his part wasn't taken by Spencer Tracy. Here's MGM making a 'safe' movie, sure to please at the box office, with Walter Connolly, Leo Carillo, Johnny Hines, Marjorie Main, and Al Shean working hard to offer the MGM gloss. Clearly Mayer and associates were worried after the previous year's debacle of PARNELL and wanted to give the audiences what they knew they wanted. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work, and the movie lost money. Gable is a trifle too cavalier about the ladies for my taste, but on the plus side, the big gags, devised, it is claimed, by an uncredited Buster Keaton, are pretty good.

When done right, comedies mixed with action and romance make for irresistible entertainment and there are numerous examples of those. Old and new, no bias against either (and there does tend these days to be bias towards the other on both sides), though there has always been a preferable for the former. While the stories were not always strong suits, the best of them were elevated to a greater level by wit, sophistication, charm and great performances.

'Too Hot to Handle', with a mix of all three and described as a three-hander, is this close to being one of the near-classics in this regard. It has three of the finest actors of that time, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Walter Pidgeon, and one of Hollywood's, or at least the golden age's, most memorable chemistries in Gable and Loy (wish they did more films together). The story is as far-fetched as they come, don't expect to find everything believable here, especially in the story, but the immense energy, wit and acting quality especially make 'Too Hot to Handle' a joy.

Did think too that, as well as the far-fetchedness, the film is a little too busy at times and could have tried to do less.

On the other hand, 'Too Hot to Handle' has held up well visually. Nicely photographed with distinguished costumes, with the aerial footage remarkably well incorporated when it could have been jarringly cheap. Director Jack Conway, who directed Gable in six films, allows the film to zip along at a bright and breezy pace, brings the best out of his cast and really makes the chemistry between them sparkle. The zippy momentum keeps coming and never stops, the action enthralling throughout.

Script is full of style and wit, that is both arch and sophisticated. A perfect example of why the witty and sophisticated kind of comedy is my personal favourite type of conedy, plus it surprisingly hasn't dated a jot in my opinion. The spoof bombing raid is hilarious, one of the funniest scenes for any film (comedy and overall) seen recently by me and one of Gable's funniest moments on film.

Gable is in charming and wonderfully wry mode with expertly comic timing, he was clearly in his element. Likewise with Pidgeon, who is a great rival match for Gable, making their rivalry tense and entertaining, and he doesn't overplay the boisterousness. Walter Connelly doesn't let the side down either and has fun in his role. Neither does Loy as the heart of the drama and the film, the necessary pathos very touching. The chemistry between them all is one of 'Too Hot to Handle's' finest assets, for reasons that are the same as for the script.

Altogether, thoroughly enjoyable and irresistible. 8/10

This film has everything! Action! Adventure! Overacting! And a painfully convoluted plotline!

I don't have the energy to sort through the detailed set-up like I normally do, so let's make this simple-ish.

Chris Hunter (Clark Gable) is the star reporter for the Union Newsreel Company. He's in Shanghai trying to get footage of the war for Union, but not having much luck ... so he cheats and manufactures a spectacular action-packed image. His rivals at the Atlas Newsreel Company discover this and set up a phony image too ... and this involves the lovely lady pilot Alma Harding (Myrna Loy).

Chris and Alma hit it off and he manipulates her into working with him for Atlas.

Then there's some nonsense where Alma flies a plane around a ship that is on fire and about to explode while Chris crawls out onto the wing to get some film of the event. Yeah SRSLY.

Eventually we get to the meat of the story where Alma's brother has been captured by a native tribe somewhere in the Amazon and she gets funding for an expedition to rescue him with Atlas ... and doesn't know that Chris is there with another cameraman from Union.

And it just gets even sillier from there.

The only real bright spot was seeing Marjorie Main as a secretary at the office for Union Newsreel.

The film tries way too hard to pack a whole lot of stuff into just 107 minutes.

In the end it's just not worth the effort. Skip it.

Myrna Loy holds this one together. She is pulled on both sides by Gable and Pidgeon, but Loy is the glue that brings the style and pacing to fruition. She allows the comedy to flow naturally. The three leads work well together, and the plot is better than average, having two major thrusts. It's a joy to watch almost a hundred years later, and to study how these actors interplayed with each other to create the mood of the picture. Again, without Myrna Loy this would have gone nowhere. While I wasn't alive when these films were made, I think Loy should have received greater attention and appreciation for her roles.

The film was a delight to watch.

The reviews on this board caused me to give this old one a look this time around, having skipped it before. I didn't like the venue - all that native stuff, etc. But were they ever right about this being a great movie, actually one of the best for the interaction of these stars. Clark Gable just had the quality that always provided interest. He seemed to go into overdrive when playing a hustler type. Same for Myrna Loy about being interesting particularly in comedy. I like Walter Pidgeon differently, appreciating him in his active roles like this one and also for his gentlemanly portrayals. Very durable and reliable stars working well together in this. And funny and wild and fast. They really cranked them out back then; and sometimes they really cranked it up!!! Do see.

This is a comedy with many hilarious moments, but it runs too fast for anyone being able to follow. The dialog is top furious crossfire all the way, there is not a chance for any dull moment, the speed is too extreme to be taken seriously, so it is an awful high gear entertainment all the way. The finale is impressing in the darkest rain forests of Suriname, a rare place for any cinema shooting, and there is a very spectacular original performance of a fire dance of the natives, where they actually dance with bare feet in the fire. It reminds you of the best African films of king Solomon's mines and adventures like that, and here it is actually a question of life and death in the end - the news reels photographers are actually at the point of death when they risk their lives for saving a plane-wrecked colleague in darkest Amazonas dying from malaria. Clark Gable makes hell of a performance as the camera journalist constantly risking his life for anything and turning out any fakes just to keep the public at home happy, who will swallow anything and believe anything they see, as long as it is thrilling enough. Myrna Loy and Walter Pidgeon second him and ultimately save him against their will, and they would both go on making Hollywood and themselves great. In brief, you could hardly happen to any faster and more splendidly atrocious entertainment.