Gable and Lombard

Slammed by critics in 1976 for playing loosely with the Hollywood facts (to put it mildly), this expensive, handsome-looking bio-pic regarding the romance between 1930s screen idols Clark Gable and Carole Lombard actually doesn't take the facts into consideration at all. Perhaps starting with the presumption that nobody knows the real dish, screenwriter Barry Sandler concocts a movie star yarn around personalities we mostly remember today through their pictures. Of course, film-historians were quick to point out all the inaccuracies, but I don't think Sandler nor director Sidney J. Furie was preoccupied with the truth. Sandler's Gable and Lombard appear to be based solely on his (and our) movie memories of them both, and leads James Brolin and Jill Clayburgh approach their roles in this precise spirit (particularly Clayburgh, who models her performance on Lombard's performance in "My Man Godfrey"). In a way, this was a novel concept considering that 1930s reality has now been permanently blurred via time and celluloid. Now for the bad news: Sandler's 'plot' spends far too much time on the loving couple having to sneak around since Gable was already married, and their meetings with Louis B. Mayer (Allen Garfield, playing Father Confessor) are pointless. In actuality, Clark and Carole brazenly showed up everywhere together, and the public ate it up. Sticking to the truth in this instance might've served Sandler better than the silly melodrama on display, which mitigates the screwball humor Furie stages at the beginning. This picture is a real mess from a narrative standpoint, and the acting isn't dynamic enough to hold interest. There's a terrible, shapeless sequence wherein Lombard barges into a Women's Press decency meeting yelling, "Cock-a-doodle-do!" and a limp bit in the courtroom with Carole getting blue on the stand (much to everyone's delight). Brolin has Gable's squint, mouth movements and vocal inflection down pat, yet his King is made to be so downtrodden that it comes as a surprise when Lombard expresses rapture over his bedroom prowess (again, in reality, the comedienne once famously confessed she adored 'Pa' but that their sex life was lacking). Had Sandler gone full-throttle with a high-comedy approach, the movie may have been a hoot. However, the phony dramatics overshadow everything in the end--and since the film is useless as a biography, a good portion of "Gable and Lombard" is utterly without purpose. ** from ****

Have you ever heard a lie so supremely unbelievable (based upon what you know), you feel insulted and wish the teller were a better liar? That's how I felt suffering through the first 30 minutes of "Gable and Lombard". Historical inaccuracy upon historical inaccuracy tarnishes this telling of the love between two of Hollywood's brightest stars. There' nothing histrionically bad here (despite Clayburgh's terrible miscasting), production values are exceptional; yet movies such as "Gable and Lombard" can be career killers, and the producers deserved to lose every penny they invested. While no one's career was completely killed, James Brolin (who actually does a pretty good job) was never offered another major film role. Sidney J. Furie, who impressed so much with "The Ipcress File," "The Appaloosa" and "Lady Sings the Blues" found himself directing "Superman 4: The Quest for Peace" and the "Iron Eagle" series. Ironically, Jill Clayburgh, given her near inept performance as Carole Lombard, fared the best, snatching up hit roles in "Silver Streak," and Oscar nominations for "An Unmarried Woman" and "Starting Over." Clayburgh's problems playing Lombard are not entirely her fault; Clayburgh is simply not classy enough or pretty enough to play Lombard. Much of Lombard's appeal was her ability to handle vulgar material in a classy way. Coarse language can seem almost charming, depending upon how it's delivered. Lombard could pull it off for the same reasons Katherine Hepburn could do it, because she had the refinement.

Since I didn't finish the movie, I won't rate it. "Gable and Lombard" is okay as fiction, but I would have greatly preferred it had the writer stayed as closely as dramatically possible to the true story.

This movie was quite maligned when it came out. Since I had been a big fan of both vivacious Jill Clayburgh and the manly James Brolin at the time I went to see it. Since I was a teen, I took a lot of what was portrayed as quite accurate. True it is a mostly fictionalized account of the two stars, but it has got some redeeming qualities. Namely, Brolin's dead on Gable. He is indeed very good, and I kept forgetting that it was not really Clark Gable. Clayburgh, as attractive as she is does not have Lombard's classic beauty or figure, but she's so gosh darn likable as Lombard one can overlook her shortcomings. Seeing it again recently, Jill Clayburgh as Lombard is a stretch, but I felt she put so much into the character, and a better script couldn't have hurt. Physical aspects aside, the two actors have great chemistry, and one gets the impression they are really crazy about each other. It's ashame that neither Brolin or Clayburgh got more to do...the story does meander at times and the film is a tad too long. Although it's not a great film, it's definitely worth checking out. Be on the lookout for Melanie Mayron as Dixie, before she went from frump to vixen.

GABLE AND LOMBARD is the kind of film that Hollywood history buffs hate, but fans of love stories just eat up. In other words, the truth is often distorted or ignored, but the emotional core is dead-on.

I won't dwell on the many mistakes, but two are glaring, and must be pointed out. While Carole Lombard was a truly gifted actress (particularly in comedies), she was never Hollywood's #1 star (Lombard never achieved the status of Shearer, Garbo, Davis, or Crawford); L.B. Mayer's 'ordering' rising star Gable to 'make nice' with her, so she'd agree to do a picture at Metro with him is pure hokum. Actors had virtually no say in 'loan outs' in the 1930s; studios made all the decisions, based on maximizing their profits, and controlling their stars. A case in point was Gable's participation in Columbia's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Had he been given the opportunity, he'd have refused to go (he considered it a 'step backward', and it was, in fact, done as punishment against him, on MGM's part), and he would have never have won his only Academy Award!

The other major gaffe is showing Gable as an AAF officer at the time of Lombard's death. He didn't enlist until after she'd died, partially because of the guilt he felt over his lack of involvement in the war effort, a cause Lombard had died supporting. While Brolin, as Gable, looks terrific in uniform, it just wasn't the truth.

The effectiveness of a story like this relies heavily on the actors portraying the stars, and GABLE AND LOMBARD offers an interesting combination. Despite David Janssen's heavy lobbying for the role of Clark Gable (he always felt he was, actually, Gable's son, and he did, in fact, share many of the actor's physical and vocal qualities), the producers felt that, at 46, he was too old for the role, and went, instead, with 36-year-old James Brolin. Brolin, best-known for his stint in the hit TV series, 'Marcus Welby, M.D.' (and later, in another series, 'Hotel'), was an actor who had all the right 'tools', but never quite achieved film stardom. Nearly cast as Roger Moore's replacement as James Bond (despite a terrific screen test, producer Cubby Broccoli decided to stick with United Kingdom actors), Brolin, with a mustache, looked eerily like Gable during the actor's peak years, and could mimic the actor's vocal inflections and physical mannerisms very effectively. The end result of his mimicry, however, was a Gable who lacked depth, and his performance frequently seemed more a caricature than a portrayal.

Jill Clayburgh, as Carole Lombard, faced a different problem. The 32-year-old actress (who would achieve stardom the following year, in SILVER STREAK), had a very well-written role, which was, in fact, quite close to the actress' actual personality (big-hearted yet at times acerbic, Lombard was known for her salty humor and frequent use of four-letter words, in stark contrast with her classic beauty). Clayburgh, however, with her broad features, looked nothing like Carole Lombard. (If you're unfamiliar with Lombard's 'look', her closest contemporary counterpart is Michelle Pfeiffer.) Clayburgh plays the role very well, but, knowing this, I could never 'suspend disbelief' enough to accept her as Lombard.

However, as I said at the beginning, if you are hooked by true love stories (and aren't familiar with the 'real' Carole Lombard), GABLE AND LOMBARD has all the elements you can ask for; antagonism turning to attraction and then 'forbidden' passion, nearly insurmountable obstacles blocking happiness, eventual triumph, then a heartbreaking tragedy that would ultimately immortalize the lovers. Gable 'carried a torch' for his lost love until his death, in 1960, and GABLE AND LOMBARD gives ample evidence of her impact on his life.

The film is a flawed, but moving testament to their love.

Struggling in the mid-seventies just before the blockbuster era settled in, Hollywood looked back to its history for material, and this was one of the results. Based on a pretty good book by Warren G. Harris, the problem with "Gable & Lombard" isn't so much the acting (Brolin does what he can in a no-win situation, and Clayburgh's halfway decent, though it's nearly impossible to suspend disbelief and believe she's Lombard), but the script. It's awful, and worse, historically inaccurate in so many ways (unlike the book).

First of all, Clark and Carole initially met filming "No Man Of Her Own" when Gable was loaned to Paramount in late 1932, while Lombard was married to William Powell; they got along well on the set, but no sparks flew and from all accounts they didn't keep in touch.

Second, Lombard was never a bigger star than Gable (although at the peak of her career, she was the highest-salaried star in the industry thanks to her shrewd business sense). Both elevated their rank in 1934, ironically through films at Columbia -- "It Happened One Night" for Clark, "Twentieth Century" for Carole. Her only film at MGM also came that year, but it wasn't with Gable; it was a gangster comedy called "The Gay Bride," sort of a thirties "Married To The Mob" (in fact, that phrase is actually used in the film). Carole always called it the worst film of her career (although, personally, I deem it far superior to her lone foray at Warners, "Fools For Scandal" in 1938).

Third, and perhaps most inexcusable to me, was having Gable in uniform at the time of Carole's death in a 1942 plane crash returning from a war bond rally in her native Indiana. Lombard was far more interested in world affairs than Gable, and many believe Clark enlisted out of guilt for what had happened to his wife -- something that would have been far more poignant than what was shown on screen. (There's also been conjecture that Gable and Lana Turner, who were making "Somewhere I'll Find You," were having an affair at the time of Carole's death, and that Lombard decided to fly home because of her suspicions. Since Turner was alive in 1976, one can understand why the script didn't touch this issue.) All in all, a mediocre film about two personalities who deserve far better treatment, especially since both were, by all accounts, generally good people and acknowledged as such by those who worked with them. Lombard in particular deserves a decent biopic, as her timeless, iconoclastic qualities still resonate today.