Gable and Lombard

Film stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard meet at a Hollywood party, where rugged leading man Gable eschews evening wear and screwball comedian Lombard arrives in an ambulance that wrecks his car. After an argument, it is apparent the two clearly dislike each other, and intensely so, but as fate conspires to bring them together again and again, they begin to admire each other and fall in love.

The fly in the ointment is Gable's second wife Ria. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio chief Louis B. Mayer fears any publicity about his affair with Lombard will jeopardize Gable's career, and since he is MGM's most valuable player, Mayer becomes protective of his star. Gable and Lombard fish, play practical jokes on each other, laugh, fight, and have fun making up. His wife finally grants him a divorce, and the two wed. The happily ever after ending is thwarted when Lombard is killed in a plane crash while promoting the purchase of defense bonds during World War II.

Production design was done by Edward C. Carfagno and costume design was provided by Edith Head.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of 5 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.4/10.^[3]

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film

a fan-magazine movie with the emotional zap of a long-lost Louella Parsons column ... As written by Barry Sandler and directed by Sidney J. Furie, Gable and Lombard recalls not Gone with the Wind, Honky Tonk, Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred or To Be or Not to Be, but clichés culled from the worst movies of that period. The actors do not help ... Of the two, Miss Clayburgh comes off better. She appears to be creating a character whenever the fearfully bad screenplay allows it. Mr. Brolin does not act. He gives an impersonation of the sort that makes you wonder if he can also do James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Miss Clayburgh could be an interesting actress, but she's not a great one, nor is she a star, and there are always problems when small performers try to portray the kind of giant legends that Gable and Lombard were. Because both Gable and Lombard are still very much alive in their films on television and in repertory theaters, there is difficulty in responding to Mr. Brolin and Miss Clayburgh in any serious way. They are stand-ins.^[4]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described the film as a "mushy, old-fashioned extravaganza" and added,

there are so many dumb practical jokes and would-be risque innuendoes that any concern for [Gable and Lombard's] real thoughts and feelings is lost. So we don't get a notion of their private lives, and we don't even remotely learn from this movie what made them great stars and personalities.^[5]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune slammed the "overwhelming" audacity of the film:

Think about it: What the folks at Universal Pictures have done ranks somewhere between putting Lenin's waxen body in the Kremlin and Disneyland notorizing the Presidents.

The film is "Gable and Lombard," with two young actors imitating two of Hollywood's most famous stars. The alleged purpose of the film is to tell us the ill-fated love story of Clark Gable and his third wife, actress Carole Lombard. But less than five minutes into the film one realizes the romance is simply a cover story. What the makers of "Gable and Lombard" really are trying to do is revive the film career of Clark Gable.

Most everyone would agree that if time could be stopped, and if Gable were alive today and in his prime, he would still hold box-office appeal. Well, that is the idea here: have Gable make another Gable picture after he's dead.

In the film's first shot, Gable, in an Army uniform, stands silently in profile having just learned of the airplane crash death of Lombard.

But Gable does not cry out. He does not say anything, and there's a very good reason for that. The reason is this movie is more interested in convincing us visually that this is Clark Gable than it Is in telling us a real story. If we believe right away James Brolin is Gable, then it really does not matter what he says tor does not say or what happens during the rest of the movie. A "new 1976 Gable film" should sell just as well as if a long-lost Gable picture had been discovered in some MGM basement.

Now, if this project hits, it could have profound Implications throughout the film business. Studios could tell today's overpaid actors—McQueen, Minnelli, Newman—to take a hike. Costume and make-up departments would become the stars. The studios could begin creating new vehicles for Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy, and not have to worry if Barbra Streisand's going to throw a tantrum. How about "Casablanca, Part II," starring Lee Majors as Bogie and Lindsay Wagner as Ingrid Bergman? Possibilities are endless.

As for "Gable and Lombard," it lies more often than it tells the truth.

[...]

Facts, shmacts. You want to know about the movie.

IT'S PURE cornball, filled with every cliche. James Brolin looks and sounds like Gable from his "Gone With the Wind" period. That might be appealing, but it's a mistake, because what we get is a constant imitation of a Gable performance, rather than Gable as he must have been off-screen. Further proof that this film is not a re-creation of the Gable-Lombard love affair, but a corny love story featuring Gable in his most popular screen personage the aw, shucks, reluctant sex symbol.

Jill Clayburgh is a more successful performance as comedienne Lombard. The reason is Lombard is not crucial to this movie. Not many people remember her, at least not enough to warrant financing for the film. Her subordinate role is apparent in the film itself. The script presents her as a foul-mouthed, slightly, cloying gal with a powerful hankering for the big lug that is Gable.

Actually, whether or not this project makes money is immaterial. Similar fare already is in production. "W. C. Fields and Me," starring Rod Steiger, is due later this year. A film biography of Rudolph Valentino is soon to begin production. Only in Hollywood.^[6]

Variety called it

a film with many major assets, not the least of which is the stunning and smashing performance of Jill Clayburgh as Carole Lombard. James Brolin manages excellently to project the necessary Clark Gable attributes while adding his own individuality to the characterization . . . [the film] is candid without being prurient; delightful without being superficially glossy; heart-warming without being corny.^[7]

Time Out London says,

The film seems as insulated and remote from the real Hollywood as Hollywood vehicles of the time were from the real world. Allen Garfield does a reasonable turn as Louis Mayer, but Brolin is a wax dummy and Clayburgh produces a very modern version of the Lombard larkishness.^[8]

TV Guide awarded it one out of a possible four stars, calling it

a cardboard retelling of the Clark Gable-Carol Lombard romance and marriage . . . Clayburgh as Lombard is adequate, but Brolin has none of the charisma that made Gable a premier screen idol. The major problem is the superficial script.^[9]

• Gable and Lombard at IMDb
• Gable and Lombard at the TCM Movie Database
• Gable and Lombard at AllMovie
• Gable and Lombard at Rotten Tomatoes