Reviews & Ratings for
They Met in Bombay More at IMDbPro »

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

17 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
derivative with a neat twist, 27 July 2006

Author: blanche-2 from United States

Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell team up in "They Met in Bombay," a 1941 film also starring Peter Lorre. The two are both thieves, both with their eye on a valuable necklace, when they meet - she posing as aristocracy, he posing as a detective. They end up on the lam and in love.

The fun part of this film takes place later on when Gable, trying to come up with an escape plan for the two of them, gets a uniform and poses as a soldier. Unfortunately, a situation arises and a superior officer grabs him off the street for special duty. He's then in a very difficult position indeed.

It's fun to watch the two stars together. MGM didn't always know what to do with Russell's strong beauty - in "Trouble for Two" she is extremely Garboesque - here, her hairstyle and makeup are pure Hedy Lamar. Either way, she looks great and gives a nice performance as a woman in love in spite of herself. Gable is charming and plays it dead serious, which makes his war duties even more bizarre, as he's totally believable. Peter Lorre is on hand for a touch of the sinister.

The script could have been stronger to support these two stars and a good story. Nevertheless, it's good, breezy entertainment.

16 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
insignificant fun, 18 March 2006

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This film is rather formulaic. Clark plays an international con man thief who falls in love with a female version of himself (Ms. Russell). While this certainly doesn't break any new ground and is a very predictable by-the-numbers MGM production, you are still left with a movie that is great fun but won't change your life. I, for one, love films like this. That's because I like the formula--as did the rest of America at the time. That's because despite its short-comings the film was dripping with quality. Both actors are at the top of their game, the writing and dialog is snappy fun and the direction is on target. All-in-all, a lot of fun and sure to please fans of this genre.

18 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Say it isn't so, 11 October 2001
Author: jaykay-10

This picture is likely to make the viewer yearn to know what went on behind the scenes during its making. The impression one gets is that about halfway through the filming (or writing of the scenario, or both) someone decided that what they had so far wasn't working, but that there was already too much invested to discard it. So from a conventional international jewel thieves romance/suspense/comedy (better than some of its type, not as good as others), the film shifts gears abruptly and becomes a wartime adventure, with our hero and heroine trapped by the battles raging around them. Having once put in some time in the military (before being asked to leave), the Gable character needs do nothing more than don a tailor-made uniform to pass as an authentic member of the corps, his presence unquestioned by any of his colleagues, his authority unchallenged by anyone to whom he issues orders. Needless to say, he becomes a war hero, awarded the highest honors despite there presumably being no record of his existence.

Wait a minute.....weren't we talking about jewel thieves? Yes, and so was the picture, no more than fifteen minutes earlier.

Don't despair - before the final credits, the two stories are reconciled about as clumsily as the rest of the picture is put together.

Could it be that this 1941 product was deemed too lightweight and frivolous for an audience whose nation was being drawn into a world war, and that the studio bosses decided to make it more contemporary? If so, they should have taken their losses on what was already written and/or filmed, because the incongruous story they released is an embarrassment.

10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Highlife, HiJinks, and High Praise, 6 March 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell had worked twice together before. Russell was a supporting player in two of Gable's previous films, China Seas and Forsaking All Others. But in They Met in Bombay they make a bright pair of competing and then cooperating thieves.

Bombay is in fact where they do meet, both of them working individually on a caper to steal a really big diamond belonging to inebriated Dutchess, Jessie Ralph. When they discover who each really is, there's some antagonism, but the police chasing them forces some cooperation which becomes more and more willing as the film progresses.

The pair eventually arrive in Hong Kong and I dare not say more, but some of Gable's con games involve him something far bigger than he can handle as the plot takes some unbelievable turns.

Gable and Russell worked well together, it's a pity that this was their only teaming on the big screen. Look also for good performances by Peter Lorre as the sly Chinese freighter captain and Reginald Owen as the British General and Matthew Boulton as the frustrated British police inspector. Also if you look fast you'll see Alan Ladd in a minute part as a British soldier in a scene with Gable while the leads are in Hong Kong.

They Met in Bombay is fast paced and very funny and still holds up remarkably well today.

10 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
good movie, 13 October 2005

Author: KyleFurr1983 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise because i wasn't that interested in seeing out and it turned out to be one of Gable's better pictures. The movie was directed by Clarence Brown who has worked with Gable several times before in movies like Possessed and Idiot's Delight. Both Gable and Rosalind Russell are professional thieves who are interested in stealing a very expensive necklace worth millions of dollars. Once they finally have it and think they are going to get away they find the police on their tail the entire way. They wind up on a boat going to Hong Kong with Peter Lorre as the captain who only cares about money and tries to turn them in for the reward. Once they arrive in Hong Kong the movie takes an unexpected turn and Gable winds up becoming a military hero. It's a pretty good movie and probably one of Gable's best.

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
competing jewel thieves fall for each other, 16 July 2008

Author: william walker (weezeralfalfa@yahoo.com) from United States

It was great to see another little remembered Gable film made before he went off to war. When he was paired with Rosalind Russell in "China Seas", they met in Hong Hong and traveled by ship to Singapore. Here, they meet in Bombay and travel by ship to Hong Kong, under quite different circumstances, as fugitive jewel thieves. In general form, this film reminds me of the later "The Big Steal", a chase thriller-screwball romantic comedy combo in an exotic locale, involving a man and woman, unknown to each other, looking for the same thing. Toward the end, it turns into a forerunner of "The Great Imposter", with Gable successfully fooling the British Hong Kong garrison into believing he is a British officer, who happens to be passing through. This gets him into more hot water than he bargained for, as the Japanese invade Hong Kong(as they actually did less than a year later!). Peter Lorre doesn't fool anyone as the supposedly Chinese captain of the ship taking the thieves to Hong Kong. This is mostly Gable's film. Sometimes, I wondered if I was looking at a deglamourized Heddy Lamarr instead of Rosalind Russell. All in all, an entertaining, if silly, romp, with Gable still looking in peak form and seeming to enjoy himself.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Two movies for the price of one., 6 July 2012

Author: mark.waltz from New York City

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The first half is a jewel robbery caper a la "Trouble in Paradise". Posing as the Scotland Yard representative from Lloyds of London, the oh-so-British Clark Gable (!) shows up in Bombay hoping to steal the Star of India necklace worn by the eccentric Duchess of Beltravers. He doesn't realize he has company; Rosalind Russell, posing as a Baroness, has shown up with the same intention. It is obvious that one of them will end up with it, but who? Fate throws them together, and that's where the second half comes in, a tale of war in China where the pre-Pearl Harbor Japanese are preparing to attack British troops. Gable and Russell find themselves thrust into this battle as the threat of being discovered for the jewel heist hangs over them.

First half sophisticated comedy, second half patriotic cry for arms. It really changes the mood of the film which would have been fine had the change not been so jarring. The comedy of the first half is really entertaining with Gable and Russell an attractive romantic team. Throw in the marvelous Jessie Ralph as the Duchess and you've got a marvelous display of scene stealing. The Duchess, who "came to aristocracy via the stage door", is a salty lush who "carries my children like a lady and my liquor like a gentleman". Ralph, so marvelous as the society leader of Gable's 1936 smash "San Francisco", is a Marie Dressler/May Robson type dowager with her vinegary voice and acid delivery. But once the film departs Bombay, the comedy lessens, adventure increases (with an excellent chase sequence), until taken over by a well-filmed war sequence. In the scene where Russell gets her hands on the necklace off the passed-out duchess, she slithers out of the room, reminding me of the cat-like Gale Sondergaard in "The Letter".

Peter Lorre appears briefly as the slimy, whiskered Chinese captain of the ship that picks up the escaped Gable and Russell. He must have been the Asian cousin of Lorre's equally sleazy character in Gable's 1940 adventure "Strange Cargo". MGM perennial Reginald Owen is also on hand as the British commander in China. There are moments of farce (the chase sequence gets a bit silly with the poor Indian man carrying two buckets on each end of a long stick), tension (Will Gable and Russell get off Lorre's ship before Scotland Yard catches them?) and romance (the initially antagonistic couple realizing their attraction towards each other) to hold onto one mood for a long period of time. But Clarence Brown, one of MGM's best directors, makes the film move fast enough so these quibbles do not lessen the entertainment value of the film as a whole.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Enjoyable but ..., 15 August 2009

Author: azyeoman from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Enjoyable film up until the Japanese arrive. Then it takes a drastic turn for the worse due to the "Japanese" armored cars and worst of all, the WWI German helmets that were repainted and worn backwards!!! Peter Loree's character Capt. Chang is charming and convincing. The sets are quite good; although the exterior shots are evidently Southern California. The lines are decent, the acting is good and the dialog is catchy despite the obvious contemporary aspects. The action scene towards the end where the British are fighting the Japanese is pretty lame to say the least. Aside from the obvious; those helmets are really distracting, the way the men were falling about was laughable and detracted from the seriousness of Gable's heroic deed. The fact that he is awarded a VC for that deed is ridiculous as I'm sure the British wouldn't have done that as he was not legitimately in the army and therefore not eligible. Despite these obvious faults and drawbacks, it's a good old fun Sunday afternoon film.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Good director, grand cast, wobbly script, mediocre results, 3 September 2010

Author: theowinthrop from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I am certain that THEY MET IN BOMBAY must have done well with the U.S. and British Commonwealth states (possibly India excepted) in 1941. The last half hour must have struck many a patriotic heart in these countries against a supposedly bloodthirsty and sneaky foe. But if analyzed it does not fully work. It tries to do too much, and the results show it.

Jessie Ralph is a Duchess who has a famous jewel, and Gable and Russell are jewel thieves, who are after the jewel by themselves. As a result of two separate schemes they manage to keep derailing each other's plans. Finally they decide to work together and steal the jewel, but they are being pursued by a Scotland Yard Inspector. They get aboard a freighter captained by Peter Lorre as a Chinese seaman. Lorre soon realizes they are not two innocents and they pay him to let them off the freighter before the ship arrives in port. But he contacts the authorities and says they are on his boat. Gable figures out there will be a double cross, and he and Russell steal a boat and get ashore just as Lorre is allowing the inspector on board.

Up to a point the film has a positive momentum (the director, Clarence Brown, does not really lose much time with his actors. But now a bit of script padding occurs which only barely makes sense. Gable reads in a local newspaper that a merchant is being investigated for corruption in selling grain to the British army. He is able to steal a Captain's uniform (his character was in the Canadian Army) and gets a new uniform to wear that fits him. He proceeds to commandeer British soldiers, go to the offices of the merchant, and plunder him of a box of money. So far the character of Gable's role is maintained. But now he finds he is ordered to report to the office of the local General (Reginald Owen) for sudden orders. An emergency to rescue British nationals and some Chinese (who requested asylum from some territory the Japanese army has been advancing in) requires all the British military to this rapidly deteriorating situation. Gable tries to get out of it, only to be brought up sharply by Owens that there is no exception to the orders.

I won't go into this side trip (brining the still scheming Gable into confrontation with the Japanese officer in charge (Philip Ahn)). The result is that Gable manages to present the military with a problem and finds himself the center of unwanted publicity. The film ends happily for Gable and Russell, but it has a conclusion that was only possible in the make-believe of Hollywood in 1940 regarding the British Empire and the Sino-Japanese War of that day (Britain and Japan did not go to war until December 7, 1941, the same day that they went to war with the U.S. - the equivalent to Pearl Harbor was the attack on Singapore and the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse).

The cast is perfect, and not lethargic (as they should be with a questionable script like this). Brown (a good technical director) did not make a single mistake. That part of the forced plot is a variant of the old "Koepenick" Incident in Germany in 1906 (see the film THE CAPTAIN FROM KOEPENICK with Albert Basserman) where a convict, to get out of Germany, dressed up like a Captain and commandeered soldiers to bully his way around a town by his competent seeming swagger, does not seem to be avoidable. That the original story line got derailed unpardonably is too true to ignore. That the image of cruel Japanese soldiers just hit the patriotic nerves at a perfect time is also true. Those audiences must have cheered Gable in that sequence.

It was not a washout film - one can enjoy all the fine actors going through their paces. But it is not a well made film. Still it gets six stars for cast and director.

How I Won The War, 5 October 2010
Author: Bolesroor from New York, NY USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Any movie that features Clark Gable in a pith helmet has got to be great, right?

Well... kind of...

The first two-thirds of "They Met In Bombay" is simply fantastic. Clark Gable is at his cocky-best as a con artist trying to steal a rare jewel, and Rosalind Russell is gorgeous as his love-interest/rival. The story moves along at a brisk pace and soon the two stars find they have more in common than they knew… and that they might be falling in love. The beauty parlor scene is hilarious, as is the scene where the two leads are stuck in an elevator. The movie is funny, engaging, romantic and sweet… classic Hollywood at its best. Sadly, the final third of the movie takes a strange and sudden turn and the story falls apart as a result.

Most of the movie is a joy, with Gable and Russell romancing on the lam, and Peter Lorre turns up as some money-loving Chinaman crackpot, still speaking with his exaggerated coo, but then the movie swerves off the road and over the embankment. Gable impersonates a Canadian soldier as part of a scam and is then remanded to a military base and denied any access to the outside world. Still being mistaken for a soldier he is thrown into battle, where his sweet but unlikely heroism is almost as hard to believe as Russell's presence on the sidelines.

Finally, Gable is awarded the Victoria Cross- the military's highest honor- only to discover he's been double-crossed by his true love. But that's no problem, because the serious part of the story is evidently over, and Gable is able to sneak in two bizarre and implausible twists in the final 90 seconds of the story. The awkward, contrived ending negates most of the movie's nice moments… they met in Bombay, and they should have stayed there.

GRADE: C

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another review

Related Links