This movie has a great cast, headlined by Greer Garson and Clark Gable, and including Thomas Mitchell and Joan Blondell. The director, Victor Fleming, had given us such masterpieces as the Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and Captains Courageous. How then could such a group make such a truly awful movie?
Well, to begin with, the script is awful almost past belief. It meanders from here to there, provides no decent motivations for the characters, who are at best two-dimensional caricatures. These characters are not interesting or even likable. And some of them disappear for long stretches of time.
But everything is wrong here. Gable's character is thoroughly despicable. It's one thing to be a macho sort. Gable had brought that off, in spades, with Rhett Butler. But this sailor is both offensive and uninteresting.
So then, why does Garson fall for him, and so quickly? There is no indication.
Everything is wrong with this script. Garson and especially Gable try to salvage it, but it's a truly lost cause.
Don't waste your time on this. Why MGM plunked its major stars into a truly lost cause I cannot guess.
Well, to begin with, the script is awful almost past belief. It meanders from here to there, provides no decent motivations for the characters, who are at best two-dimensional caricatures. These characters are not interesting or even likable. And some of them disappear for long stretches of time.
But everything is wrong here. Gable's character is thoroughly despicable. It's one thing to be a macho sort. Gable had brought that off, in spades, with Rhett Butler. But this sailor is both offensive and uninteresting.
So then, why does Garson fall for him, and so quickly? There is no indication.
Everything is wrong with this script. Garson and especially Gable try to salvage it, but it's a truly lost cause.
Don't waste your time on this. Why MGM plunked its major stars into a truly lost cause I cannot guess.