Dunham16 To be honest neither Clark Gable nor Carole Lombard, in this film husband and wife on screen together enticed me as film performers. The movie seems well photographed and planned but by the time Clark and Carole had their long scene together about half way through I felt impelled to turn it off and plan not to see the second half. In my mind it is well made and edited though not for everyone a sort of cotton to it or not project.

Richard Green Recently my favorite video store acquired this movie on DVD, and I was very hopeful in renting it. As I am a huge fan of William Powell and Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfrey," I was astonished to hear the line "See you in church," dropped casually by Lombard in the middle of this film. That line, of course, appears early on in "My Man Godfrey." I had always thought that this was a comic device, used for that particular film, but apparently it was something of comic parlance in the 1930s. After all, there is a four year spread between this film and "My Man Godfrey". If it still has resonance now, it must have been doubly meaningful to audiences then.The plot itself is really thin, with Gable's character "Babe" deciding to marry Lombard's "Connie" on the flip of a coin. I don't know whether that was supposed to be THE COMIC DEVICE of the film or whether it was a throw-away notion coming from the screenwriters. It really doesn't matter much because it ruined the whole notion of the film, which is that Gable's "Babe" doesn't want any attachments of any kind to interfere with his life as a card sharp and cheat.In the social history context, it is very interesting to see a film which shows men of wealth and status in New York City -- in the third year of the great Depression ( counting 1930, '31, and '32 as the epicenter of that disastrous time ) -- casually gambling away sums of money that would easily have sustained a family of four over an entire year !!Lombard is an intriguing personality in the history of the American cinema and every one of her performances in the '30s speaks volumes about the genius she had contained within herself. She is so wistfully beautiful and her comic timing is usually impeccable. In this film she plays a woman who thinks she is wasting away in her small town, bored with her "unsteady" boyfriend and bored with her job as a librarian. The point is, however, that she was a young woman with a job in the depths of a depression that savaged the whole of the U.S. economy.For audiences of that era, her character's decision to toss that safety and security for an "instant marriage" to the rogue "Babe" would have been both scandalous and highly romantic. The fact that Gable's very nefarious alternative lifestyle -- as a card sharp and con man -- nets him a plush apartment and plenty of ready money, doubles the scandalous nature of the plot. The fact that he and his confederates fleece the social class known as "New York Swells" accounts for some of the film's popularity in that time and in that era.But Gable's "Babe" is not some Robin Hood type in a tuxedo. He and his partners cheat the rich and keep the money for themselves.They are not progressives, they are not "reformers," they are crooks.This enjoyable film earns a 5 from me for the supporting cast of actors and from Lombard's extraordinary ease of performance. The plot itself is so near to being utter nonsense that only her luminous and magnetic beauty saves the day for the entire ensemble. Clark Gable was the "good guy" with heartburn in "It Happened One Night," which is a far, far superior film. Here, he is just flat out all criminal with heartburn and no better than the bankers of that day, who foreclosed on homes and farms with nary a thought to the long-term consequences to their customers, to society, or to the health of the country which made them so prosperous to begin with. Seventy-five years later, these nuances are probably lost on people who don't know a lot about our true American history. The formulaic "happy ending" tells me that the producers ran out of story before the actors ran out of charisma or talent.

Ben Parker The perks of this movie are many: a fun screwball comedy set-up involving card-sharking, two beautiful stars looking young and fantastic (you'll see why women first fell in love with Clarke Gable, and found him ideal to play Rhett Butler), the only on screen pairing of said stars, who were to become husband and wife. He would love her long after she died in a tragic plane accident on a mission to sell war bonds (i think it was). Another perk is the pre-production code raunchiness. You may notice that any movie made between 1930-1934 seems a lot racier than movies made before or after then. This is because in this short period there was no censorship of movie content, and no rules to say what you could and could not show on screen. This was left to the filmmaker's discretion. So you'll find shots of Gable in the shower, and Lombard also, though she is much less exposed. Not actual nudity, of course, but open sexiness banished from movies from 1934 till whenever the Hayes code ended - such as Gable asking Lombard the librarian to fetch him a book from the top shelf so she has to climb up the ladder and he can look at her legs.If you've never seen a screwball comedy, you might be pleasantly surprised. They're all pretty fun. Bringing up Baby with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn is probably the best one. They were all the rage in the 30's, and Carole Lombard was the ideal screwball heroine. To be recommended.

lora64 This is a pleasant kind of tale, easygoing and amusing. Clark Gable as the gambler Babe Stewart, meets quiet (i.e. repressed) librarian Connie Randall, played by Carole Lombard. At the library, when he corners her amongst the bookshelves, she asks, "Do you like Shakespeare?" and I like Gable's reply, "Oh Shakespeare's alright but sometimes you just don't feel like Shakespeare" says he gazing deep into her eyes. Just an amusing moment.After a hesitant start they inevitably fall in love and impulsively decide to wed, and thereafter the plot unfolds. Gable resumes his dishonest card sniping activities (i.e. racket), however this clashes with the wifey on the domestic front. In time he plans to reform his ways, "Things gotta be different from now on," he tells the police, but there are complications ahead.It's very interesting to see a younger Clark Gable who even at this stage was well established in his screen presence. And Carole Lombard couldn't be more beautiful! Great viewing for the fans of Gable and Lombard.