roddekker If you ask me - This badly dated, 1958, "adult" Comedy/Romance (whose story was, pretty much, just a one-note-joke about identity deception) was so insultingly predictable that, before long, I just couldn't find myself staying in the least bit interested in following its story's contrivances (that were meant to generate laughs) very closely, at all.Besides Teacher's Pet being way too long (at 120 minutes), I also found its 2, big-name stars, Doris Day (Hollywood's oldest virgin) and Clark Gable (pushing 60 years old) were both grossly miscast for their parts. To me, these 2 seriously lacked the essential chemistry needed to keep the floundering momentum of their trite, little on-screen romance going farther than beyond that of just a fizzle and a yawn.I mean, even that platinum-blond bombshell, Mamie Van Doren (yet another Marilyn Monroe clone), as nightclub performer, Peggy DeFore, doing her "The Girl Who Invented Rock'n'Roll" number, couldn't bring the likes of this decidedly "low-on-laughs" comedy to life.

John T. Ryan IT CAN BE a real problem in choosing acceptable roles for Stars as they get a little long in the tooth. The fact that their earlier, often most successful parts are captured forever on celluloid creates the fallacy deep I our minds that they somehow stay youthful forever. But, alas, it just isn't true. (This is, probably best dramatized, by Gloria Swanson's characterization of 'Norma Desmond' in Billy Wilder's Hollywood BOULEVARD.) MEANWHILE, BACK TO real life and today's disectee, TEACHER'S PET; which manages to give us an older Clark Gable, in a role that may stretch the age difference just a trifle; yet doesn't totally disregard a touch of reality. Co Star, Doris Day, who seemed to be making a career of portraying the eternal virgin, compliments Gable's performance in a very underplayed manner.AS A MATTER OF fact, we thought the two made for a quite interesting screen paring; pity that it wasn't done about ten years earlier; for it may well have spawned some other team-ups.CONCERNING THE STORYLINE, it is a variation on the mistaken or false identity plot. What starts out as an intentional deception on the part of Gable in attending Instructor Doris' college night school class, turns out to be the bane of his existence; as confirmed bachelor and (implied) womanizer, Clark develops a real interest in her.THE ADDITION OF another man (Gig Young's Dr. Hugo Pine) adds a little complication to the whole business; introducing the element of "the Eternal Triangle."AS A BACKDROP TO the romantic comedy plot, we have a sort of dramatization of the eternal conflict between formal education and what has been oft called, "the school of hard knocks", or more properly, practical experience. Gable's crusty Newspaper editor being experience and Miss Day's representing schooling.WITHOUT OUR GIVING away too much, we can say that in the 120 minutes of running time, Doris manages to sing the title song, Gig Young does a great inebriate routine and Clark smokes a pack of filter cigarettes; a very politically incorrect thing to do by today's standards.WE ALSO HAD a sort of coalescence of the two seemingly completely different ideas of experience vs. schooling, into two elements that are in a sense two sides of the same coin. In the process, we have the additional pleasure of seeing a happy ending; as if we didn't know it was coming all along! ONE ADDITIONAL ASPECT of the film is that we totally enjoyed its two hours and the time we spent in the kitchen chair watching it.

blanche-2 Clark Gable quickly becomes "Teacher's Pet" in this 1958 film also starring Doris Day, Gig Young and Mamie van Doren. Gable plays gruff, self-educated reporter Jim Gannon who, after writing an insulting letter to a journalism teacher, is forced to go to the class by his boss. The teacher is Erica Stone (Doris Day), and Gannon suddenly becomes very interested in learning. Using an assumed name, he impresses Erica with his natural talent for journalism, though he claims to be in the wallpaper business. He then learns that her father was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and that she's being escorted around by a professor who hasn't got a thing wrong with him.This is a wonderful black and white comedy that Gable and Day perform beautifully and with great chemistry. Nowadays people comment on the age differences - I'm sure I didn't notice it the first time I saw the film, and it's one time where it doesn't matter. Gable gives us a fully-blown character, a man intimidated by his lack of education and therefore resentful of anyone who has one. In a wonderful scene between him and Nick Adams, who plays a high school dropout, he tells the young man that because of his lack of knowledge, "I've spent my life excusing myself from dinner tables and going to the mens room, and I don't want that to happen to you." Day is a delight, relaxed, charming and beautiful. Her best scene is her imitation of Mamie Van Doren's nightclub act, singing "The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" to the embarrassment of Jim, who was seen with her by Erica and Hugo (Young) in a nightclub.Gig Young, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, is hilarious as superman Hugo, who believes drunkenness is nothing more than state of mine, speaks many languages, plays the bongos, and can exceed Jim's war service record. The confrontations between them are marvelous.In modern times, it's tough to find this intelligent kind of comedy anymore where there are actual characters who have their serious moments, but when one comes along, it's well worth it. "Teacher's Pet" is a great example of Hollywood at its finest - an excellent script, great stars in Day and Young, and a living legend, Clark Gable, doing what he'd been doing for thirty years.

lastliberal Some may complain this film is a bit long, and it does drag in parts, but there are so many laughs and an extremely interesting story in this romantic comedy that one tends to forgive writers Fay Kanin and Michael Kanin for forgetting that "ads go for $25 an inch. and you've just wasted $300."Maybe a little less verbosity would have gotten them the Oscar they were nominated for. After all, Michael Kanin's Oscar win was for Woman of the Year - six minutes shorter.But, the film was really funny as Gable and Day went at it - she not knowing that he was the very man she hated. Like Gable, I was also attracted to Day's bodacious booty. I never recalled that she had such a fine figure. Funny and hot. What a combination.Not only did the two stars give us a show, but Gig Young turned in a supporting performance that was so good that it got him an Oscar nomination.I would be remiss if I left out mention of the lovely Mamie Van Doren, who had a bodacious booty of her own.Excellent film on the subject of journalism.