gkhege
As one of the silver screens first super stars, Clark made the same mistake as most to follow in his footsteps. Never try and be Rhett again.
Good family fun western...
gamay9
It was nice to see Gable and Parker in a film, together. Parker was beautiful and could act; Gable was Gable, perfect for the role.I was making Steak Diane for a lady friend, but took a few breaks and mentioned that 'they don't make them like that anymore.' She agreed.I have a list of alluring actresses and Eleanor Parker is in the top ten; but, when combining beauty with acting, she is #1.This was an entertaining film which I would recommend to any audience. The supporting cast was super and the Technicolor far ahead of its' time.I'm appreciative that TCM aired this film, which I had never before seen.
MartinHafer
Clark Gable wanders into town and hears about a nasty old lady and her four daughter-in-laws who are supposedly hiding $100,000 in stolen gold but any many who goes near them is shot by this insane matriarch. So naturally, Clark with his suave and sexy ways infiltrates the ghost town in which they live in order to seduce the gold from them.The script for this film was bad...or at least very, very poor. So no matter how much the actors try, the basic plot idea is dull and not particularly believable. But to make matters worse, an aging Clark Gable who looks every bit a man in his mid-50s (or older) is cast as a stud who uses his seductive wiles on four unsuspecting and horny women. In other words, because he is Gable, the women are to chase after him as if he's Gable circa 1939 and it just isn't convincing. My advice is just see one of his other films--most of which are significantly better than this drivel that is only watchable due to Gable--despite the miscasting. A complete misfire--second only to PARNELL as Gable's worst film since becoming a star.
Ilya Mauter
The King and Four Queens marked the fourth time Raoul Walsh tried his hand in directing a motion picture in Cinemascope, the first three of them being Battle Cry, The Tall Man and The Revolt of Mamie Stover the second of them being also the first film out of three in totality that Walsh made with legendary Clark Gable. In The King and Four Queens Gable plays a handsome middle-aged adventurer Don Kehoe, known in the West for his skills in using a gun who comes to a rancho called Wagon Mound with its entire population consisting of five women, four of them being beautiful widows of the McDade gang brothers recently killed while attempting to rob a bank. They are led by a tough middle-aged Ma McDade (Jo Van Fleet) who is quite feared and respected not only by the four young widows under her command but also by a population of all villages and towns a few hundreds miles around the ranch. Promptly upon our hero's arrival, the rivalry among the four sisters as about conquering of Don Kehoe's heart ensues, resulting in many insignificant troubles manly for the old mother-chief. The purpose of Don Kehoe's joining of such a pleasant company nonetheless is a large sum of money that, as a word goes around, is hidden at the ranch and which hiding place he ought to find by any means. Overall the average Western as it is, The King and Four Queens provides much less viewing pleasure then one may expect from an average one, but nonetheless it has its interesting moments and is a worth watching experience for a genre fan. 6/10
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