Gable and Lombard * (1976, James Brolin, Jill Clayburgh, Allen Garfield) – Classic Movie Review 10,191

Director Sidney J Furie’s 1976 romantic drama Gable and Lombard is movie tittle-tattle told in flashback about how the two vibrant stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard met at a Hollywood party, carried on meeting although Gable was married (upsetting his MGM studio boss, right-wing mogul Louis B Mayer) and were briefly married (1939-42) before Lombard was killed at age 34 in a plane crash just after making her most famous film, 1942’s To Be or Not to Be.

Jill Clayburgh as Lombard is more animated than James Brolin as Gable, but neither makes much headway through Barry Sandler’s screenplay material that is as thin as a fanzine, and they never truly inhabit the personalities of the original great stars, and look nothing like them either, giving the film the feeling of a showbiz party charade.

Allen Garfield is fun as the ogre Mayer, Alice Backes enjoys herself as gossip queen Hedda Hopper, but Morgan Brittany (if you please) is inadequate as Vivien Leigh, Mayer’s choice to star as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.

It is probably not a very good idea for a movie, but it should be a lot more entertaining and informative. But there is slick handling by Furie and a polished production designed by Edward C Carfagno, as well as a lovely score by Michel Legrand.

Also in the cast are Red Buttons, Melanie Mayron, Carol McGinnis, Joanne Linville, S John Launer, William Bryant, Noah Keen, Robert Karnes, Ross Elliott and Andy Albin.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,191

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