No Man of Her Own *** (1932, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Paul Ellis, J Farrell MacDonald, Dorothy Mackaill) – Classic Movie Review 2260

Director Wesley Ruggles’s 1932 comedy-drama romance No Man of Her Own is unique as the only film to star Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who married in 1939. Gable stars as Babe Stewart, a high-stakes poker player and card cheat who goes on the run and is hiding out. He marries a lonely small-town librarian called Connie Randall (Lombard) after a bet with gambler Vargas (Paul Ellis).

However, Lombard at first doesn’t know that Gable is a crook being chased by dogged detective ‘Dickie’ Collins (J Farrell MacDonald). When Lombard finds out, she pressures him to quit and Gable feels pressurised. Then vengeful sexpot Kay Everly (Dorothy Mackaill) turns up to reclaim her man, Gable, who has decided to go straight and hands himself up to the law.

The appeal of the serious melodramatic part of the story has a dated feeling and this element of the movie has become a bit of a faded attraction nowadays. But the bantering dialogue and the fine romance both still sparkle, and the charming stars show why they were the toast of the Thirties.

Gable and Lombard were main attractions at rival studios: he at MGM and she at Paramount. After filming, Lombard presented Gable with a ham with his picture on it! But they were otherwise indifferent to one another during the making of this film and it was not until several years later that they met again and fell in love.

Maurine Watkins and Milton H Gropper write the screenplay based on a story by Edmund Goulding and Benjamin Glazer.

Also in the cast are Grant Mitchell, George Barbier, Elizabeth  Patterson, Tommy Conlan, Walter Walker, Paul Ellis, Lillian Harmer, Frank McGlynn Sr, Charley Grapwin and Lionel Belmore.

No Man of Her Own is directed by Wesley Ruggles, runs 85 minutes, is released by Paramount, is written by Maurine Dallas Watkins and Milton Herbert Gropper, with a story by Edmund Goulding and Benjamin Glazer, based on a novel by Val Lewton, is shot by Leo Tover, and is produced by Albert Lewis.

The 1950 Barbara Stanwyck film called No Man of Her Own shares the title but nothing else with this movie.

Carole Lombard died in an air crash on 16 January 1942, at 33.

On 16 January 1942, Carole Lombard (aged 33), her mother, and 20 other people were killed when their plane went down outside Las Vegas while flying back home to California from for a war bond rally in Indiana.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2260

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No Man of Her Own is the only film to star Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.