They Met in Bombay *** (1941, Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, Peter Lorre, Reginald Owen, Jessie Ralph) – Classic Movie Review 6708

Director Clarence Brown’s entertaining 1941 MGM wartime comedy crime adventure stars a great vintage line-up in Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell, Peter Lorre, Reginald Owen and Jessie Ralph.

Gable plays jewel thief Gerald Meldrick and Russell plays sophisticated burglar Anya von Duren, who meet in Bombay, with him posing as a detective and her masquerading as an aristocrat, argue, go on the run and eventually fall in love in Brown’s pleasing, gleaming star-studded romantic comedy drama.

Both Gerald and Anya are after the same prize of stealing a royal jewel necklace, but eventually Gerald ends up becoming a war hero when one of his scams involves him masquerading as a British officer.

Both main stars are charming, just oozing charisma, though Lorre steals every scene as a greedy sailor, the sinister Captain Chang, while high professional director Brown handles the simple, straightforward plot in the story by John H Kafka with the required style and a shining veneer of polish.

Keye Luke had his scenes deleted as Mr Toy.

Also in the cast are Matthew Boulton, Eduardo Ciannelli, Alan Ladd, Luis Alberni, Rosina Galli, Jay Novello, Philip Ahn, Ernie Alexander, Harry Allen, Jimmy Aubrey, Clifford Brooke, John Burton, Luke Chan, Alden Stephen Chase, David Clyde, Tristram Coffin, Francis Compton, Tom Conlon, Harry Cording, Jerome Craven, Cliff Danielson, William Edmunds, Gerald Fielding, E I Fisher-Smith, Lee Tung Foo, Chester Gan, Douglas Gordon, Roy Gordon, Roland Got, Denis Green, Leyland Hodgson, Lilyan Irene, Charles Irwin, Cornelius Keefe, Guy Kingsford, Tetsu Komai, James B Leong, Eric Lonsdale, Richard Loo, Miles Mander, John Marston, Cyril McLaglen, Pat O’Hara, Bob Okazaki, Teru Shimada, Bob Stevenson, Ray Teal, Evan Thomas, Cyril Thornton, David Thursby, Charles Trowbridge, Nanette Vallon, Leslie Vincent, Gordon Wallace, Adelaide Whytal, Judith Wood, Harry Worth and Victor Sen Young.

It runs 92 minutes, is written by Edwin Justus Mayer, Anita Loos and Leon Gordon, is shot in black and white by William H Daniels, is produced by Hunt Stromberg, is scored by Herbert Stothart, and designed by Cedric Gibbons.

Lana Turner was to have starred with Gable as announced in December 1940.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6708

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