Too Hot to Handle *** (1938, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Walter Connolly, Leo Carrillo, Marjorie Main) – Classic Movie Review 8,414

Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, Hollywood’s then reigning king and queen, bring their luminous presences to MGM’s 1938 romantic comedy adventure film Too Hot to Handle [Let ‘Em All Talk], a tale of a news film-maker called Chris Hunter and a lady flyer named Alma Harding, whom he tricks into get hired as his assistant.

The sprightly playing is several notches above the fairly undistinguished, if serviceable yarn, but the stars and Jack Conway’s nimble, speedy direction make the movie hot enough to handle. Walter Pidgeon is a further asset as Bill Dennis, another cameraman mad about Alma (Loy). The two rivals join up to find Alma’s brother, missing in the Amazon rain forest. Despite the adventure aspects and the many flying and action sequences, it is a light-hearted movie, with a well-judged screwball comedy tone.

Also in the cast are Walter Connolly, Leo Carrillo, Marjorie Main, Johnny Hines, Virginia Weidler, Henry Kolker, Robert Emmett Keane, Betty Ross Clarke, Gregory Gaye, Richard Loo, Willie Fung and James Flavin.

Gable’s character Chris Hunter is a reporter for Union Newsreel. Loy’s female aviator character Alma Harding is based partly on Amelia Earhart, who had disappeared 14 months earlier.

Too Hot to Handle [Let ‘Em All Talk] is directed by Jack Conway, runs 105 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Laurence Stallings and John Lee Mahin, based on a story by Len Hammond, is shot in black and white by Harold Rosson, is produced by Lawrence Weingarten, and is scored by Franz Waxman.

Buster Keaton worked uncredited on the screenplay, devising many of the comedy gags.

The stars notably also made Wife vs Secretary (1936) and Test Pilot (1938) together, and Too Hot to Handle was intended as a follow-up to their hit romantic pairing in Test Pilot. 

It started shooting as Let ‘Em All Talk from 9 May 1938 to late August 1938. mainly in Sherwood Forest, California. Second unit sequences were shot by Richard Rosson and Clyde De Vinna in Dutch Guiana. Second unit director Richard Rosson is brother of the film’s cinematographer Harold Rosson.

The cast are Clark Gable as Chris Hunter, Myrna Loy as Alma Harding, Walter Pidgeon as Bill Dennis, Walter Connolly as Gabby MacArthur, Leo Carrillo as José Estanza, Johnny Hines as Mr Parsons, Virginia Weidler as Hulda Harding, Betty Ross Clarke as Mrs. Ruth Harding, Henry Kolker as Pearly Todd, Marjorie Main as Miss Kitty Wayne, Gregory Gaye as Popoff, Al Shean as Gumpy Gumpert, Willie Fung as Willie, Lillie Mui as Tootsie, and Patsy O’Connor as Fake Hulda.

Despite its seeming success at the box office (budget $1.5 million, box office $2.3 million), it proved the sixth and final Gable-Loy feature, probably because MGM recorded  a small loss of $31,000. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy appeared together in six films: Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Men in White (1934), Wife vs Secretary (1936), Parnell (1937), Test Pilot (1938) and Too Hot to Handle (1938).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,414

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