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Rating:  - My favorite Golden Age actor gets the DVD set he deserves
Clark Gable is my favorite actor of all time, so the DVD boxed set, CLARK GABLE: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION, from Warner Home Video is destined to be an often-played favorite. Gable made his first movie in 1931 and his last in 1961; this boxed set goes from 1933-1953. Included are six movie treasures: DANCING LADY (1933), CHINA SEAS (1935), WIFE VS. SECRETARY and SAN FRANCISCO (both 1936), BOOM TOWN (1940), and MOGAMBO (1953).
DANCING LADY is a Joan Crawford vehicle, with a young Clark Gable and Franchot Tone as the men she chooses between. We are in the Depression era Manhattan show business world, with Gable as a play director and Tone a millionaire playboy financing the show. Fred Astaire makes his film debut as himself, and Nelson Eddy and The Three Stooges have cameo roles. Bonuses are two Three Stooges shorts and a theatrical trailer.
CHINA SEAS is a "guilty pleasure" for director Tay Garnett. Gable plays a ship captain who does not know that his Hong Kong-to-Singapore voyage includes a gold shipment and Chinese coolies. The dream supporting cast includes Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery (re-united from DINNER AT EIGHT), a young Rosalind Russell, C. Aubrey Smith, and Lewis Stone. Bonuses are a color travelogue, a musical short, and a theatrical trailer.
Clarence Brown's WIFE VS. SECRETARY has Clark Gable married to Myrna Loy and boss to Jean Harlow. In a lovely movie, each woman respects the other. This is at least the fourth movie that Gable and Harlow made together; they were very popular. A young James Stewart plays Harlow's boyfriend and fifty years later still fondly remembered a passionate kiss they shared. Big bonuses here are a musical short, a theatrical trailer, and an Oscar-winning "Crime Does Not Pay" short.
An all-time favorite of mine, SAN FRANCISCO has been remastered to make its incomparable 1906 earthquake climax really something. But even without the bravura climax, we still have Barbary Coast joint owner Gable competing with wealthy uptown Jack Holt for Jeanette MacDonald as a singer. As a generic priest, Spencer Tracy got the Oscar nomination that should have gone to Gable's memorable Blackie Norton. The finale gives me goosebumps; curiously, one of the bonuses is an even more effective alternate ending. Other bonuses on this masterpiece are two Techicolor travelogues of the 1939 Treasure Island World's Fair, and a 45 minute TNT documentary on Gable's career and life. The first night you do this boxed set, start with this documentary as an overview.
Another "guilty pleasure", BOOM TOWN has a cast to die for--Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy again, this time as oil wildcatters, and Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr as their women. The supporting cast of this Jack Conway-directed gem includes Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill, and Chill Wills. Bonuses are a color cartoon, a B&W documentary short, and a theatrical trailer.
John Lee Mahin was one of Clark Gable's favorite screenwriters. Mahin wrote BOOM TOWN, eight years earlier wrote RED DUST (1932), and in 1953 did MOGAMBO, the Technicolor remake of RED DUST. I like RED DUST more because of Jean Harlow, but Gable is wonderfully cast as a big game hunter in Africa in John Ford's MOGAMBO. Filmed on location with gorgeous color, this is a love triangle between Broadway showgirl Ava Gardner (in the Harlow role) and married Grace Kelly (in the Mary Astor role). Romance and adventure blend superbly in a superbly cast movie. The distinguished cinematographers are Robert Surtees and David Lean's Freddie Young. The sole bonus here is a theatrical trailer.
I know, where are GONE WITH THE WIND and MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY? GWTW is literally its own boxed set now, and I added BOUNTY from old videocassette. It is the greatest sea adventure of all time, impeccable cast, and superbly edited by Margaret Booth; I recommend it highly. As for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT one year earlier, wrong studio. I don't believe Warner Home Video has access to Columbia releases. But picky, picky! You get six wonderful Clark Gable movie gems with a lot of bonuses, and you still watch more. Then go rent or buy BOUNTY and NIGHT! And THE MISFITS (1961), for that matter. And also buy the new 4-disk GWTW. Warners' CLARK GABLE: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION is impeccable and gets my highest DVD boxed set rating.
Rating:  - great star, great collection,
Six Gable classics, five of which available for the first time on dvd. Quality is excellent and packaging too : a perfect showcase for Hollywood's king of stars, here paired with some of his favorite leading ladies, Myrna Loy (Wife vs Secretary) Jean Harlow (Wife and China Seas), Joan Crawford (Dancing Lady) and Claudette Colbert (Boom Town).
What is missing from this collection are some of Gable's best films made while he worked for MGM, like Victor Fleming's masterpieces "Test Pilot" and "Red Dust". On the other side it would have been interesting to see some of Gable's work which has never been published at all: "After Office Hours" "Men in White" "Parnell" and early Constance Bennett starrer, the wonderful "The Easiest Way"...Maybe with the Constance Bennett and Myrna Loy collections?
Rating: - Clark Gable The Signature Collection
I enjoyed all of these old films except the Dancing Lady. What a bomb, Joan Crawford was "dull". I really enjoyed Boomtown.
I just can't stand Jean Harlow's voice but I realise the so called "type of girl of the day" had to appear brassy. I enjoyed Gable in all of the movies.
Rating: - The King finally gets his own
For fans of 'The King of Hollywood' this set will no doubt seem way overdue. The titles chosen for this collection vary in appropriateness for inclusion, the comedy 'Wife Vs. Secretary' is only a so-so film that is made worthwhile only by the quality of the cast ie Gable, Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow. Also with the long-lost Harlow, Gable stars in the sillier than silly 'China Seas' in which he plays a ship's captain.
Mogambo is a universally appreciated 1953 remake of an earlier Gable film (this time with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly) in which he reprises his original role. A vast improvement of the original.
Dancing Lady is an underrated 1933 comedy classic with Joan Crawford in a change of pace comedic turn that she pulls off marvellously. When Gable slaps her butt after granting her a favour and she wistfully thanks him; priceless!
All in all this a set of classics that should please Gable's fans and those who just enjoy great vintage entertainment alike.
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