This starts off as a comic Western with Clark Gable as a conman out West. It offers him up shirtless in the opening scene (and a shirtless Chill Wills too if you're in ot that sort of thing. He romances good girl Lana Turner, daughter of shonky Frank Morgan who is a fake judge, despute the gum chewing appeal of his ex Claire Trevor, with Albert Dekker (he of auto erotic asphyixiation fame) as a baddie.
This is all bright and fun. Gable is terrific in a tailor made part and Turner is lovely and natural (I think she had a natural ability but later in life she got worse when she tried to act). But as the story goes on it becomes all MGM-y i.e. it's about crushing people's spirit and turning them into dull sober mother lovers. Turner traps Gable into marriage which is fun, then he becomes rich and it gets all serious and soapy about Gable becoming rich through underhanded means, and Morgan getting all moral and shot, and Turner losing a baby and plot plot plot.
It lives up at the end when Gable kicks Dekker's arse. Gable and Turner have great chemistry both so attractive. Chill Wills is an amiable sidekick.
I just MGM didn't suck all the fun out of their films.
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