Start your engines! The invention and development of the automobile coincides with the birth and growth of the movie industry. This month we watch movies where cars play a major role.
RODNEY BOWCOCK: Clark Gable is Mike Brannan, a race car driver who has a rough reputation for doing whatever it takes to win. Barbara Stanwyck is Regina Forbes, a columnist with a nationwide newspaper presence and a national radio program who has her own reputation for destroying the careers of those whom she sets her sights on.
Forbes is intrigued by Brannon’s ruthless competitiveness and interviews him shortly before he is involved in an accident that kills one of his competitors. Regina blames Brannan for the accident, and his career is sidelined as race track managers fear bad publicity by his presence. Regina watches from afar as Mike slowly rebuilds is career, eventually, and inevitably becoming intertwined romantically with him, as his career reaches a new height by racing in the Indianapolis 500.
SAMANTHA GLASSER: Stanwyck's entrance is very glamorous. She poses in an ornate office room, smoking lazily, watching the race on TV. At this point her career was on the decline, having begun in the late silent era. She and Gable had worked together previously in Night Nurse in 1931. Their talents hadn't waned, but changes in the studio system and their ages made them slightly out of step with the industry. Designer Helen Rose, hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff, makeup artist John Truwe, and cinematographer Harold Rosson made admirable efforts to make Stanwyck drip with luxury and glamour. In one scene at the track, she eats a hot dog while wearing gloves and pearls.
RB: I’m a sucker for Stanwyck, and it wasn’t lost on me that we’ve covered more than a few of her films from assorted points in her career on the blog. While I’ll agree that much of her best work was behind her at this point, she still packs a lot of star power here, and as you noted is gorgeous with the MGM sheen.
SG: Originally, Lana Turner was slated for the leading lady. Rumor said that she and Gable had an affair at the time Gable's wife Carole Lombard was killed, and To Please a Lady was partially shot at the May's Speedway Decoration Day in Indianapolis, the same city where Lombard's plane took off. Gable had an emotionally charged shoot ahead of him, but shooting was delayed by three months so he could have a honeymoon with new wife Sylvia Ashley, and Turner was replaced with Stanwyck, making the shoot less difficult. Gable looks to be having a great time. His trademark wry delivery is present, and he looks as delighted as a little kid with an extravagant present when he sits in the race car in the garage after a long hiatus.
RB: The story is that this was the first film that Gable claimed to have enjoyed making since the untimely death of Lombard, doubtlessly because of his long friendship with Stanwyck and the mutual admiration with Clarence Brown.
SG: The director was growing tired of Hollywood and MGM at this point in his career, and he had already threatened to quit several times. However, he liked Gable and wanted to work with him, and the racing plot interested him. Speedway Association president Wilbur Shaw acted as his advisor for authenticity on the film.
RB: Most of the racing scenes were shot at Carroll Speedway, Arlington Downs and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which adds a lot of authenticity to the film that we haven’t really seen much this month. Because she was in Indianapolis filming the movie, Stanwyck was available to give the congratulatory kiss to Indianapolis 500 winner, Johnnie Parsons.
SG: This is the movie Gizmo watches in Gremlins that makes him want to drive a car, which ultimately saves the day. I understand why the film is so inspiring for him. The racing scenes are excellently shot. We get a variety of types of footage with quick cutting between close ups and long shots from various parts of the track. Cameraman Frank Phillips mounted cameras onto race cars to put the camera into the path of the action. You can clearly see the numbers on the cars to differentiate between drivers, and we can see the maneuvers they make to get ahead. It is a revelation watching the action scenes in this film compared to the previous two we reviewed this month. This film gets the audience invested in the winner. The danger is evident. These are open air cars, no roll cages in sight, and if the car rolls, the driver falls out and will likely be crushed or run over by another car.
RB: Midget car racing was experiencing a mid-century boom that was sidelined because of the war. It was (and to a degree remains) a popular spectator sport and hundreds of tracks dotted the US, as the hobby cut into attendance at movie theaters, which makes this an interesting and appropriate choice for a movie.
SG: It seems that Frank Jenks is following us. He only has a small part in the beginning of the movie, but we aren't consciously selecting from his filmography. That's how prolific he was!
RB: Frank Jenks is fairly unavoidable when you watch classic movies. We saw him not too long ago in Rosie The Riveter, and I expect that he’ll coincidentally be popping up again in short order. When it comes to character actors, make mine Foulger, but Jenks is always likely to bring a smile to the faces of Picture Show attendees.
SG: He gives us the "old magoo" every Christmas in Christmas in Connecticut too. Another member of the cast has a bigger part but hardly makes an impression. Adolphe Menjou disappears into the background as Stanwyck's advisor.
Brown biographer Gwenda Young wrote, "...in comparison to other releases that year-- All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, The Asphalt Jungle-- the conventionality and direct-by-numbers approach of To Please a Lady are all too apparent."
The Focus film reviewer was savage in their assessment: "To see the two middle-aged players who fill these roles trying to satisfy what the producers say the public wants leaves me with a sick feeling. What some people will do for money."
Christopher Kane for Modern Screen said, "Here are some big famous popular stars in a lousy picture, so it you're a Gable or Stanwyck fan, you'll just have to take your chances."
Rahna Maughan for Screenland was more constructive, "As an auto-racing film, this is excellent. As an insight into career women, it's mere male propaganda to keep women chained to the kitchen stove."
RB: I’d argue that most of these reviewers kind of miss the point, and the film was definitely successful, so audiences did enjoy it. James A. Blossom of the Movie-Tone Theatre in Fairfield, Montana hit the nail on the head when he said, “Plenty of action and comedy. Enjoyed by patrons who came. Business fair.” Although he did note an issue with MGM’s booking policy when he griped that, “Rental high on this, so it was impossible to make any profit."
SG: The movie is slick from start to finish, which makes it easy to overlook the weak romantic plot in favor of its star power and the exciting race scenes. Three stars.
RB: This is an easy to watch and easy to forget film that never really gives the stars what they deserve and as such will never be regarded among their finest work, or a top tier film in a year with many top tier films. Still, it goes down easy and has enough to enjoy that it comes recommended. Three stars.
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