L'aventure commence à Bombay

Gerald Meldrick (Clark Gable) is a wanted jewel thief. He arrives in Bombay to steal the Star of Asia from the Duchess of Beltravers. Unbeknownst to him, con woman Anya Von Duren (Rosalind Russell) has the same idea. The two thieves quickly figure each other out. They compete and end up together. After both stealing the gem at different times, they escape the authorities on board Captain Chang (Peter Lorre)'s ship to Hong Kong. They arrive with war looming over the horizon.

The first half is a fun little screw-ball caper. I like both Gable and Russell having fun with the characters and each other. It's loads of fun in a light affair. The movie eventually turns into war movie and it's not always the best. Gable and Russell get separated in a large middle section. Gable's con is a bit fun until the war breaks out. The action, the vehicles, and the gears are not the most realistic. It's also wartime in the real world and a bit of war propaganda is to be expected. This is a good pairing and one can excuse any flaws for the greater cause. The mix of a real war and light comedy is just a bit awkward.

This picture is likely to make the viewer yearn to know what went on behind the scenes during its making. The impression one gets is that about halfway through the filming (or writing of the scenario, or both) someone decided that what they had so far wasn't working, but that there was already too much invested to discard it. So from a conventional international jewel thieves romance/suspense/comedy (better than some of its type, not as good as others), the film shifts gears abruptly and becomes a wartime adventure, with our hero and heroine trapped by the battles raging around them. Having once put in some time in the military (before being asked to leave), the Gable character needs do nothing more than don a tailor-made uniform to pass as an authentic member of the corps, his presence unquestioned by any of his colleagues, his authority unchallenged by anyone to whom he issues orders. Needless to say, he becomes a war hero, awarded the highest honors despite there presumably being no record of his existence.

Wait a minute.....weren't we talking about jewel thieves? Yes, and so was the picture, no more than fifteen minutes earlier.

Don't despair - before the final credits, the two stories are reconciled about as clumsily as the rest of the picture is put together.

Could it be that this 1941 product was deemed too lightweight and frivolous for an audience whose nation was being drawn into a world war, and that the studio bosses decided to make it more contemporary? If so, they should have taken their losses on what was already written and/or filmed, because the incongruous story they released is an embarrassment.

Gable and Rosalind Russell play a couple of jewel thieves who meet in ..... well, guess where, and keep running into each other thereafter.

It's a fairly formulaic film carried on the charms of the leads; director Clarence Brown can't overcome the MGM gloss to provide the screwball details that the first half of the film really needs, although Peter Lorre as a shady and unctuous tramp steamer captain is a lot of fun.

I have the feeling Miss Russell replaced Myrna Loy at some stage in the production and the first couple of reels show damage. Clarence Brown directs the comedy bits for everyone but the two leads, a telling indictment of his opinion of their chops. Even worse, William H. Daniel's high-lit camerawork makes Miss Russell look a trifle jowly.

I don't think I have ever seen Clark Gable in a bad movie, or with a sub par performance and this 1941 black and white film is no exception. Gable maintains his swagger throughout as Gerald Meldrick, a con man with a quick wit and an endless supply of phony names and costumes, but he is eventually positively influenced by his new romantic partner in crime Anya Von Duren (Rosalind Russell) and he finds himself outmatched when it comes down to the crunch to continue living a life of crime always on the move at a moments notice to avoid the authorities, or to do the right thing and fight for his country.

The film has a bit of romance, a bit of comedy, a bit of a con job and a lot of charm.

I give it a highly respectable 8 out of 10 IMDB rating. It is the type of film that is over before you want it to be finished. It is quite entertaining even some eight (80) years later. I must be an old soul because I just love these TCM movies.

It was great to see another little remembered Gable film made before he went off to war. When he was paired with Rosalind Russell in "China Seas", they met in Hong Hong and traveled by ship to Singapore. Here, they meet in Bombay and travel by ship to Hong Kong, under quite different circumstances, as fugitive jewel thieves. In general form, this film reminds me of the later "The Big Steal", a chase thriller-screwball romantic comedy combo in an exotic locale, involving a man and woman, unknown to each other, looking for the same thing. Toward the end, it turns into a forerunner of "The Great Imposter", with Gable successfully fooling the British Hong Kong garrison into believing he is a British officer, who happens to be passing through. This gets him into more hot water than he bargained for, as the Japanese invade Hong Kong(as they actually did less than a year later!). Peter Lorre doesn't fool anyone as the supposedly Chinese captain of the ship taking the thieves to Hong Kong. This is mostly Gable's film. Sometimes, I wondered if I was looking at a deglamourized Heddy Lamarr instead of Rosalind Russell. All in all, an entertaining, if silly, romp, with Gable still looking in peak form and seeming to enjoy himself.