Lo schiaffo

Excellent drama set on a rubber plantation stars Clark Gable as a rough-and- tough boss who drives his men to produce rubber in a harsh southeast Asian locale (they mention Saigon a lot). He's awaiting a new surveyor to join his small band on white men (Tully Marshall, Donald Crisp) and Asian workers. But the boat brings Jean Harlow instead, a call girl who has fled the city for a while. Gable and Harlow are terrific as they spit and snarl at each other befall falling into each others' arms. But then the new kid arrives (Gene Raymond) with a wife! Mary Astor (the wife) has one of her first great roles in talkies in this film. Her arrival sets off all kinds of sparks with Gable and with Harlow. The husband is sick right off, allowing Gable and Astor to get friendly. Great chemistry among the stars here, and a very adult script for 1932. Two memorable scenes: Harlow taking a bath in the water barrel; Gable carrying Astor through the torrential monsoon rains. Certainly ranks among the best performances of the 3 stars. Raymond has the thankless role of the wimp husband; Crisp is the drunk; Marshall is the loyal sidekick. Willie Fung (Hoy) and Forrester Harvey (Limey) round out the cast. Hard to believe Harlow is only 21 here and had already made more than 25 films, dating back to silent films in 1928. Oddly, Harlow, Astor, Gable, Marhsall, and Crisp had all started in silent films. It's wonderful to see these stars at their peak. Not to be missed.

This film was the one which really showcased Jean Harlow, fresh at MGM after a stint at Columbia, and a film or two as one of the muses of Howard Hughes.

In real life she'd married and been widowed in quick succession, and although the Paul Bern scandal must have been a strain, it doesn't show here on screen. Harlow is absolutely luminous, a wise-cracking hardboiled good-time girl with a soft centre and a hint of innocence. What else could she be but a bright platinum blonde? Mary Astor, tight-laced and classy, arrives at the sexually-charged rubber plantation with feverish husband Gene Raymond, and catches the eye of wide-boy hard-man Clark Gable (a real he-man of the 'grab em by the hair' school).

A fascinating slice of 1930s pre-Production Code history, 'Red Dust' sizzles and is always in heat. Remade as 'Mogambo' and apart from the addition of colour, some recasting (Gardner for Harlow, Grace Kelly for Astor, Donald Sinden for Raymond), it remained a heady brew, even down to the indefatigable Mr Gable reprising his role as Carson!

Erotically highly charged melodrama that fairly sizzles, even today, more than 70 years later. Cinematography has a plasticity and a sheen to it that makes the film gorgeous to look at, editing is highly efficient and gets the job done and the story told, and the acting is fabulous. I wasn't prepared for the physical impact of the young Gable, how he makes absolutely no excuses for his raw sexuality and libido and how amazingly attractive he was. Harlow as well, I was prepared to find her vulgar and shallow, but she was quite good and certainly had a chemistry thing going with Gable.

Recommended, and please, all of you insisting that this is an inexcusably racist picture, any work of art needs to be judged by its own unique standards, and those of its time. Racism in movies today is a lot subtler, but certainly exists just like it did in the early 30s, and politics or no politics it doesn't detract from the greatness of this genre movie.

Heartily recommended.

A pretty good movie. Red Dust is one of the films that made Clark Gable a star and it's easy to see why. In it, he plays the kind of likable rogue character that audiences would come to know him as. Gable is Dennis Carson, the operator of a rubber plantation in Indochina, who is all business until his world is turned upside down by two women. First Vantine Jefferson (Jean Harlow), a prostitute looking for a place to lie low arrives. Then a prospector and his wife, Barbara (Mary Astor), show up at the plantation. Both women are unwelcome intruders into Carson's world at first, but soon they each end up igniting his desire. Fooling around with the floozy Vantine is easy, but things get complicated when Carson's eye falls on the married Barbara. With his more than questionable actions, any other actor might have been completely unlikeable in the role, but Gable somehow pulls it off. Harlow and Astor also give very good performances. It helps that the heavy subject matter and brash duologue, adapted from a stage play, was not watered down too much for the screen version. Definitely a well made film worth seeing.

The fetid RED DUST of a Malaysian rubber plantation is the setting for an adulterous triangle involving the quick-tempered, rawboned manager, a brassy American prostitute & the upper-class wife of a new employee. Together, they're about to heat up the tropics.

Although blessed with good acting & fine production values, this is merely a soap opera set in the jungle. MGM was pushing the moral envelope here, seeing just how far they could go with libidinous behavior - and in those pre-Production Code days that was pretty far. Clark Gable & Jean Harlow exude sexuality, openly lusting for each other & spreading hormones around the screen. Harlow's lines (of dialogue) are both witty & suggestive, while Gable talks with his eyes and his hands. They were a perfect cinematic match and this film was such a big success that they would repeat the same basic plot 3 years later in CHINA SEAS, although the Code would cause that film to be a bit more covert.

Mary Astor adds a wrinkle to the plot as another fine-looking female for Gable to mate with, but the audience is never in any doubt that gorgeous Harlow will get him in the end. The rest of the cast (Gene Raymond, Donald Crisp, Tully Marshall & giggling Willie Fung) are good in small roles.

It should be noted that the story line contains racist elements, not unusual in a Hollywood film of that era.

By the way, the bedtime story Harlow is reading Gable at the end of the movie is a parody - and a good one - of the animal stories by Thornton W. Burgess which were very popular at the time.