Mogambo

Clark Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly all in one adventure film out of Africa. What's not to like. Gable plays Victor Marswell, a great white hunter of the African big game, Marswell (Gable) who has not one, but two beautiful actresses pining over him. Even some near seventy (70) years later after its original release date (1953), this film holds up quite well. Both the story line and the scenery are epic, but it is the playful romance between this threesome that holds the audience's attention. Who will end up at the end of this adventure film embracing?

Well worth a watch, or even twice (I did).

I give it a 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

"Mogambo" is a remake of "Red Dust" (1932) and is not as good, nor as funny, but it's still not bad at all. Poor Clark Gable must choose between Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. With both actresses at the height of their beauty this is a tough call - but I would have taken Ava any day. She is stunning in this film - sultry, sexy and warm - very different to the flighty sex kitten that Jean Harlow played so brilliantly in "Red Dust". And Ava is photographed lovingly, in gorgeous colour, by Robert Surtees and Freddie Young. She deserved her Oscar nomination.

Kelly is good too as the rather prissy wife of a very English scientist. But she's too nice - Ava is much more real. Gable was a bit old for the role here - after all it was 21 years after he first played it in "Red Dust" - but his performance is strong.

Great African scenery and animals too - "Mogambo" got out of the studio that confined "Red Dust". Who could forget Ava trying to feed a very hungry baby elephant and a baby rhino at the same time? The gorilla sequence was a little weak - in that the film stock used to film the gorillas was completely different to that used to film the actors - and the actors were obviously in a studio. But most of the work is on location and stunningly shot.

You'll have fun with this one.

PS In the canoe scene are they really talking about female circumcision?

This is a strange, but good picture coming from John Ford. It's not about the usual themes he normally tackles, it lacks the usual supporting cast from a Ford film. Yet it is a good piece of movie making.

In a biography of John Ford by his grandson he said that Gable and Ford were friends for years, not particularly close, but friends nonetheless. Whenever they were together Ford and Gable talked about working together. Finally Gable got MGM to get Ford for his next film and it was Mogambo.

I like Mogambo because it was the start of a trend in Hollywood to show some realism when dealing with Africa. To this day there are people in the United States whose knowledge about things African were gained from Tarzan movies. African Queen, King Solomon's Mines, and Mogambo were all shot on location and all show the native Africans in reality. I was a kid at this time and my first bit of education about Africa came from Ramar of the Jungle. This is light years better.

Gable was criticized for reprising a role he did 20 years earlier in Red Dust. The plot line stays the same, but in Red Dust, Gable is the hard-nosed manager of a rubber plantation in Malaya. Gable as Vic Marswell here is a world weary and cynical game hunter and safari guide. Both portrayals are very good and very different.

By all accounts it was not a happy set. The usual problems with location in Africa presented themselves. In addition Frank Sinatra was on the set. He was waiting on word whether he would get the part he sought in From Here To Eternity. At the time he was married to Ava Gardner and there's was one of the most tempestuous marriages in Hollywood history. He was jealous of Gable as he was of all Gardner's leading men. To be just Ava kind of encouraged the jealous. When Harry Cohn gave him the word about From Here To Eternity he left with the gratitude of Ford, Gable, Gardner and everyone else, he'd become a royal pain in the neck.

Ava Gardner was one of the most beautiful women God ever created and a lot of times she could get by with that. But when called on to act she could. As Eloise "honeybear" Kelly she's as cynical in her own way as Gable was. They were a perfect fit. This was the last of three films she and Gable made.

I don't think Grace Kelly is shown to best advantage here. Her British accent was a bit affected. I'm not sure why MGM just didn't cast a British actress like Deborah Kerr in the part. Of course she also was involved with From Here To Eternity if I remember.

Mogambo because of the location shooting and much bigger budget is better than its predecessor Red Dust. For all the unhappiness on the set, the stars and its director did some good work.

'Mogambo' is not one of the greatest of John Ford's films, but it is still a solid piece of work. Clark Gable is at his manliest, and Grace Kelly is cast perfectly (though her performance is not so perfect). However, Ava Gardner steals the show. Scenes without her seem dead. Scenes with her are charged with sexy movement and funny double-talk. Of course, Ford himself makes great use of the African landscape, applying his brilliant American West photography to the jungles and rivers of Africa. A good piece of entertainment and recommended for John Ford fans.

This fifties remake of ‘Red Dust' casts Clark Gable again as the man trapped by the attention of two very different women. Instead of Mary Astor we have Grace Kelly as the repressed rich girl, while Jean Harlow's earthy character is portrayed by sensual Ava Gardner, a predatory animal in the hot jungle. The fourth player in the quartet (playing Kelly's husband) is Donald Sinden.

Aside from re-setting the action, changing the name of Gable's character, and giving the movie a Technicolor treatment, Mogambo doesn't update the 30s classic that much. Gable is still portrayed as irresistible to women as he was when twenty years younger, and the plot still simmers in the way it did before.

Naturally all the stars went on to other interesting things after this – Gable left MGM to spend his last few years as a lucrative freelance; Kelly had a couple more major roles before marrying into Monaco royalty; and Gardner moved into more mature sexpot roles (such as her similar role opposite Richard Burton in ‘The Night of the Iguana' a decade later). Sinden remains best known for his television work but on film he was more than adequate with the more showy co-stars in Mogambo.

This movie is not bad at all if you have a couple of hours to spend wondering how the various twists and turns will unfold.