Tudo Pode Acontecer

"After Office Hours", directed by Robert Z. Leonard was shown as part of a Constance Bennett retrospective the other day on TCM. This 1935 film was written for the screen by Herman Mankiewicz.

The wonderful world of New York's high society and the sensational news by the tabloids of the thirties are combined in this movie to give us a fast paced comedy in which most of the comments submitted to this forum express a surprise in the turn it takes when the happy situation at the start of the film and the illicit romance being investigated by a newspaper changes into a different, and unexpected climax.

The gorgeous Constance Bennett and the handsome Clark Gable are a delight to watch in the movie. Both these actors had great chemistry, and frankly, it's a shame they weren't seen together more often. Ms. Bennett was at, perhaps, one of the best times in her career and as the society girl turned newspaper music critic, she makes quite an impression. Also, the newspaper editor portrayed by Mr. Gable is one of his best characterizations in the movies.

Also in the cast some famous faces, the luminous Billie Burke, who plays Ms. Bennett's mother is a welcome presence in any film. Stuwart Erwin, Harvey Stephens, Henry Travers, William Demarest and Margaret Dumond are seen in supporting roles.

This is an excellent movie because of the fine contributions of Constance Bennett and Clark Gable.

Clark Gable is fun as a (maybe not so) tough-guy reporter. Stuart Erwin is wasted -- fine but he deserved more -- as his subordinate. Billie Burke is as always fun. But Constance Bennett strolls away with this.

Probably 99.9% of all living beings today have never heard of Ms. Bennett. Granted, about 90% have probably never heard of Clark Gable, either, But there is something odd about Bennett's fall from grace.

She was a huge star and her performances hold up beautifully. Yet, she seems to be viewed as a blip on the radar screen of American movie history, which she really was not.

I wonder, as an example, why "Topper" is almost never shown. I saw it once and thought it a very chic and appealing screwball comedy. Heaven knows, it spawned sequels (sot of sequels) and a TV series based on it was quite popular. Are there some sort of copyright problems? This movie, in any case, has a nice, twisting plot. It's amusing, it's stylish, it has a bit of suspense. It isn't great by any means, though it surely would have been more fun before the Code -- only a year or two before it was released.

(The title is racy but seems to have little bearing on the movie itself, just as an aside.)

Big city newspaper man and light-hearted heiress should mean a screwball comedy, but this one takes a surprising turn into a murder mystery..Some snappy dialogue by Herman Mankiewicz (Dinner at Eight) and elegant production with amazing gowns by Adrian and sets by Cedric Gibbons give this picture an air of class. Clark Gable is Clark Gable in his "It Happened One Night" mode. Constance Bennett has wonderful chemistry with Gable and shows the same light comedy flair from "Topper." I kept thinking this should be better known because it's a very stylish hybrid - society murder mystery and madcap comedy.

TCM never fails to surprise me. As the centerpiece on TV today for classic MGM films from that studio's golden era, I can say that I never heard of or saw this film before it was shown and I caught it tonight, on the station.

I think Gable and Bennett are great, even better together, as are Burke et al. What surprises me is that it doesn't quite feel or seem like it's up to the quality and visual level of a typical Metro film of the era. Actually, it plays like a film coming from the studio that did It Happened One Night to which Gable had been loaned out by MGM's Louis B. Mayer the year before, ironically.

The movie's OK, not the best.. But I can watch Clark and Constance in anything, because they gave their everything to each of their films.

A year earlier Clark Gable as a "punishment" for a recalcitrant star was farmed out to Columbia Pictures by Louis B. Mayer to make a real dog of a film about a bus trip entitled It Happened One Night.

That film essentially created the modern screen comedy as we know it and made a grand slam of the major Oscar categories including one for Clark Gable as Best Actor. Gable played a newspaper reporter in that one, on the trail of runaway heiress Claudette Colbert.

One thing about Louis B. Mayer, if he saw a trend he'd capitalize on it. If his number one star got an Oscar as a reporter, we'll make him an editor. And we'll bring the society girl into the newsroom where she's also working as a reporter. Common job interests should provide a basis for romance.

And that boys and girls is how After Office Hours came into being. But despite the naughty title, the main thing that Clark Gable and Constance Bennett are working on after work is an argument over a society murder.

Gable has a notion that the man arrested for murdering a society grand dame who was doing a little stepping out is not the guilty party. He needs Bennett to help him gain entree to the Cholly Knickerbocker set to prove it.

Bennett and Gable settle comfortably into their roles and Stu Erwin has a nice turn as Gable's sidekick.

As for Louis B. Mayer and MGM, After Office Hours did OK, but Gable made them some big money that year in Mutiny on the Bounty.

But I'll bet Mayer was mighty careful over what he assigned as punishments.