Um Amor de Professora

Gable and Day make an unusual couple, but this is a clever and cute romance. The film deals with illusion and reality and how the two become mixed. Though not often shown, the film is worth watching. It is one of those minor classics that is too often overlooked.

Classy, rapid-fire comedy that combines "His Girl Friday" with any one of the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn battle-of-the-sexes. The set-up of the plot is rather hoary and contrived (gruff city editor of a New York newspaper--who is so anti-education that he hates the smell of chalk--falls for a journalism teacher), yet the writing and the deft handling are so assured, you can nearly forgive the sitcom devices. The actress at the beginning of the film who begs Clark Gable to fire her son is such a wonderful, believable find that she gets the picture off on just the right note; Gable and teacher Doris Day are lovely together, fighting and flirting and completely at ease in their roles. When Gable finally plants one on DD, she turns away in a huff, only to melt with wobbly knees. It's a fantastic moment in this unjustly forgotten, underrated classic. *** from ****

1958's "Teacher's Pet" is delightful, frothy fun, and probably what got the ball rolling a year later for Doris Day to film a batch of highly popular Universal Studios 'battle of the sex' comedies opposite Rock Hudson, among others. Here she's at odds with manly Clark Gable, in a change-of-pace comedy role.

Gable, in the twilight of his career by this time, is still loaded with sly, roguish charm as he plays a brusque, unrefined, self-taught city editor who, at the behest of his superiors, grudgingly signs up for a night class in Journalism 101, taught by the ever-spunky, no-nonsense Ms. Day. Clark doesn't let Doris in on the fact that he has a life time of experience in journalism, so Doris naturally comes off quite impressed by the "raw talent" of her novice pupil, taking a special interest in sharpening his "promising" skills. The fun really starts when the two start butting heads both professionally and romantically, with the devilish Gable stringing our girl along, while pushing her "virginal" buttons. You know how these things end but who cares? The joy is seeing two consummate pros play off each other.

Gable and Day are surrounded by a highly capable cast, especially (Oscar-nominated) Gig Young, a gifted comedy farceur, breezing through his patented "other man" role with effortless charm and skill. Here he plays Doris' handsome, long-standing beau who appears to be everything the roughhewn Gable isn't...glib, educated, charismatic, polished, impeccably-mannered, highly intellectual, a fabulous dancer, and an expert on practically every subject. Sounds like quite a catch to me! However, he's NOT the lead, so...

Sexpot Mamie Van Doren has a small, knockout role as Clark's platinum-blonde squeeze, a club singer who gets to bump and grind the hell out of a great solo number, "I'm the Girl Who Invented Rock and Roll." Trying to pass the bombshell off as an intellectual herself to impress Doris, the song pretty much says it all about Mamie, much to Clark's chagrin and Doris' delight. Day gets added laughs later when she gets to mimic the song as a sheepish Clark looks on. Others hitching a ride on this merry-go-romp are Nick Adams playing, as always, an earnest rookie, and Marion Ross and Jack Albertson in minor, pre-TV stardom supports.

The pace is brisk, the actors fetching, the comedy fresh and the fun contagious. Clark and Doris, despite their vast age difference, make such a good team you'd swear they had worked together before. Nope, this was their only pairing. So enjoy!

"Teacher's Pet" is a deliciously funny look at journalism, and the clash between 'formal' education vs. practical experience, with higher learning championed by Doris Day, and the 'School of Hard Knocks' represented by the 'King', himself, Clark Gable. Despite an obvious age difference (Gable, at 57, was showing all of his years), the chemistry between the stars is electric, and with Oscar-nominated Gig Young providing terrific comic support as Gable's brilliant yet down-to-earth competition for Day, the film manages to be both witty and wise.

With over a quarter century of playing newspapermen, the role of hard-boiled City Editor Jim Gannon fit Clark Gable like an old shoe. No-nonsense, pragmatic, and a workaholic, Gannon was the classic 'school drop-out' who learned the newspaper business from the ground up, and held college in contempt. While Gannon was obviously a dinosaur, even by 1950s' standards, Gable appears to be having a ball as the cigarette-smoking, plain-spoken, 'blue-collar' hero.

Despite the constant "Will she or Won't she?" sexual undercurrent of so many of her best comedies of the fifties and early sixties, Doris Day was also a feminist during the era, with her characters self-sufficient, and often holding down important positions based on merit. As Erica Stone, an ex-reporter who returns to college to teach journalism, her demeanor is professional and her knowledge unimpeachable, making her the perfect foil for Gannon.

While the descriptions of Gannon and Stone sound like formula characters for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (not surprisingly, as the script was penned by longtime friends Fay and Michael Kanin), the Gable/Day teaming provides a sexual tension that, by the late 1950s, would have been far less apparent had Tracy and Hepburn taken the roles. Even at the twilight of his career, Gable was so totally 'male' that he raised the bar of any actress opposite him, with Day's signature 'perkiness' transformed, here, into sexual potential in a tight skirt (watch her tease Gable, swaying her hips to "The Girl Who Invented Rock and Roll"; Day has never been sexier!)

While the resolution is not surprising, some remarkably candid observations of what makes good print journalism are given by both Day and Gable, with Day's comment of television replacing newspapers as the public's source for breaking news remarkably farsighted in 1958!

If you want a terrific comedy with two stars at the top of their game, look no further; "Teacher's Pet" delivers!

This sole teaming between jolly blonde Doris Day and charismatic Clark Gable works so well you wish that there had been more opportunities for them to appear on film together. Still, we have to content ourselves with this tale – where newspaper hack Gable goes to night class to learn journalism from Day, the daughter of a leading entrepreneur in the field of ‘real news'.

About five minutes in you know where this story is leading, but it sure is fun seeing it get there. Of great value in the cast is smarmy Gig Young as the perfect writer and the perfect intellectual (and the perfect foil to get on Gable's nerves). You'll also spot Mamie Van Doren, that low-rent version of Marilyn Monroe, as Gable's showgirl cutie in a few scenes.

‘Teacher's Pet' is one of the unsung successes of Doris Day's run of romantic comedies. Go on, treat yourself to an exceptional example of the genre.