Um Amor de Professora

"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!

Between 1958 and 1961 Clark Gable appeared in four final movies that were somewhat unusual. Three of them were sex comedies, and the co-stars in them were far younger than he was. The fourth was a straight drama, which also had a female co-star who was far younger than him. These were BUT NOT FOR ME, TEACHER'S PET, IT STARTED IN NAPLES, and THE MISFITS. His co-stars were Carol Baker (and Lili Palmer), Doris Day, Sophia Loren, and Marilyn Monroe. The age difference was quite unusual (up to this time Gable's leading ladies were about ten to fifteen years within his age - in fact, Lili Palmer's appearance in BUT NOT FOR ME was to give his character a perfect mate to end up with. Most film lovers tend to only recall the last of this quartet because of it being Gable and Monroe's last movie (although Monroe did begin SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE soon after, but didn't complete it). THE MISFITS also has the added downer of being the only film either of them did with Montgomery Clift. But most of all, Gable's death so soon after the shooting of THE MISFITS ended is linked to his difficult scene where he helped to control a wild horse (the effect on the actor, immediately after the scene was shot, is evidence of his over-exertions). With so much of a downer atmosphere generated by this film his three previous comedies sort of pale in comparison.

This is unfair because they were good comedies. I have discussed BUT NOT FOR ME elsewhere. TEACHER'S PET is possibly the most satiric of the three films (although certain points about the entertainment industry and play production get spoofed in BUT NOT FOR ME, and Italian-American culture shock gets a zing in IT STARTED IN NAPLES).

TEACHER'S PET is set in New York City, where Gable (James Gannon) is the city editor of a major newspaper. Some of the comments on this thread suggest Gannon is a hack. He's not, but just a very smart newsman who has spent a lifetime learning how a newspaper functions. At the start of the film, he is involved with Vivian Nathan (Mrs. Kovacs, the newspaper building's cleaning lady) and Nick Adams (her son, Barney), in trying to settle the issue of whether or not Barney should be given a chance to be a reporter on the paper. Mrs. Nathan does not want him to leave school, but Barney is anxious to begin. It is from this that Gannon discovers that modern news reporters don't learn the business from the bottom up, but go to journalism classes. He is recommended to go to see the classes of Doris Day (Erica Stone), because she has been making some critical comments about how Gannon runs his paper.

Pretending to be a person who just wants to better himself, Gannon signs in on Stone's classes, and rapidly rises to the top of her students. She thinks she has found a truly brilliant amateur. He is enjoying her being totally fooled, as he originally intends to reveal his real identity to her class at the right time. But he gradually falls in love with Stone (and she finds herself, typically, fighting this). His only rival is a psychiatrist friend of Stone, Gig Young (Dr. Hugo Pine), whom he finds almost indestructible to larger and larger amounts of alcohol when the three are out at a night spot.

The situation can't last too long, for Erica discovers his identity. At the same time, Gannon discovers Erica's secret: Her love of journalism is due to her family, as her father was a famous newspaper editor named Joel Barlow Stone. Gannon finds Erica considers him stupid, and it is only when he talks to Pine about it that he realizes that his accumulated knowledge of the newspaper world is as impressive as the knowledge that Erica brings to her students from her books. But he still is in the doghouse with Erica - possibly more so when he studies old copies of her father's Midwestern newspaper, and questions how good a newspaper editor he really was!

How they resolve the film I leave to the viewers (whom I urge watch it). I just to want to discuss one point: who is the original for Joel Barlow Stone? Firstly, the name "Joel Barlow" is one of those forgotten figures of early American Literatrue. Joel Barlow was one of the "Hartford Wits" of the period from 1780 - 1800. They wrote satiric verses and pieces, most of which nobody ever reads anymore. This happens to be part of the irony about her father that Erica is taught (surprisingly) by Gannon. This editor father is obviously based on William Allan White, the famous Midwestern editor of the EMPORIA GAZETTE (from Kansas), who flourished as a major figure in literary and political America from 1890 to 1947 (when he died). White (like Joel Barlow Stone) is best remembered for his editorials, several of which won national awards. He was also an author of several memoirs and historical works (such as his popular biography of President Calvin Coolidge, A PURITAN IN BABYLON). But the resemblance is only skin deep. White was an astute newspaperman, and his newspaper was deeply involved with current events and political trends in the U.S. Gannon discovers that as an editor White's fictional opposite number Joel Barlow Stone left a lot to be desired.

Has anyone ever looked more beautiful than Doris Day does in this film? I doubt it. Also notable as one of the last of Clark Gable's films and certainly one of his best. He has ample opportunity to display his genius for comic timing, often unjustly neglected.

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!

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.