Caïn et Mabel

I have to respectfully disagree with the reviewer regarding his take that Marion Davies showed no discernible talent for comedy! Doing comedy was the prime talent that she excelled in. Even if this movie was not particularly memorable, Davies does quite well, particularly in the number with Sammy White--if anything, she's at her whimsical best. Marion Davies has always been underrated in her films, often by those who have not seen enough of her performances. Among those usually seen on TCM are Going' HOLLYWOOD(1933) and PEG O'MY HEART (1932), both pretty decent showcases for her. Her best features are more elusive, those produced during the silent era. Of these, one of the more available is SHOW PEOPLE (1928), one of her most highly regarded films. Her natural flair for comedy is in full force, and should put to rest any doubts about her so-called lack of comedic skills.

Louis B. Mayer got some good currency lending his number one star Clark Gable out to Columbia for It Happened One Night, to 20th Century Fox for Call of the Wild and now to Warner Brothers for Cain and Mabel. Sad to say though this one doesn't measure up to the other two.

It's a musical and musicals back in the day had some truly ridiculous plots, but this one kind of defied belief. Davies is a waitress who becomes a Broadway musical star, but after a while she yearns for the simple life. Gable as he describes himself is just a gas jockey with a good punch who becomes heavyweight champion.

They get thrown together for publicity's sake due to press agent Roscoe Karns. But of course they get serious for real as it always goes in these films.

For myself I could not swallow that these two people just want to get back to their former nonentity existences. I think that would have been a bit much for Thirties theater audiences as well.

Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote two songs for the film, I'll Sing You a Thousand Love Songs and Coney Island, both of which get a semi Busby Berkeley treatment by dance director Bobby Connolly. My guess is that Berkeley probably passed on Cain and Mabel himself.

Look for good performances from Walter Catlett as the Broadway producer and the aforementioned Roscoe Karns. Robert Paige is in this also under the name David Carlyle and he takes care of the vocal department as Davies leading man and a pretty sappy one at that. Then again he's supposed to not get her.

Davies was very good as a light comedienne, but this material is too much for her.

In what would be her second to last film, Marion Davies stars as a waitress who lands a job as a lead dancer in an expensive Broadway show. The only problem is she is not an established star and cannot draw many people to see the show. Her managers concoct a plan to keep her name in the papers by linking her romantically with a famous prize fighter, thereby creating publicity for the show, but unfortunately they can't stand each other. However, when the fighter (Clark Gable) learns she is really down to earth, and was once a waitress, his opinion of her changes and they decide to be married (quite abruptly). The publicity people keep getting in the way and end up turning them against each other for the sake of publicity, until in the end both decide to throw their big careers in the bucket and get married.

The plot is sort of silly, but not entirely phony. I sort of like the idea of presenting two famous, successful people who both willingly give up their careers for love (and not just the woman giving up her career). It was a novel approach. It a rare example of equality between the sexes for its time.

The publicity angle is also good. Here we have two people torn apart and brought back together by media lies. It happened then, and is still relevant today, when "don't believe everything you read" is as true as ever.

Ultimately, the movie is not completely successful, although it satisfies to an extent. The casting of Marion Davies, who was by all means a huge star of the day, in a leading role of this nature seems all wrong. Her strong points are her charm and comedic abilities, neither of which is shown much to her advantage in CAIN AND MABEL. She is pretty and likable throughout, but she is never an authentic film presence, nor does she display any genuine or deep emotion. It is all surface, but the surface is where she excels, and she would have shone in any number of supporting roles as a character actress, or in a stronger comedy as a lead. Here, she is not given much to do besides pose, whimper, and smile, which she does charmingly but not convincingly. She might have fared better if given more to do.

Her role, and the film in general, was reminiscent of DANCING LADY, another story of a showgirl who makes it big and has man trouble. Where that film was perhaps more formulaic in its conclusion, it was also twice as convincing, perhaps because the lead was played by the dynamic Joan Crawford. This is not to say Davies is a lesser actress than Crawford, but each had their strengths, and this type of role was more suited to the emotionally available Crawford.

The whole film feels somewhat dated, as if it was filmed in 1932, not 1936. The story you have seen before, and in superior films. Both the lead actors have given better performances. Gable's performance was adequate and likable, but it felt like one of his earlier performances, and not a performance drawing from his experience. It's hard to believe, while watching the film that it is a product of so much talent, or of movie stars at the height of their careers. With so much going into it, not limited to an expensive budget rivaling any number of Shearer or Garbo films, but also fantastic musical numbers, how could the result be so utterly underwhelming?

The film should have been a comeback for Davies. It should have been a very modern vehicle to showcase Gable at the top of his game, and reintroduce Davies as a formidable rival to the other screen queens of the era. Instead, we end up wondering what Clark Gable is doing in a Marion Davies movie, and by then Davies' image was dated and she would have benefited more by starring in a Clark Gable film.

CAIN AND MABEL could have been an important, ground-breaking film starring two great stars. Instead it is an empty vanity project, in which Gable is used for window dressing, Davies is not allowed to exercise any of her talents, and the plot was a formulaic re-hash of something from five years earlier (done better the first time).

It is a curiosity piece, though, and a must for fans of the stars, or for people who enjoy pleasant entertainment which demands little from the viewer.

Clark Gable and Marion Davies star in this romantic comedy that is like a time capsule from the thirties, filled with scads of depression era words and phrases.

Davies plays hoofer Mabel O'Dare, who gets her big break due to a misunderstanding. Gable plays boxer Larry Cain, who makes it to the heavyweight title. Because their careers are bringing in only so-so box office, PR guy Reilly (Roscoe Karns) cooks up a scheme to gain them more press: pretend they are an item. You can probably predict the rest of the plot, though you might not anticipate that the unlikely pair will bond over a pork chop.

This film is filled with one-liners. It also features some impressive stage productions that might have you looking for Busby Berkeley's name in the credits (it's not there). As for the singing and dancing, they hold up, especially when compared with the standards of the day.

Davies might not be Loy or Rogers or Harlow, but she does a creditable job, so the sponsorship of W. R. Hearst might not have been necessary for her to pull down this part.

Overall, this is an enjoyable film.

This isn't a great movie. It's a passable comedy, with some clever dialogue.

The real interest is Marion Davies. She is remembered, inaccurately, as the inspiration and model for Susan Alexander in *Citizen Kane*, which was evidently not altogether the case. (Yes, Kane was certainly based on William Randolph Hurst, Davies' financial backer and lover, but Susan A. was evidently based on several women in her situation in the 1930s, including at least one actual would-be opera singer.) As a result, it is assumed that she had no talent.

As this movie shows, that wasn't the case. No, she was not a Judy Garland, or a Jean Harlow, or a Ginger Rogers, or a Jeannette MacDonald. But she sang and danced quite decently, and she did a good job with light comedy. (She was evidently in over her head when Hurst put her in historical dramas.) Gable is definitely the best thing in this picture, and does a great job creating the all-man prizefighter, but Davies holds her own.

As do several of the supporting comedians, especially Walter Catlett and Roscoe Karns.

As I said, not a great movie, but a pleasant comedy, and one that makes a case for Davies.

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I watched this again tonight. One thing that struck me about it this time was that, in the very large musical number in the second half of the movie, which just goes on and on and on - it's supposed to be part of the musical Mabel O'Dare is appearing in - Davies is given almost nothing to do. She just stands on top of the elaborate stage set in an elaborate costume and smiles. I kept thinking: if this were a musical with any other musical star, they would have had her doing a lot more dancing, and probably some singing.