Le Chou-chou du professeur

I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this movie. I wasn't sure I would like Gable & Day together - that their age difference would be too awkward (she looked even younger than her 34 years and he was 58). But their chemistry worked. I like Doris much better when she isn't singing all the time - you get to really appreciate her acting skills!

I especially liked the smart dialogue in places. The ongoing debate of experience vs. education. I thought the analogy of the conductor was beautiful (see quotes page). Also, the comparison that "Experience is the jockey - Education is the horse." The screenwriters certainly deserved their Oscar nod for this gem!

I also was pleasantly surprised to see a young Marion Ross (Mrs. Cunningham on "Happy Days") in the role as Ms. Day's assistant.

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.

I first saw Teacher's Pet when I was six years old. I'm a mere 19 now, and I still love this movie. Clark Gable was, is, and always will be the epitome of the word "star" Even though this film was almost 20 years after Gone With The Wind, Gable is still handsome and charismatic as the jagged, disagreeable, stubborn reporter. Gig Young and Mamie Van Doren help Gable to push this movie into the classics hall of fame. A definite must see for all viewers.**** out of ****

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 ****

"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!