La vie à belles dents

Charmer finds Gable at near the end of his career still fully in command of his star power as a somewhat roguish producer who is juggling both personal and professional issues.

Lilli Palmer is an excellent match for him, her continental charm playing off his brusk exasperation with surprising ease. She's so good it's a shame her role is rather small but she makes every moment she's on screen memorable and you miss her when she's out of the picture.

Lee J. Cobb likewise makes his modest role seem more than it is by filling it with his magnetic presence.

Carroll is sexy in a refined way, this was before she cast her lot in the sex symbol derby with junk like Harlow and The Carpetbaggers and wrecked her reputation as a serious actress for several years until she came back as a respected character actress.

The kind of breezy star vehicle that is rarely if ever made today, spotlighting the star but loaded with talent in almost every role. Competently directed and as an added bonus Ella Fitzgerald sings the title tune over the credits. For Gable fans this is a must!

At the tail end of his film career Clark Gable made a series of movies where his co-stars were not in his age group. Up to 1956 his co-stars might have been younger than him (Lana Turner comes to mind) but more frequently they were still in their late 30s to early 50s like Ava Gardner, Barbara Stanwyck, or Eleanor Parker. Then, at the tail end of the 1950s Gable made four movies where his co-stars were not within fifteen years of his age. These were TEACHER'S PET (with Doris Day), BUT NOT FOR ME (with Carol Baker), IT STARTED IN NAPLES (with Sophia Loren), and THE MISFITS (with Marilyn Monroe). In at least three of these films the co-star was as big a star as Gable. The exception is Baker, a promising actress in the period but one that never hit the same height of stardom as the others (her best recalled film role was HARLOW - ironically she played a great movie star who had fequently appeared opposite the young Gable). But if Baker lacked the magnetism of Day, Loren, or Monroe, her support to Gable is shared by an actress in his own age group again - Lily Palmer. And Palmer does her job very nicely.

In BUT NOT FOR ME Gable's character - a Broadway Producer - revives his career and that of a once prize-winning playwrite (Lee J. Cobb) when he discovers his secretary (Baker) is in love with him, and is trying to keep his latest production (Cobb's recent play) from being discarded as a failure. Baker revitalizes Gable, and makes him think of remarrying. He was once married to his leading stage lady (Palmer) who divorced him because of differences over lifestyle and life choices. Palmer, who oozes grace and charm, wanted a husband who was interested in home life with her. Gable was too into his production and impressario career, as well as enjoying living life to the most publicly fullest. However, as she watches Gable, Baker, and Cobb rework the play and make it work, Palmer slowly sees Gable bending over to make himself seem younger than he is. In fact a running joke in the film is Gable's confusion of his birth date and age, seemingly making it about ten or five years earlier than it is.

But Palmer keeps bringing Gable and Baker back to earth about their age differences. When Gable takes Baker into Central Park for a romantic moment alone on a bench, Palmer shows up, and gleefully remembers how he took her there too...years before. Gable does not appreciate this ("Are you sure it's safe to be alone here at this late hour?", he asks Palmer. "You might get stabbed!"). Eventually Gable sees the light...he and Palmer end up together again at the end, her helping him with his various pills in the closing moments of the film.

The operative word in the film is charm. Not only Palmer in needling Gable back to his senses, but also (surprisingly) Cobb, as he reforms from his hard drinking failure to his sober success. Even Thomas Gomez is funny in this film, playing a character based on Greek movie theatre tycoon Spyros Skouras. Cobb dislikes money men (Gomez is a potential play backer), and tells Gomez so, saying "Who financed Shaw?" "Who financed Shakespeare?" "Who financed Sophocles?" An angry and fed-up Gomez shouts, "I did!" Taken aback, Cobb asks, "You?". "Sure", says Gomez, "And the production flopped. Why do you suppose I left Greece to come here?"

A friendly little film to watch, and possibly a wise one.

One of those bubbly late-'50s romantic comedies that thinks it's cleverer than it is and seems terribly pleased with itself. The actors grit their teeth and play the familiar froth as if it were Moliere, and you admire them for trying. Gable is Gable, unforced and likeable but not a natural comedian, and Palmer gives her bitchy character a warmth not found in the dialogue. The movie's main asset is the handsome black-and-white photography of midtown Manhattan (I'd like to have seen more marquees), and the nostalgic ambience of that long-ago era when theater was actually a topic of discourse among the general population.

In one of his last films, Clark Gable portrays an entertainment executive who decides to regain lost youth by having a love affair with his young secretary (Carroll Baker). The film has its flaws and it's certainly no "Gone With The Wind" but Gable still manages to give an excellent performance here.

Odd to find Clark Gable, in one of his final films, trying his damnedest to perk up such an outright piece of fluff. As a 50-ish theatrical producer fighting off the unwanted affections of his smitten juvenile secretary--and later using his predicament as the basis for a new play--Gable initially seems unsure of himself, though he does locate the dumb spirit of the piece and warms up midway through. As the lovestruck working girl, newcomer Carroll Baker is sweet but also stiff (and her hairstyle and clothes don't seem to match her age--she doesn't look like what other young ladies of this period resemble). Remake of 1935's "Accent on Youth" is hackneyed and coy, but the cast (including Lee J. Cobb and Lilli Palmer as Gable's ex-wife) manages to sell it despite shortcomings in the material and the handling. Gable and Palmer were both nominated for Golden Globes, and the picture was nominated for Best Comedy. **1/2 from ****