Chronique mondaine

Moviecut—After Office Hours

source: After Office Hours

After Office Hours

Newspaper editor Clark Gable fires society editor Constance Bennett, then pursues her for romantic interests and her entry into society to investigate and solve a murder. It's clearly an attempt to cash in on Gable's turn in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT; Miss Bennett had been slated to play what became Claudette Colbert's role. The script alas, isn't what it might have been; MGM's rather diffuse production methods lacked the focus that Capra could bring to a movie at Columbia. Director Robert Z. Leonard compensates by giving Gable his head and offers a couple of small roles played to perfection by Billie Burke and Henry Armetta. The result is fun, if no classic.

Socialite Sharon Norwood (Constance Bennett) decides to be a newspaper reporter for a few months. Her editor Jim Branch (Clark Gable) fires her for a music review. He falls for her. Her high society friend gets killed. He needs her to get inside the home. He continues to investigate even after getting fired. I got real antsy with Jim trampling around the crime scene. I guess it's another time. It's a fine romance mystery movie. There is plenty of heat being pumped into these two, but I'm not shipping them. I want Clark Gable with someone less superior. Constance Bennett was a big star back in the day. I do get the casting. I wonder if it would work better without the boyfriend. They aren't together on screen enough anyways.

I was surprised when what I thought was a lighthearted comedy turned into a murder mystery. This seemed to be the film's biggest flaw -- neck-wrenching changes in the action and feel of the show. Is it a romantic comedy, a dark mystery, a brooding social commentary on the upper-crust of society, or what? It didn't know, and neither does the viewer. One thing I did enjoy was finding "other" stars in the movie -- Billie Burke (The Good Witch from "Wizard of Oz") as Mrs. Norwood and William Demarest (Uncle Charlie from 60's/70's TV Show "My Three Sons") as a police detective. I think the film could have used a bit of editing for flow, otherwise it was a nice diversion. Just slightly above average, but I'm glad I saw it.

THIS MOVIE HAS ALL COMPONENTS OF Movie-making ROLLED UP IN ONE. IF YOU HEARD THIS ON RADIO you would have Enjoyed it immensely. The addition of the CAMERA displaying GLORIOUS STARS even before they were household names IS ICING ON THE CAKE. The real Stars of the movie are the writers dialog, very aptly performed especially by GABLE & BENNETT. BILLIE BURKE,STU ERWIN, WILLIAM DEMAREST early years shows why the became longtime favorite characters.. YES OF COURSE MARGARET DUMONT. When I saw her I kept looking for GROUCHO. The MOVIE PLOT is second, third, fourth(-dery) SOCIETY SHOWING EVERYONE IN FORMAL CLOTHES before modern fashion designers ruined it by COOKIE CUTTER (ESPECIALLY MENS WING COLLAR TUX SHIRTS), Extremely Enjoyable. I RATE THIS MOVIE OVER ALL SCALE OF 1 TO 10 A 25.

Clark Gable as a tough talking editor/reporter of a newspaper wants to get the goods on a guy who swindled many victims. Sounds like the Bernie Madoff saga of the 1930s. He feels that he can do this if he plays up the fact that the guy has been carrying on with another woman. Trouble is that the woman, who is married, soon turns up dead and while he knows who the culprit is in her murder, it's going to be hard to prove as others saw the drunken husband slap her. Constance Bennett is the society matron who writes a music column for the paper and who knows the guy Gable suspects of her murder quite well. As always, Billie Burke is the flippant, exasperated person, this time as Bennett's mother. My main flaw with this good film, it ended too fast. Things got resolved very quickly and would have been more enjoyable gone on longer.

TCM never fails to surprise me. As the centerpiece on TV today for classic MGM films from that studio's golden era, I can say that I never heard of or saw this film before it was shown and I caught it tonight, on the station. I think Gable and Bennett are great, even better together, as are Burke et al. What surprises me is that it doesn't quite feel or seem like it's up to the quality and visual level of a typical Metro film of the era. Actually, it plays like a film coming from the studio that did It Happened One Night to which Gable had been loaned out by MGM's Louis B. Mayer the year before, ironically. The movie's OK, not the best.. But I can watch Clark and Constance in anything, because they gave their everything to each of their films.

Take a story of no significance, load it with events of dubious credibility...and what do you have? If you also manage to include roles that are ideal for Clark Gable, Constance Bennett and Billie Burke, and if you find these players at the top of their form, and bring this mix alive with a crackling script by Herman Mankiewicz, the significance and credibility of it all are distinctly secondary. The characters talk fast, think fast, and move fast. This type of picture was done often in the 30s: part screwball, part melodrama, part love story (with sharp edges). When it worked - as it surely does here - you would be royally entertained. Enjoy.