Evening star., 1950-11-10
TO Please q Lady Gives
Gable q Partly Fast Pace
By Harry Macarthur

Clark Gable hardly can feel
any great demands were made of
his acting ability in ITO Please a
Lady" the new film at the Cap
itol. 1t is probable even that he
feels generally satisfied with all
of this, since there is a lot of auto
racing, which he likes. OF course,
Mr.. Gable once permitted himself
to be seen in a picture called
"Parnell," which surprised him by
turning out to be one of the 10
great clinkers of all time.
Ito Please a Lady" is not in
that company. to be sure. 1t is
just infantile. Gable is cast as q
man named Mike Brannan. ex-
war hero now turned to racing
midgets and hoping to graduate
to big jobs and the indianapolis
Memorial Day classic. Barbara
Stanwyck plays a tsensationally
famous sensational columnist
named Regina Forbes.
Nothing could surprise you less
than what happens to them in
this picture. The inevitability In
Greek drama is nothing alongside
the inevitability in a Gable pic
ture. They meet in Newark and
the encounter is something to
shake seismographs as far west as
Berkeley. Calf. Then they alter
nate between fighting and whis-
pering sweet nothings until 1t is
obvious that they are wasting a
lot of time fighting and, in fact.
long have been wasting a lot Of
time.
One brief excerpt should give
you fair idea of the sort of
thing that occupies Miss STAN
wyck and Mr.. Gable in ITO Please
a Lady" They are seated in a
Hollywood-style plush New York
saloon. The place is equipped
with at least two violinists for
every customer and these flddlers
stand around jammed in the aisles
making enough noise for SYM
phony orchestra. The romantic
setting is too much for Gable and
he leans over and kisses Miss
Stanwyck lightly on the lips. She
gives him the long look.
what was that for?" she asked.
II just wanted to do it." he re-
plies. She gives him anotherlong
look. After a pause she speaks.
You're quite a guy. aren't you"
she says. This leads up eventu-
ally to Mr.. Cables declaration of
his feeling about this torrent Of
emotion that is sweeping them
along. you're not like just any
dame" he, says.
ITO Please Lady" is not helped
any by the fact that 1t. like many
another Hollywood film. is based
on a premise which bears no rela-
ton to reality and would seem out
landish to seven-year-old. This
Regina Forbes, seeking q sensa-
ton for her column, discovers
that Mike Brannan has been in
volved in racing accident fatal
to the other party and is the
current villain among the midget
racers for his hard driving. She
goes to see him and witnesses
another fatal accident.
Now you are asked to believe
that she writes a column about
this which Is SO stirring an attack
that Brannan is driven out of
midget racing.
You have to believe. too, that
Brannan Is too thickskulled. to
yell for the nearest lawyer when
this attack appears in print. The
sample OF the Forbes column read
on the sound track includes the
direct statement that Brannan
killed two men. Is everybody in
the movie business so far beyond
libel that no one recognizes it out
there in Hollywood? Miss Forbes
lawyers. fellows. would have ad-
vised her to settle that one out
of court for anything Mr.. Bran
nan asked. If any editor had
been foolish enough to print the
piece in the first place. that is.
Clarence Brown, who produced
and directed, does manage to get
back closer to life in his race
track sequences. With cameras
mounted on racing cars he has
come up with some of the most
exciting stuff seen in a long time
in this line. He also finds a nice
ADJUSTMENTS