Saturday, December 04, 2010

The Ringside Kid

China Seas (1935)
directed by Tay Garnett
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

That scrawny MGM lion let me down with San Francisco, but everyone is exactly who they are in China Seas. Clark Gable's Alan Gaskell flees the "cool, clear, and clean" rivers of England to escape ruining a marriage and winds up the captain of a leaky transport between Hong Kong and Singapore. While running his 34 years of British longing into the ground in Asia, Gaskell falls in with (and, of course, falls for) Jean Harlow's uncouth nightclub wallflower "China Doll."

The twist, when Rosalind Russell shows up wearing her ladyship like a small hat, is that Clark loved Rosie first. In a lot of movies (San Francisco included), that would be an excuse for Ms. Harlow to sacrifice herself in some brave effort to save the boat from Malaysian pirates, and thus clear the way for the man she loves to get to be the person he really wanted to be. But hearts stay true, people still get hurt, and no one really changes. Not too much, anyway, and the Far East could just as easily be the Old West: same exotic atmosphere, same wonderful women to love.

It's screwball meets high seas adventure, and don't tell me Brian De Palma never saw that small Chinese steward brandishing an oversized Thompson machine gun from the deck of an ocean liner. Next stop, Miami!

"Ain't it funny? We always fight when it's moonlight and make up when it's raining."