1953 vs 1932

I liked Mogambo, finding it colorful and vibrant. Gable was Gable and Ava Gardner was wonderful. However, I find the the Grace Kelly-Clark Gable relationship unbelievable after watching "Red Dust." Gardner, as Honey Bear, is a playgirl, but she's still rather "proper", so the contrast between she and Grace Kelly's Linda Nordley is rather faint. When you compare Jean Harlow's Vantine to Mary Astor's Barbara--you can not only see their contrast, but you can see why Clark Gable goes after Mary Astor: he's a slum guy who is fascinated by a proper, crisp society woman--and she falls for him too? Vantine is a whore and slum gal like him; he sees in Mary Astor a chance to capture some of the class he wasn't born with. In 1953, both the conflicts born from the sexual roles AND the class roles between Clark, Ava and Grace aren't very strong. '53 Gable isn't convincing in his roughness and earnest desire for something out of his reach (Linda), not like '32 Gable (Barbara). Because there was no concrete reason for Gable's rejection of Honey Bear--since the script excised the free and easy sexual relationship between the former Harlow role and Gable's--the movie was just a pleasant documentary of 1950s Africa.


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