Teacher's Pet

In this lively 1958 comedy, an aging Clark Gable plays a gruff, old-school newspaperman who disdains college-educated reporters and therefore has some preconceived notions about a journalism professor (Doris Day) whose class he visits. Screenwriters Fay and Michael Kanin use this simple framework to build an elaborate comedic edifice, dressed up nicely by director George Seaton, which also features Gig Young (a hoot) as Day's dryly intellectual boyfriend, and Mamie Van Doren (who stops the show with a striptease designed to get the middle-aged newshound hot under the collar). Gable is thoroughly delightful; he's not trying to be the dashing leading man of earlier years, and it's a shame his potential as a comic actor was rarely tapped in later years (he died in 1960). Presented with a handsome-looking widescreen transfer, but no extras, this is recommended. (E. Hulse)