Clark Gable Collection

Hollywood's undisputed King made his very best movies for home studio MGM, but his occasional forays over to other lots resulted in some fine films, three of which are included in this boxed set. Call of the Wild (1935), a lavish but not-very-faithful adaptation of Jack London's bestselling novel about life and love in the rugged Yukon, paired Gable with the radiantly beautiful Loretta Young (with whom he reportedly had a torrid affair, which produced a daughter whom Young later claimed she'd adopted). With screen comic Jack Oakie providing admirable support in a sidekick role and Reginald Owen making a despicable villain, the William Wellman-directed Call of the Wild delighted Depression-era moviegoers and enhanced Gable's already well-established stardom. The Tall Men (1955), a large-scale Western directed by Raoul Walsh, made a fine latter-day starring vehicle for Gable, who played an ex-Confederate soldier hired by rancher Robert Ryan to drive cattle through Indian country. Gable was equally impressive in Edward Dmytryk's Soldier of Fortune (also 1955), a modern-day thriller with exotic settings, in which he played an adventurer engaged to help a beautiful woman (Susan Hayward) locate her husband in Hong Kong. Though 20 years separates the first film from the other two, Gable remains substantially the same in all three. A talented actor with limited range, he essentially played himself (or, at least, the carefully cultivated image of himself) in film after film, seldom deviating from the persona he established in the early ‘30s. Fortunately, audiences loved that persona and in later years, perhaps blinded by nostalgia, accepted him in roles he was really too old to play. DVD extras include audio commentaries on Call of the Wild (by Darwin Porter) and Soldier of Fortune (by Danforth Prince), restoration comparisons, and photo galleries. Recommended. [Note: Warner has also released Clark Gable: The Signature Collection (DVD: 6 discs, $59.95), which includes Boom Town, China Seas, Dancing Lady, Mogambo, San Francisco, and Wife Versus Secretary.] (E. Hulse