Tue 18 Apr 2023
An Archived Movie Review: SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (1955).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[29] Comments
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 20th Century Fox, 1955. Clark Gable, Susan Hayward, Michael Rennie, Gene Barry, Alex D’Arcy, Tom Tully, Jack Kruschen. Screenplay by Ernest K. Gann , based on his own novel. Director: Edward Dmytryk.
The wife of a photographer comes to Hong Kong to find him after he disappears, apparently a prisoner on the mainland. Clark Gable is the “soldier of fortune†who helps her, even though he falls in love with her while doing so, and there’s the crux of the story.
This was a big budget, wide screen movie, and it drags. Gable doesn’t seem to have his heart in it, and Susan Hayward’s attraction to the kind-hearted American gangster is rather mystifying. I enjoyed the people in the bit parts more than those in the big roles.
April 18th, 2023 at 9:36 pm
David Vineyard reviewed this film a few years ago on this blog. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=9121
He liked it better than I seem to have.
April 18th, 2023 at 10:04 pm
I liked the film immensely and my comment #8 on David’s Review tells you why. I saw it on the initial release and felt the same way than as I do now.
April 18th, 2023 at 10:38 pm
I saw that comment just now that you left, and I said to myself, maybe I missed something. I wish I remember the movie more than I do. One thing I can tell you, Barry, is that I’ve become a much bigger fan of Clark Gable than I was when I was a whole lot younger than I am now.
April 18th, 2023 at 11:11 pm
A wonderful thing to say, Steve. I salute you.
April 19th, 2023 at 5:25 am
I remember enjoying this on SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES years ago, and you’ve prompted me to give it another look.
Some of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” found themselves at loose ends when cost-cutting studios (in Gable’s Case MGM) cast them off in the 1950s.
April 19th, 2023 at 10:08 am
Gable was not a cast off. They offered him a continuation of his contract, but he wanted a piece, and they did nto go for that. Of course, they were fired a year or two later. Gable did well as a freelancer. For example, in his first year away from Metro he more than doubled his salary.
April 19th, 2023 at 1:50 pm
Barry I don’t stand corrected — I just sit here all covered with rue.
April 19th, 2023 at 3:03 pm
Quest que ce rue?
April 19th, 2023 at 3:05 pm
Quest que c’est? What is that?
April 19th, 2023 at 6:12 pm
Gable still at the top of his considerable powers on screen barely had to flex to exude all the charisma and charm this needed, and Hayward wisely plays it as a woman somewhat angered and intrigued by the first adult man she has ever met (Husband Gene Barry is clearly a charming boy type).
Rennie makes a nice British counterpart to Gable’s all American tough guy and their bromance at the films culmination is more satisfying than the one with Hayward.
At this point in his career Gable was still believable as a lead against actresses like Sophia Loren, Doris Day, Eleanor Parker, and Marilyn Monroe even when he is just in cruise mode of being Clark Gable.
The film is very true to the Ernest K. Gann novel, another plus for me, I recently reread the book and watched the movie and just enjoyed the sheer professionalism across the board.
I’ve been to Hong Kong, and that opening scene on the peak captures the cities stunning location, almost otherworldly compared to the crowded often dirty side.
It’s not a great film or profound in any way, but as Hollywood entertainment done with near perfection I can’t fault it.
April 19th, 2023 at 10:01 pm
Gable in cruise mode is not only a good line but good advice. Most of these men had plenty to offer, old and young, not hitting it too hard works wonders, especially when you are being projected thirty-five times larger than life.
April 20th, 2023 at 12:53 pm
I’ve seen this flick but found only mild pleasure in it; which is the fondness for seeing familiar faces.
But I suppose I always prefer Gable in b&w. His Technicolor/Panavision films ..I’d have to think hard to recall any which soared for me.
‘Mogambo’, ‘Band of Angels’, ‘Soldier-of-Fortune’. Well …I’d probably get-up-for-a-snack during any of these. Another one like this: John Wayne’s ‘Blood Alley’.
Anyway, consider those glossier productions against something like, “Run Silent, Run Deep” when Gable was physically ailing. I’ll still take him in the submarine pic, even sick as a hound. The grainy photography matches Gables’ natural tension with the world around him. The tension of the “go-getter”.
When any Gable character plays is too wealthy, too well-off, too comfortable…something is lacking for me. A Gable character should never be rich. He excels with his jaw gritted; trying to win something huge. Cattle drive, bomber raid over Germany, or race across the Yukon.
On the other hand: Gary Cooper. When Coop was in really bad health in his last few flicks, well ..I’ve heard some criticisms from other movie-buffs, but found none in my heart. Coop never looked ‘too old’ or ‘too weak’ for me. ‘Love in the Afternoon’, ‘Ten North Frederick’, or ‘The Wreck of the Mary Deare’ –he always delivered.
Susan Hayward: also a mixed bag (in terms of my own reactions). When she’s an alcoholic wretch, or incarcerated …riveting. But some other roles just don’t give her opportunity to explode the way she was so good at.
Hong Kong: yea, crazy.
April 20th, 2023 at 2:52 pm
Lazy,
Gable did okay as Technicolor Rhett Butler, no?
April 20th, 2023 at 4:06 pm
Oh! (swats self on head)
In my defense, I didn’t realize we were still allowed to mention that regressive, repressive, subversive title any more in this day and age. (wink)
But you’re spot on. Yes indeedy.
April 20th, 2023 at 8:24 pm
Lazy,
You are talking about an opinion or personal perception, and on some of these I agree, such as passing on Blood Alley, but on others, The Tall Men, Soldier of Fortune, and Mogambo I seriously see in a more positive light. Totally positive. As for Band of Angels, I like it tremendously despite its occasional shortcomings, none of which are laid at the principal players, especially not Gable, Poitier, or Torin Thatcher. Yvonne DeCarlo is not as strong, but attractive and better than adequate.
April 20th, 2023 at 8:28 pm
The Misfits. Without Gable I would never have seen it, now I have half a dozen times. Huston initially spoke to Robert Mitchem about playing Gay, and he turned it down anticipating a long boring shoot. After Gable was signed, he comments: Oh, my God, this will kill him.’ My take, seeing the film after Clark Gable’s death quite the opposite. No one in the world would think this man had two weeks left to live. Mitchum was right.
April 20th, 2023 at 8:30 pm
For my money the most interesting film of Gable’s really strong later film career is a little B&W throwaway called ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY from the late Forties where he plays a casino owner confronted on a single night by a series of crisis including a holdup forcing him to look at his lifestyle and its effect on his teenage son.
Based on E. Heth’s THE BIG GAME the film defines in many ways the mature Gable’s screen character, and the role he will play in most films from then on. There are exceptions, throwbacks to his roguish younger self like KING AND FOUR QUEENS, but WIN is almost a template for an older more mature more thoughtful character he plays variations on again and again, and notably comes right after COMMAND DECISION, a rare non romantic Gable film.
It’s interesting to see these big box office stars confront their age and mortality on screen. Some remained leading men, some like Ray Milland and David Niven moved into character roles while still a name above the title, some like William Powell did it so smoothly it seems imperceptible.
If Gable had lived it is hard to see him in character roles or as the older non romantic mentor. Like Cooper, Grant, and Wayne he would have had to stay Clark Gable in most films even if he did a few out of character roles. Some actors you simply cannot imagine as anything but the star.
April 20th, 2023 at 9:18 pm
The two great post-war Gable films, and most were good, are Command Decision and Any Number Can Play. A surprise to me is that Any Number Can Play did not get a better critical reception. Loaded with grand performances, but as in many instances, there would be no picture with Clark.I have always assumed that family relationships, father and son, did not work as well as they should, and I guessed at the real cause, the boy was gay, and the studio would not go near that. Too bad.
April 20th, 2023 at 10:02 pm
Savory food-for-thought, above. Much to chew on.
I agree it is cogent to ponder what would have happened to the King had he lasted a bit longer.
As for the rest of his colleagues in that era, we would probably reach quick consensus on how each of them turned out, on how they might have-turned-out-otherwise, on whether-they-got-a-fair-shake, etc.
There’s some obvious declines that weren’t necessary, strictly on the face of it. Errol Flynn’s drinking, etc.
I haven’t thought about Gable in a long time. But mulling it over, I’m pretty sure the perfect Gable movie (perfectly suiting my taste, that is) is ‘China Seas’.
Barring the colossal exception of GWTW, this is how I liked him best. Not in a linen suit with his legs crossed, handkerchief in breast pocket, cradling a jigger of gin; but sweating and cursing over an oil derrick or busted steam engine.
He was superb at portraying the quintessential blue-collar American working men fighting deadlines, trying to beat impossible records.
To me, this ‘drive’ of his, is what makes him a romantic figure, and is what makes any female love-interest knitted into the same story-lines, readily understandable.
When I run down my mental list of Gable flicks where he’s love-struck, they almost always pall for me. Whenever a Gable story shifts away from Gable himself and whatever he’s heroically trying to accomplish, it loses tang.
I can’t hardly grasp why a Gable character would ever be chasing a dame. Just compare ‘Red Dust’ to ‘Mogambo’.
Other examples? Well, I relish the chemistry he had with Garson (“Adventure!”) but only admired the film itself, very mildly. What about, …h’mmm … “They Met in Bombay”? –same reaction.
Of course, with the sheer presence of the man –I’d watch him in any scene, ever. I’m just sayin’ that even a great star can find himself in a bloated, or sluggish picture; teamed with a star not half as exciting.
Was Gable still dashing and rakish as he aged? Sure, but even in those romps I feel that –maybe even more than ever –the writers ought to always give him a “hard-to-get” roughneck to play. And that’s what weakens “Soldier of Fortune”; he’s not bristly, or hard to get. He’s on a platter for Hayward to nibble on if she wishes.
There is some subtle Gable-mystique in ‘Band of Angels’ and Gable was indeed, stellar in ‘The Misfits’; but what he did with that assignment also illustrates what I’m describing.
But …for romantic mature-male-leading roles which drape him in a tuxedo? Chatting politely from the depths of a rattan chair, or accepting hors d’oeuvres from a passing waiter? Naw. Give those roles to eternal ladies’ man, Fred Astaire.
I can cite one more flick which is (barely) a point for my assertions: ‘The Hucksters’. Gable’s in a suit, yes –but the romantic patter only sparkles with Ava Gardner; the scenes with Deb Kerr lose ooomph. And that very fun movie itself is still mostly about Gable, about him not backing down, which (to me) is the essential and glorious Gable spirit. Whatta guy. American icon.
Ah well. Pardon my long-windedness I trust! It’s a treat to review this star with such sturdy and knowledgeable fans.
re: msg #15 above –of course this is all just my subjective POV I’m yammering. I thought I underscored that. Purely …just whittling shavings off the branches closest over my own head. Good on ye mate
April 20th, 2023 at 11:10 pm
Lazy, add Gable’s films with Spencer Tracy to your list. My Huckster’s story.
I have read Wakemans’ novel, which is tough and remorseless without joy. An enormous best-seller, the studio bought the right expressly for Gable and employed Luther DAvis, who enjoyed mild success on Broadway with Kiss Them For Me or Shore Leave, also based on Wkeman’s work.MGM hired him and he wrote a script Clark found good enough to sign on for another seven years.In the novel, and original screenplay Victor Norman abuses Edward Arnold’s character and he uses as his weapon the man’s Jewishness. This is not in the finished film, three days prior to shooting Gable told Jack Conway he would not play it and to send for the writer. This is Luther to me speaking.
I raced down, and shook my head. “You loved the script, what’s wrong? Gable had a ready response.
They wil got to see this thing and think Gable is an anti-semite. Well, I’m not, and with the war and everything (a clear allusion to the Holocaust), I just won’t play it. Find another way.
Luther said I played with it all night, finally, I made the character an ex-convict and brought it to Clark.
He said, the first way was better, but I’ll play this.
This incident means several things to me. First the auteur theory is full of crap. The most important person calls or orchestrates the material. Second, Gable was quite a guy, he did something similar on ‘Gone With tThe Wind for the black extras. There is a video on that from one of them, Lennie Bluett. You can find it online.
April 21st, 2023 at 10:17 am
That’s a marvelous anecdote! Wow
I agree that anytime Tracy was pitted against –or paired with Gable –that pic should be added, ‘to the side of the good’, in my private tally.
It’s rather like whenever Randolph Scott teamed with John Wayne.
Wayne and Gable seem to thrive when playing opposite hard-headed co-stars. They can be males or females but it brings out their best.
April 21st, 2023 at 10:20 am
For your information, Steve, Kiss Them For Me and Shore Leave are the same project with different titles.
April 21st, 2023 at 6:01 pm
Gable was originally slated to co-star with Wayne in Howard Hawks’ Hatari; after his death, his character was written out, and the script retooled for a single male star instead of a pair of them (I imagine the rewriting was easier than it might have been on a more tightly-plotted film–since Hatari, good as it is, really has no overarching plot to speak of). Try as I might, I can’t quite picture how Gable and Wayne’s respective larger-than-life personas could have co-existed in the same film–“Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere”–but I’d have loved to see it.
April 21st, 2023 at 6:19 pm
By the way Lazy, and David, I think your comments 17 and 19 taken together are just as smart as they could be. I love Gable, obviously, but I loved your collective takes too.
April 22nd, 2023 at 12:42 am
I love the whole world we once had which gave us people like Gable.
Would sure rather reside in that America, than today’s.
Ty!
April 22nd, 2023 at 10:05 am
Lazy,
Borges says all there are are experiences. ‘Past’ is just judging an experience as being beyond our reach. But that’s not true. No experience is beyond our reach. That’s a function of art. To bridge time. To provide us with infinitely repeatable experiences across time. That’s why we’re on this site right now. Sharing mutual, common, repeatable experiences across time. Of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Of Philip Marlowe and Sam spade and Humphrey bogart and Lauren bacall. As Faulkner tells us: ‘the past is never truly gone. It’s not even past.’
April 22nd, 2023 at 8:51 pm
There is a scene in BABYLON where a gossip columnist tells Brad Pitt’s silent movie star that his career is over, but every time one of his films is played he will live again with the audience, and I admit I thought of Gable and stars of that caliber when I saw it.
A note on Gable and Tracy. For years John Huston wanted to film THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING originally with Gable and Tracy. Eventually he changed to Gable and Bogart, and over the years there was talk of Stewart Granger and Errol Flynn, and Richard Burton and Richard Harris.
Of course, we hit paydirt with Sean Connery and Michael Caine.
Those “silver shadows cast on a wall” as someone once called movies have unique hold on us, something neither bards, books, or stage quite equals. Movies, more than television, radio, or even video games are our dreams ripped from our consciousness and writ large in a shared experience.
People like Gable connect with us in a way it is hard to define, and I have seen their magic work on younger audiences who may not respond to their style of acting or the stories they are in, but feel the power of that individual on the screen.
William Wellman said of Gary Cooper seen off screen he was doing nothing, and then on screen you couldn’t take your eyes off of him. All great stars have this quality, and no one had it more than Gable.
And Barry I agree with you on both COMMAND DECISION and my personal favorite Gable film ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY.
April 23rd, 2023 at 12:54 am
If no one minds me prolonging the topic I’ll shoe-horn in one more comment. Moderator may delete as necessary.
My single favorite Clark Gable scene, is in “Adventure!” with Greer Garson.
Gable is a sailor on shore leave in San Francisco with his shipmates. He’s a cargo officer or something. Merchant-Marine. The gobs with him are all his close comrades. They’re on an epic pub-crawl.
Gable meets Garson somehow and –momentarily intrigued –calls for the boys to slow down for a few minutes while he chats her up.
She’s distant and arctic, and he wants to get her number. It’s a challenge. The men grumble, but loiter around rather than lose him. He’s top dog.
However, his closest pal objects, and objects strongly. It’s Thomas Mitchell or someone suchlike. Mitchell hazes the cow-eyed Gable, prods him, jeers at him for being a wet-blanket.
Gable fobs him off and turns back to Garson, not noticing that Mitchell has heard enough excuses. Mitchell hauls off and cold-clocks him one.
Sprawled prone on the floor, Gable shakes his head clear and gazes up at his pal, astonished.
Then, he boils back up on his feet. “Why, you stupid dope …” and he pastes one right back on Mitchell’s jaw. Now Mitchell goes down. Out cold.
Garson, a librarian, is bewildered and stammering. She’s never seen men brawling, and she’s wringing her hands. “You killed him! You killed that poor man!”
Gable laughs his arse off. He helps Mitchell to his feet and the two men exchange sheepish hugs. He explains to Garson. “Not a bit of it! This is my best friend in the whole world!”
This recap isn’t verbatim. I was just a kid when I saw this on late-night TV. But it amazed me. I gained a world of insight from it. Long-lasting wisdom.
To this day –and I’ve had a blue-collar career –I rarely ever see such greatness-of-heart. Pettiness, puniness, and viciousness is the norm, now.
Every joe in our big cities today is like Paul Lazzaro in “Slaughterhouse-Five”. Remember him?
That’s the kind of guys I’ve seen all my life.
Maybe they don’t read Jorges Luis Borges (just kidding –that was a cogent injection above).
–Lazy
p.s. I’ve probably never told you all the incident I witnessed on my first train trip to New York where I landed my current job. It will astound you. I’ll save it for another time.
September 2nd, 2024 at 11:02 am
Was looking forward to catching up with this one, but the years were not kind. These Fox films of the 50s CinemaScope years were so superficially empty. Scenes of people talking with large gaps between them (to fill the screen) were just foolish.
The C/S location shots were interesting in the day but now look like an overused novelty. This screenplay definitely did not help with juvenile barroom fights that were out of place (probably meant for the Duke)
These glossy location flicks with Over the Hill stars playing tough guys were dull and unconvincing. Susan Haywood was all class but was poorly used by many studios (including this one), and Gene Barry was strictly TV. Unfortunately, these shows helped kill 20th-century products of this era.