estherwalker-34710 Review of Mogambo

Mogambo (1953)

At 52, Gable was still 'King of the Jungle', with two 'Janes ' to choose from.

[7/10 · 17 November 2021]

This John Ford Technicolor remake of the 1932 B&W "Red Dust", also starring Clark Gable, takes place in East Africa. It was made for the aging Gable, who came across as his often roguish self, tempered by age. Along with 1950's "King Solomon's Mines", and 1951's "The African Queen", it was a pioneering effort in satisficing the public's desire for color adventures by familiar stars in 'darkest' Africa, remembering that TVs were then still B&W. All of these films were hits with the public when released, although "The African Queen" has a significantly higher mean IMDB rating today. One of the pluses of this film is the lush colors and great cinematography, including some great shots of wildlife and native tribesmen en mass with spears or paddling their long, skinny, canoes, for example. I think you will agree that the most exciting segments are when the other primate 'King of the Jungle': mountain gorillas, are encountered. This must have scared some of the audience out of their seats! Although Gable calmly stands steadfast, ready to shoot if he feels the need, Grace Kelly, as the pampered, fragile, Linda , is scared out of her wits, and drops to the ground, cowering behind Gable: good acting by Grace. ...............Turning to the romance angle, we have 2 interlocking love triangles: one centered on Gable's character(Vic), the other centered on Grace Kelly's character(Linda). It seemed clear to me that Vic's dangerous secret liaisons with the married Linda was mostly only a lark to him. Of course, away from the camera, Grace and Gable were carrying on a real affair, both during shooting, and for a while afterward. I think that, both in the film, and in real life, Gable eventually came to his senses, and realized that Grace, at 28 years younger, was simply too young for him as a prospective wife, it being more like a father/daughter relationship. He was also swayed by the depth of love for Linda that her husband articulated. I think Eva Gardner's character, Eloise, also saw it that way. More psychologically and physically rugged than Linda, as well as significantly older, she intuitively knows that she, not Linda, is Vic's soul mate, and that Vic will eventually come back to her. Vic and Linda's affair comes apart when Linda catches Vic and Eloise snuggling in his tent, and Linda's husband soon enters the tent, having been recently informed of the affair between his wife and Vic. Linda shoots Vic in the upper arm, for good measure, to emphasis her outrage. Despite the profuse bleeding, Vic takes this calmly, as if he were expecting it!(Fortunately, we are spared the consequences of this indisression for the married couple). Ironic that, in real life, Grace was the single one, while Eva was unhappily married to Sinatra, who was mostly present in the on-site shooting locations, acting as cook for the crew, with his Italian dishes, and presumably keeping a watchful eye on Gable and Eva. This was during the low point in his career. Believe it or not, he was so poor that Eva had to buy his plane tickets! Rumor has it that Ford often treated Eva harshly, presumably because she took the place of his choice for playing Eloise: Mareen O'Hara. Also, interestingly, Stewart Granger, who starred in the previous "King Solomon's Mines", was the original choice to play Vic, before he was bumped in favor of Gable. In his memoires, he criticizes Gable's acting............Incidentally, the name Mogambo may sound African, but actually it was invented by the producer, as the slightly modified name of a nightclub!............ Given the still strict Hollywood moral code against portraying apparent infidelity, I'm very surprised the screenplay passed the censor board! When "Red Dust" was released, in 1932, this wasn't a problem.