The first Clark Gable movie I watched was "The Tall Men." It's a Western: they drive cattle from Texas to Montana with the usual trouble of Jayhawkers (rock chock, KU, anyone?) and the Sioux. Clark Gable plays Ben Allison, an outlaw turned right by a man who is offering him money to be a trail boss and lead the thousands of cattle and men to Montana.
Of Course, there is a love interest. Her name is Nella and she's played by Jane Russell (picture to the left), who my grandfather knows. Yeah, not kidding. I told my dad about my Clark Gable moving watching over break and he immediately called my grandfather and told him I watched "The Tall Men," after which Grandpa told me that he knows Jane Russell and that his other good friend, Dale Robertson, was supposed to play the lead in the movie, not Clark Gable. All of these names probably mean nothing to you, but let's equate Jane Russell as the 1930's and 40's version of Meg Ryan. Dale Robertson is a very famous cowboy, which makes sense that he would be offered the part since most of the movie is built around the journey to Montana with cattle. How does my grandfather know them, you ask? Well, let's just say that when you drive up to my grandparents house, one of the first things you will see is a stake in the very front of their yard from The Great American Cattle Drive. Oh, but you may not notice it because there is a large, black stallion statue also in the front yard. My grandparents' house is filled with everything western: horses, chaps, whips, saddles with poems about the west lazered into them. My grandparents have actually been on cattle drives, frequently go to "Western Events," a.k.a. where all the famous people go who also love the west, and my grandfather heads up an organization called West Quest that is basically a cowboy crusade to fight cancer-they raise money for the American Cancer Society. I don't know, I just thought all of this was normal. My crazy grandparents that like to travel everywhere and let people stay at their house that are famous in the western world that most of my generation do not participate in. But I've always wanted to marry a cowboy (makes sense, right?).
I love the dialogue in this movie: a hillarious combination of the 50's and the west. At one point, Gable comes across Russell's caravan and they're starving. They have mules with them and Gable decides that he's going to butcher one. He tells Russell that it's "Missouri Elk." Yeah, definitely something my grandpa would say and also something my dad laughed at. Both Ben and Nella are stubborn as can be because they have to be-shooting enemies all the time and trying to live in the wild west. This makes for a very interesting love story, especially when Nella is wooed by the guy who offers Ben all that money to drive the cattle. One tactic that Nella employs is singing metaphorically whenevere Ben is around to get her point across. She always seems to be singing about herself as a peach tree, waiting for her love to come by so she can shake some peaches down. Maybe I should start singing about myself metaphorically whenever I'm around someone I'm attracted to. What words would I use to describe myself in a way that he would think I'm interested in him, not crazy? Ok, so maybe that only works in covered wagons with a lot of dust and a lot of knowing you might die that day from people on the trail.
This is older Clark Gable, not Gone With the Wind Clark Gable and certainly not the man who is pictured at the top of my Clark Gable Filmography Check List (thank you Anna). But he was the star of the show all the same and I'm looking forward to watching the other movies-up next, Call of the Wild.
Moral of this Post: Clark Gable movies are bringing me closer to my family.
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