"Gable and Lombard" made me angry as I watched it. You see I made a mistake of reading a book based on their life together and what amazed me was how inaccurate the movie is. Allow me to point out just a few of the MANY facts that are wrong with the movie.
1) The film opens with Gable at the plane crash site which has taken the life of Miss Lombard. He wears an Army uniform when in real life he didn't join until later.
2) At the crash site he is comforted by Lombard's press agent when in reality the press agent was killed in the crash as well.
3) The movie makes it appear that they kept their love life secret when in real life they often appeared together in public and made no secret of it.
4) In real life Gable and Lombard had worked together years before their affair started. The movie has them meeting and falling in love almost immediately.
5) The film over emphasizes Lombard's popularity.
Ah but who cares right? Most people don't know the real story and probably don't care. What you want to know is if the movie is any good. I imagine many people will probably enjoy this film but it's nothing more then a silly Hollywood romance that just happened to involve one of the biggest movie stars of the day. Frankly I was so distracted by the common factual errors it would have been impossible for me to enjoy. Let's face it when you watch a story involving real people you imagine that most if not all of what you are seeing either really happened or is a close representation thereof. To watch this movie is to see a screenwriter's fictional invention with real people. In other words I found it to be a scam.
As for the performances James Brolin is essentially imitating Gable from the "Gone With the Wind" era. He would have been more effective had he just made the character his own. He somewhat resembles Gable so we don't need the voice imitation. Jill Clayburgh comes off slightly better simply because she is given less to do.
"Gable and Lombard" may be a nice fictional movie but they should have changed the names and made the characters unknown. The ghosts of the real actors and their true stories linger from frame one.
1) The film opens with Gable at the plane crash site which has taken the life of Miss Lombard. He wears an Army uniform when in real life he didn't join until later.
2) At the crash site he is comforted by Lombard's press agent when in reality the press agent was killed in the crash as well.
3) The movie makes it appear that they kept their love life secret when in real life they often appeared together in public and made no secret of it.
4) In real life Gable and Lombard had worked together years before their affair started. The movie has them meeting and falling in love almost immediately.
5) The film over emphasizes Lombard's popularity.
Ah but who cares right? Most people don't know the real story and probably don't care. What you want to know is if the movie is any good. I imagine many people will probably enjoy this film but it's nothing more then a silly Hollywood romance that just happened to involve one of the biggest movie stars of the day. Frankly I was so distracted by the common factual errors it would have been impossible for me to enjoy. Let's face it when you watch a story involving real people you imagine that most if not all of what you are seeing either really happened or is a close representation thereof. To watch this movie is to see a screenwriter's fictional invention with real people. In other words I found it to be a scam.
As for the performances James Brolin is essentially imitating Gable from the "Gone With the Wind" era. He would have been more effective had he just made the character his own. He somewhat resembles Gable so we don't need the voice imitation. Jill Clayburgh comes off slightly better simply because she is given less to do.
"Gable and Lombard" may be a nice fictional movie but they should have changed the names and made the characters unknown. The ghosts of the real actors and their true stories linger from frame one.