{"id":19779,"date":"2019-11-25T14:08:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T19:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19779"},"modified":"2020-03-26T18:57:01","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T22:57:01","slug":"clark-gable-at-fox-soldier-of-fortune-the-tall-men-1955","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19779","title":{"rendered":"Clark Gable at Fox: Soldier of Fortune + The Tall Men (1955)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just posted are reviews of two late-career Clark Gable pictures, produced at 20th Century-Fox following MGM&#8217;s dropping of the King\u2019s contract. The move to a new studio as a freelancer wasn&#8217;t an unusual conundrum for stars who were seen as old, too expensive, and not as sexy as younger stars &amp; starlets being groomed under the studios\u2019 wilting contract system.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19791\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19791\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-19791 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ClarkGable_JaneRussell_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ClarkGable_JaneRussell_m.jpg 350w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ClarkGable_JaneRussell_m-234x300.jpg 234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19791\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The established legend paired with an emerging legend.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Gable was a good actor, and the pair being reviewed here show the problems when one set of filmmakers relied on his screen charisma to transcend a mediocre script, and the other put him in a comfortable rustic environment, sharing screen time with the great Robert Ryan, and a solid script by two veteran scribes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19788\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19788\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-19788 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SoldierOfFortune_poster3_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SoldierOfFortune_poster3_m.jpg 350w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SoldierOfFortune_poster3_m-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19788\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">See that tattooed dude to the far right? NOT IN THE FILM. DOES NOT EXIST.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19775\" target=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19778\">Soldier of Fortune<\/a><\/strong> (1955) is not a bad movie, but a flawed production whose main attraction is the superb widescreen cinematography of Leo Tover. The contrast between present day Hong Kong and the coastal city circa 1954 is striking, whereas Gable and Susan Hayward\u2019s scenes and Edward Dmytryk\u2019s direction are, well, not.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19789\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19789\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-19789 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TallMen1955_poster_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TallMen1955_poster_m.jpg 350w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/TallMen1955_poster_m-188x300.jpg 188w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19789\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Everyone&#8217;s tall in this CinemaScope production!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To the other end, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19778\">The Tall Men<\/a><\/strong> (1955) is an underrated gem directed Raoul Walsh, and features more stunning Tover cinematography and montages fixating on the moving mass of cattlemen and a herd being driven across state lines. It\u2019s a big western without any element being overstated \u2013 quite a feat \u2013 and as weak as Jane Russell\u2019s role may be, she seemed to have fun with the bawdy character who teases one man clearly in love with her, and the other who sees just a trophy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tall Men<\/strong> is one of Twilight Time\u2019s last releases of the year, and hopefully not the last Fox title to be licensed prior to Disney&#8217;s 2019 absorption of the Fox catalogue.<\/p>\n<p><em>Coming shortly:<\/em> Susan Lacy\u2019s \u00a0portrait of <strong>Spielberg<\/strong> (2018), originally made for HBO.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for reading,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor<br \/>\n<strong>KQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clark Gable&#8217;s 1955 diptych is comprised of an underrated gem + a dud: the stellar THE TALL MEN on Twilight Time Blu + SOLDIER OF FORTUNE on Fox DVD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[535,883,2562,2563,359],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SoldierOfFortune_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-591","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19779"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19801,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779\/revisions\/19801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}