Mogambo

Director: John Ford John Ford

Overview

The 1953 Clark Gable film Mogambo is a remake of Gable's 1932 seriocomic adventure Red Dust. Where the earlier film was lensed on the MGM backlot, Mogambo was shot on location in Africa by director John Ford. Gable is safari leader Victor Marswell, who plays "host" to stranded Eloise Y. Kelly (Ava Gardner, who is no better than she ought to be but is just right for our raffish hero -- the Gardner role was originally played along franker pre-Code lines by Jean Harlow). Anthropologist Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden) hires Victor to lead him into the deepest, darkest jungle. Along for the ride is Donald's wife, Linda (Grace Kelly), outwardly cool as a cucumber but secretly harboring a lust for Victor. Scorned, Kelly tries to kill Victor, but true-blue Eloise takes the blame for the shooting. Reportedly, Grace Kelly carried on an off-camera romance with Clark Gable, which ended when the differences in their ages proved insurmountable. Even so, it is the easy rapport between Gable and Ava Gardner which stole the show in Mogambo.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/20/2006
UPC:	0012569592223
Original Release:	1953
Rating:	NR
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	19,903

Special Features

Closed Caption;Theatrical trailer; Languages: English & Français; Subtitles: English, Français & Español

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clark Gable	Victor Marswell
Ava Gardner	Eloise Y. Kelly
Grace Kelly	Linda Nordley
Donald Sinden	Donald Nordley
Philip Stainton	John Brown Pryce
Eric Pohlmann	Leon Boltchak
Laurence Naismith	Skipper
Denis O'Dea	Father Josef
Asa Etula	Young Native Girl
Bruce Seton	Wilson

Technical Credits

John Lee Mahin

Wilson Collison

John Ford	Director
John Lee Mahin	Screenwriter
Sam Zimbalist	Producer
Wilson Collison	Screenwriter
Hugh Strain	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

The stars (and the scenery) are the thing in Mogambo, John Ford's somewhat lackluster remake of Red Dust. Forget about the script; it's not terrible, by any means, but it's also not particularly good, with dialogue that's incredibly uneven. More problematically, the romance and the adventure don't quite come together here, making the film feel as if it's two separate movies occupying one space; the love triangle wins out, but it's a bit of a struggle. Ford seems to want to emphasize the Hemingway-esque aspects of the situation, but the female stars are just too strong. They're almost too strong for Clark Gable, and that's saying a lot. Perhaps because he was getting a bit long in the tooth by the time of Mogambo, Gable has to struggle to hold his own -- but he does manage to pull it off. Truth to tell, even the gorgeous and icily enticing Grace Kelly has to struggle, for the sexily alluring Ava Gardner threatens to walk off with the entire picture. It's arguably Gardner's finest performance, certainly one of her most enjoyable, and she plays her role for all it's worth. This forces Kelly to work all the harder, the competition between the two actresses transferring quite effectively to the characters they play. It's a delight watching this trio interact with each other, and the sparks they generate make up for Mogambo's shortcomings.