Sunday, July 11, 2010

Cinema Sunday ~ Teacher’s Pet (1958)

Doris Day, America's Sweetheart of the 50's, seems to have the uncanny ability to brighten up any screen she's on...and Teacher's Pet is no exception. I had never seen this little jewel until today...and I LOVE it. Partner her with Clark Gable, the smooth operator of his day, and you've got a recipe for success. Now, Mr. Gable had my attention at a very young age when I first was introduced to him with his portrayal of Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind...talk about a childhood crush. Smooth, cynical, confidence oozing out of every poor...dark hair and those warm brown eyes...I was smitten at 7. I guess between him and The Fonz lay the blame for my attraction to guys who are a little bit rebellious. Anyway, back to the movie...Clark Gable takes on the role of Jim Gannon a newspaperman who comes from the-school-of-get-your-nose-dirty/hard-knocks who hates journalism classes. Hates them, until he meets professor Erica Stone (Doris Day). What starts out as a command from his boss to appologize for an unsavory article on journalism classes ends up causing Gannon to put on the front of a student. Amazing what a man will do to try to win over the affections of a lovely lady, while proving his point of course. And I must say that I would have loved to have a professor who carried themselves with the class and personable professionalism that Miss Stone does. Being the best that he believes he is, Gannon sets to show that a real newspaperman posing as a student is better than "an ameteur teaching ameteurs to be ameteurs", soon becomes Miss Stone's prize pupil. Not exactly what he first desired to be...but it seems to work for him just the same. Just as a side note, "Why" is there always a Tess working for a newspaper? Seems that there's always one worked into the script. Watching Gannon and Dr. Hugo Pine (Gig Young), a psycologist and author of a multitude of books, spar for Miss Stone's affections is pure comedy. Everything seems to constantly backfire for Gannon...and I found myself laughing out loud at a number of instances. There's just something about that old Hollywood writing that I love. It's one of Hollywood's classic nods to journalism combined with a great dose of comedy. I think that I can even get Charming to admit that he liked the movie...or at least thought it was alright. There's no denying that I heard chuckles from time to time. (He's never understood my love of classic Hollywood, but I think he's coming around) The cast also consists of Mamie Van Doren, Nick Adams and Jack Albertson.