NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932)

Clark Gable was on a rare loan-out from M-G-M when he co-starred with Carole Lombard in this Paramount programmer, their only film together. While they wouldn’t get together as Hollywood’s most famous couple for a few years, the sexual tension is already striking. In truth, it's the only striking thing in here, director Wesley Ruggles doesn't much enter into things. Gable’s a big city card sharp, fleecing the rich with a pair of well-dressed pals & sexy/available Dorothy Mackaill as bait. But when the cops come sniffing, Gable takes a powder and heads out of town until things cool down. That’s where he meets-cute with Lombard’s surprisingly liberated hick-town librarian. The flirtation is brief, but intense. And it’s marriage-on-a-dare, deception in the big city, redemption, tru-love . . . the usual. Gable is still figuring out his look & style, but Lombard gives one of her best early perfs; she finds a core of decency, personal balance & smarts in her small-town dreamer that promises a lot more than the script manages to deliver.

DOUBLE-BILL: Lombard’s small-town gal apotheosis comes in the blistering satire of NOTHING SACRED/’37, at long last available in a properly restored DVD from KINO.