date watched: May 18, 2009
location watched: At home in Seoul, Korea. Private VHS copy.
Even though it's been a while since the Hays Code days, I can see why this isn't released on DVD yet. It's a pity, since Gene Tierney makes a good Russian ballerina, and Clark Gable makes a good American journalist/seaman.
The title is rather misleading, however. One would think that this is a love story that revolves around Tierney and Gable--playing Marya Lamarkina and Philip Sutherland, respectively--but the bulk of the narrative focuses on Gable's journey by sea, with two fellow shipmates. It's a lot like Lubitsch's 1939 masterpiece, Ninotchka, in some senses. I say this because it really de-romanticizes Soviet communism. I wouldn't go so far to say that it casts American democracy as the hero.
One of the most intriguing parts is when the three shipmates are anchored in a sheltered Finland cove, and they are found out by Russian seamen. They decide to place bets on which countrymen can take more alcohol. The Americans are confident that they can take them on with whiskey, until the Russian throws it overboard, and opts for vodka instead. Joe Brooks (Bernard Miles) then mimics his first vodka experience (during which he met his wife, Valentina Alexandrovna) by citing all the famous Russian inventors with each emptied shot. It is only when the Russians are unconscious that he claims it was Sir Francis Drake who discovered the potato, and not a Russian man.
During this time, Gene Tierney was still on the brink of depression, since it was not long after she gave birth to her severely retarded child, Daria. She was said to have trained for six long weeks to familiarize herself with ballet, and despite her unhappiness, still plowed through. In her biography by Michelle Vogel, she gives a lot of credit to Gable, who was gentleman enough to notice her ill mental health, but still cared for her as a co-star and friend. Agatha Christie actually wrote a book called The Mirror Crack'd, which is supposedly based on Tierney's life, and specifically dealing with her mental problems.
I half-expected Philip and Marya to run into more unfortunate circumstances. I even though one of them would die. But if there's one thing storytellers know about pleasing spectators, it is the obligatory gratification granted after all the twists, turns, and inconveniences the characters are subjected to. I felt very much the same way when I was watching Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2008): I thought Jamal would get run over a train before he reunited with Latika.
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