Unlikeliest song-and-dance man - Clark Gable and company, Idiot's Delight, 1939

 

Clark Gable, Virginia Grey, Paula Stone, Virginia Dale, Bernadene Hayes, Joan Marsh, and Lorraine Krueger.

Idiot's Delight, from Hollywood's "golden year" of 1939, was made at MGM with a screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood, adapted from his own 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same name. The production reunited director Clarence Brown with stars Clark Gable and Norma Shearer; they had worked together on "A Free Soul" eight years before, to great acclaim for all of them. 

The film begins with the backstory of the two leads and then the story continues, twenty years later, at a hotel in the mountains of a fictitious Alpine country. The setting of the original play had been Italy. But with Europe on the brink of World War II, the studio made every attempt to keep from offending Italy and other totalitarian states - the vaguest geographical location, the use of Esperanto in "foreign" dialogue and signage - but the film was banned in those countries nevertheless. Released in January of 1939, it was generally well received, though it still lost money for the studio.

Clark Gable plays Harry Van, a WWI veteran, who, at the beginning of the film, is part of a faltering mindreading act. When we meet him again, he's the manager and headliner of "Les Blondes", a troupe of six chorus girls touring Europe. But perhaps the thing most notable about the film - and the obvious reason for this post - is that it's the only one in which Gable - quite unexpectedly - sings and dances. Along with "Les Blondes" he gives a creditable performance of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' On the Ritz." 

"Les Blondes" were portrayed by actresses Virginia Grey as Shirley, Lorraine Krueger as BeBe, Joan Marsh as Elaine, Virginia Dale as Francine, Paula Stone as Beulah, and Bernadene Hayes as Edna. I can't say that I know all that much about any of them, though I recognize (a no longer blonde) Virginia Dale as one of the leading ladies of "Holiday Inn." But I'm most familiar with Virginia Grey, who went on to a long career in film and television, and the same year appeared as Joan Crawford's wise-acre co-worker at the perfume counter in "The Women." (She also had a lengthy romance with Gable after the death of Carole Lombard and the end of the war.)

It's said that Gable - whose very next role would be Rhett Butler - spent six weeks rehearsing the number with dance director George King, as well as practicing at home with his soon-to-be-wife, Carole Lombard. Because of his nervousness, on the day of shooting the set was closed during the filming of the sequence. But then, apparently, the number was accomplished in only one take.

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Director Clarence Brown makes a rather uneasy looking addition to the line-up.

Gable and "Les Blondes" on the move on the studio lot. (See my post of July 21 for more of this specific sort of publicity photograph.)

Two lobby cards for the film.

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You can also see a few portraits taken of Gable and Shearer for the film in an old post here.