Starring: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Donald Sinden, Philip Stainton Directed By: John Ford Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 20, 2006 Running Time: 116 minutes Theatrical Release Date: October 09, 1953
Product Description: "Hey! A kangaroo" Eloise "Honey Bear" Kelly says when she sees a baby rhinoceros being lifted from an African pit. A Broadway showgirl stranded in the African jungle Eloise is better suited for the urban jungle. Yet one look at safari guide Victor Marswell and she knows exactly where she wants to be. Times change but the fun remains when Clark Gable portrays man's-man Victor in a sassy vibrant remake of Gable's 1932 Red Dust. Ava Gardner plays tough-hided vulnerable-hearted Eloise. And Grace Kelly is the prim anthropologist's wife who catches Victor's roving eye. Both women earned Oscar nominations* with Kelly also winning a Supporting Actress Golden Globe. Directed by John Ford and filled with his lung-swelling zest for the great outdoors Mogambo is classic entertainment for anyone's great indoors.Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569592223 Manufacturer No: 65922
Amazon.com: This remake of the 1932 Red Dust is famous for using the very same romantic leading man--21 years after the fact. But when that leading man is Clark Gable, what's a little gray hair in the temples? Gable was certainly still the great strutting rooster of American movies in 1953, when Mogambo made him a safari guide juggling two much younger women. First up is good-time girl Ava Gardner, who's game for a little harmless romp with Gable after she gets stood up by a playboy in the African jungle. But when Grace Kelly--the proper wife of a visiting anthropologist (Donald Sinden)--arrives on the scene, a new affair begins. The location shooting is much in the vein of King Solomon's Mines, although the story is much more intimate. This feels like a bit of a holiday for Hollywood's top director, John Ford, and not one of his most committed pictures. Still, Ford's unparalleled eye for backlit exteriors and for the way people move around in rooms is on display, even when the script wobbles. People always joke about Gable being too old for this movie, but that doesn't take into account his durable movie-star appeal--he certainly looks every inch the Hemingwayesque hunter, and it's not that big a stretch to imagine Gardner or Kelly in the clinches with him. Indeed, he and Grace Kelly had an offscreen affair during shooting, graying temples or not. --Robert Horton
It's Ava Gardner's World...and Everyone Else Just Lives in It Ava Gardner could hardly be considered anyone's second choice, but this is what director John Ford and screenwriter John Lee Mahin would have you believe in this overripe 1952 safari melodrama. Yet, she is the primary reason why this film is still worth a look 56 years later. Far more intuitively than Angelina Jolie these days, Gardner epitomized a primal sensuality and a hidden vulnerability, the combination of which was intoxicating in her prime. Ford captures this, as well as her dark beauty and sharp comedy sense, by casting her as smart-mouthed, carefree playgirl Eloise "Honey Bear" Kelly, who has come to a remote African outpost to meet up with a wealthy maharajah. Finding herself stood up, she is greeted by no-nonsense big game hunter Victor Marswell as she conveniently takes a shower al fresco. Before sparks can truly fly, a young British anthropologist and his prudish wife, Donald and Linda Nordley, arrive naively drawn to the flora and fauna.
Then a rather preposterous story turn occurs in which Marswell becomes smitten with Mrs. Nordley, and she with him since she swoons over the manly hunter over her milquetoast husband. Looking the patrician beauty that served her well during her brief movie career, a 24-year-old Grace Kelly plays Linda in typical melodramatic fashion. Her English accent is a bit overdone, and her character's motivations too simplistically presented for Kelly to shine, especially next to Gardner. As Marswell, the 52-year-old Clark Gable doesn't have quite the swagger he displayed so easily in his youth when he first played this role in 1932's Red Dust with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor in the Gardner and Kelly parts. However, it is a testament to his enduring appeal that he is at all convincing as a magnet for two much younger women.
But make no mistake that Gable, who has to maintain a stoic, man-of-mystery demeanor as Marswell, really hands the picture to Gardner. In particular, she has a fetching couple of scenes where she sings Robert Burns' "Comin' Through the Rye" and seems truly to enjoy interacting with the wild animals. It's all a hoot, and the location filming in Kenya and Uganda really brings the story to vibrant life. Ford handles the exotic background as well as he does Monument Valley in his classic westerns, and he makes sure to keep goosing the story with action elements so that the focus is not completely on the love triangle. Industry veteran Robert Surtees and David Lean's favorite cameraman Freddie Young shared cinematography responsibilities, and the look of the film is sumptuous even by MGM's high standards. The only extra with the 2006 DVD is the original theatrical trailer.
Magam, Bo?? the magnificent Ava Gardner, with Gable and Kelly along for the ride, make this a delight.....not exactly Out of Africa in scope or style, it is 50's moviemaking at its best.....great Africa sights, an ok story, and the fabulous Ava will provide any but the dullest with memorable fun.......can't be helped deficit is lack of commentary tracks by stars and directors......strongly recommended to anyone over 18........
Mogambo DVD I saw this one in the theater when I was a little girl. I wasn't always sure what was happening (between the adults) but now that I do I can watch this one, easily, once a month. The story and the scenery in Africa are unsurpassed. The actors need no introduction to most viewers and the young ones who don't know them are in for a treat. This movie would be a fine, "How do you do".
Mogambo Received order as expected in a timely manner...Good movie if your a Clark Gable Fan...
50s melodramatic cheese Having rented this movie only for Ava Gardner and not for the plot, I knew it was going to be cheesy from the beginning. It's a non-musical produced by MGM, what can one expect? This is one of those old kinds of movies where the character development takes a backseat to the *breathtaking* scenery and atmosphere. Actually the scenery isn't so breathtaking (maybe in 1953 this would have blown your socks off, but come on, those of us in 2007 are much more world weary now). As usual, Ava and Grace flounce around the jungle in well decked out outfits and perfectly applied lipstick. This kind of reminded me a bit of 1954's "Elephant Walk" with Elizabeth Taylor: both movies are over the top melodramatic with special effects that are extremely lame by today's standards. The focus on scenery, costumes, shooting on location, and special effects causes the character development to suffer. Honestly, "Mogambo" gets a bit boring at times with all of its scenery shots. I think "Elephant Walk" had more of an interesting story, and that's not saying much. I'm puzzled as to why Ava and Grace were nominated Oscars for this movie. I love these two actresses, but "Mogambo" is a throw away filler movie Ava made (sadly like much of her career) and for Grace is was just something she needed to allow her new film career to take flight. Oh and Clark Gable in this? He seems tired, bored, and worn out. Not to mention he's way too old! The studio's decision to recast him in the same beefcake role 21 years later (which would never have happened for a woman) just highlights the strong double standards that existed in old Hollywood for men and women.
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