"Adventure" is a confusing movie;it was Greer Garson's first important flop after the triumphs of "Mrs Minniver" and " Madame Curie" and it's easy to see why.If she is credible as an earnest librarian ,it takes a lot of imagination to believe in her character in the scenes where she dances with the first to come .I think she was miscast and Claudette Colbert would have been a better choice.
"Adventure ",despite its title ,in only an adventures movie .Now dramatic (there are two deaths all the same!) ,now comic (the hens episode) Victor Fleming seems to hesitate as to which road to take.He even copies himself :the tracking out ,with the couple near the big tree at sunset recalls "gone with the wind" !
Neither Gable nor Garson are really convincing.The stand out is ,IMHO,Thomas Mitchell -Scarlett's father!- as Mudge ,the sailor who lost his soul and regained it on a starry night after seeing a shooting star ,probably the most beautiful scene of the film.Too bad young Ramon should disappear so early in the movie :this character who asks a couldn't-care-less Gable if the ship was blessed ("I bless it every moment of the day "was the sailor's answer)gives in the first sequences a Christian feel (sometimes recalling Borzage's "strange cargo" ) which would emerge again in the scene of the death of Mudge and in the last sequences .
At a running time of two hours plus ,it sometimes drags on.Some good scenes and a certain sense of humor help.
"Adventure ",despite its title ,in only an adventures movie .Now dramatic (there are two deaths all the same!) ,now comic (the hens episode) Victor Fleming seems to hesitate as to which road to take.He even copies himself :the tracking out ,with the couple near the big tree at sunset recalls "gone with the wind" !
Neither Gable nor Garson are really convincing.The stand out is ,IMHO,Thomas Mitchell -Scarlett's father!- as Mudge ,the sailor who lost his soul and regained it on a starry night after seeing a shooting star ,probably the most beautiful scene of the film.Too bad young Ramon should disappear so early in the movie :this character who asks a couldn't-care-less Gable if the ship was blessed ("I bless it every moment of the day "was the sailor's answer)gives in the first sequences a Christian feel (sometimes recalling Borzage's "strange cargo" ) which would emerge again in the scene of the death of Mudge and in the last sequences .
At a running time of two hours plus ,it sometimes drags on.Some good scenes and a certain sense of humor help.