The first half is a jewel robbery caper a la "Trouble in Paradise". Posing as the Scotland Yard representative from Lloyds of London, the oh-so-British Clark Gable (!) shows up in Bombay hoping to steal the Star of India necklace worn by the eccentric Duchess of Beltravers. He doesn't realize he has company; Rosalind Russell, posing as a Baroness, has shown up with the same intention. It is obvious that one of them will end up with it, but who? Fate throws them together, and that's where the second half comes in, a tale of war in China where the pre-Pearl Harbor Japanese are preparing to attack British troops. Gable and Russell find themselves thrust into this battle as the threat of being discovered for the jewel heist hangs over them.
First half sophisticated comedy, second half patriotic cry for arms. It really changes the mood of the film which would have been fine had the change not been so jarring. The comedy of the first half is really entertaining with Gable and Russell an attractive romantic team. Throw in the marvelous Jessie Ralph as the Duchess and you've got a marvelous display of scene stealing. The Duchess, who "came to aristocracy via the stage door", is a salty lush who "carries my children like a lady and my liquor like a gentleman". Ralph, so marvelous as the society leader of Gable's 1936 smash "San Francisco", is a Marie Dressler/May Robson type dowager with her vinegary voice and acid delivery. But once the film departs Bombay, the comedy lessens, adventure increases (with an excellent chase sequence), until taken over by a well-filmed war sequence. In the scene where Russell gets her hands on the necklace off the passed-out duchess, she slithers out of the room, reminding me of the cat-like Gale Sondergaard in "The Letter".
Peter Lorre appears briefly as the slimy, whiskered Chinese captain of the ship that picks up the escaped Gable and Russell. He must have been the Asian cousin of Lorre's equally sleazy character in Gable's 1940 adventure "Strange Cargo". MGM perennial Reginald Owen is also on hand as the British commander in China. There are moments of farce (the chase sequence gets a bit silly with the poor Indian man carrying two buckets on each end of a long stick), tension (Will Gable and Russell get off Lorre's ship before Scotland Yard catches them?) and romance (the initially antagonistic couple realizing their attraction towards each other) to hold onto one mood for a long period of time. But Clarence Brown, one of MGM's best directors, makes the film move fast enough so these quibbles do not lessen the entertainment value of the film as a whole.
First half sophisticated comedy, second half patriotic cry for arms. It really changes the mood of the film which would have been fine had the change not been so jarring. The comedy of the first half is really entertaining with Gable and Russell an attractive romantic team. Throw in the marvelous Jessie Ralph as the Duchess and you've got a marvelous display of scene stealing. The Duchess, who "came to aristocracy via the stage door", is a salty lush who "carries my children like a lady and my liquor like a gentleman". Ralph, so marvelous as the society leader of Gable's 1936 smash "San Francisco", is a Marie Dressler/May Robson type dowager with her vinegary voice and acid delivery. But once the film departs Bombay, the comedy lessens, adventure increases (with an excellent chase sequence), until taken over by a well-filmed war sequence. In the scene where Russell gets her hands on the necklace off the passed-out duchess, she slithers out of the room, reminding me of the cat-like Gale Sondergaard in "The Letter".
Peter Lorre appears briefly as the slimy, whiskered Chinese captain of the ship that picks up the escaped Gable and Russell. He must have been the Asian cousin of Lorre's equally sleazy character in Gable's 1940 adventure "Strange Cargo". MGM perennial Reginald Owen is also on hand as the British commander in China. There are moments of farce (the chase sequence gets a bit silly with the poor Indian man carrying two buckets on each end of a long stick), tension (Will Gable and Russell get off Lorre's ship before Scotland Yard catches them?) and romance (the initially antagonistic couple realizing their attraction towards each other) to hold onto one mood for a long period of time. But Clarence Brown, one of MGM's best directors, makes the film move fast enough so these quibbles do not lessen the entertainment value of the film as a whole.