"Adventure" tells the tale of merchant marine Harry Patterson (Clark Gable). He's a rough and tumble, hard drinking, hard-fighting, manly-man who spends months at a time at sea and has a woman in every port.
He meets his match in San Francisco in the form of the sophisticated librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson). She's cultured, educated, and quick with a barbed comment when necessary.
Harry meets her when he accompanies a boat buddy, Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), to the library where he searches for an answer to his crisis of faith. You see, he believes that he has lost his soul. This happened right after their ship was torpedo'd by a Japanese sub, and he escaped along with Harry and a few others on a floating crate. He prayed and swore he'd give up the rough life if they were rescued.
Well, they were, but he didn't ... and he claims he saw his soul slip away shortly afterwards during a bar fight.
Anyway, Harry is a colossal idiot in the library when he meets Emily. He's completely over-the-top in his disdain for books, reading, and educated people in general. It's quite an unattractive display of willful ignorance on par with what we see coming out of the current administration in DC .
He and Emily get into a nasty little verbal back-and-forth until Emily's roommate, Helen (Joan Blondell), shows up. She's frisky and fun and she clicks with Harry immediately. They form a threesome of sorts soon after with Helen hanging on Harry's arm and Emily being a complete sourpus ... until a moment in the countryside when she spends some time alone with Harry stealing chickens. Yes. That is their bonding moment.
After a particularly nasty jealousy-fueled exchange between Harry and Emily, the predictable happens.
The rest of the film follows their relationship as he is called back to the sea.
Overall this is a fairly entertaining film ... BUT ... it's about a half hour too long. The thing with Mudgin losing his soul goes on long after the point is made; and some of the scenes where Harry and Emily are being nasty to each other go on to the point where I'd half expected them to pull out weapons and physically attack each other. Oh, and there's a scene at the end of the film where Harry suddenly acquires God-like powers that completely took me out of the moment because of its monumental stupidity.
So, I'd say, Recommended ... with caveats.
He meets his match in San Francisco in the form of the sophisticated librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson). She's cultured, educated, and quick with a barbed comment when necessary.
Harry meets her when he accompanies a boat buddy, Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), to the library where he searches for an answer to his crisis of faith. You see, he believes that he has lost his soul. This happened right after their ship was torpedo'd by a Japanese sub, and he escaped along with Harry and a few others on a floating crate. He prayed and swore he'd give up the rough life if they were rescued.
Well, they were, but he didn't ... and he claims he saw his soul slip away shortly afterwards during a bar fight.
Anyway, Harry is a colossal idiot in the library when he meets Emily. He's completely over-the-top in his disdain for books, reading, and educated people in general. It's quite an unattractive display of willful ignorance on par with what we see coming out of the current administration in DC .
He and Emily get into a nasty little verbal back-and-forth until Emily's roommate, Helen (Joan Blondell), shows up. She's frisky and fun and she clicks with Harry immediately. They form a threesome of sorts soon after with Helen hanging on Harry's arm and Emily being a complete sourpus ... until a moment in the countryside when she spends some time alone with Harry stealing chickens. Yes. That is their bonding moment.
After a particularly nasty jealousy-fueled exchange between Harry and Emily, the predictable happens.
The rest of the film follows their relationship as he is called back to the sea.
Overall this is a fairly entertaining film ... BUT ... it's about a half hour too long. The thing with Mudgin losing his soul goes on long after the point is made; and some of the scenes where Harry and Emily are being nasty to each other go on to the point where I'd half expected them to pull out weapons and physically attack each other. Oh, and there's a scene at the end of the film where Harry suddenly acquires God-like powers that completely took me out of the moment because of its monumental stupidity.
So, I'd say, Recommended ... with caveats.