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      Idiot's Delight

      Released Jan 27, 1939 1h 45m Comedy List
      40% 5 Reviews Tomatometer 46% 500+ Ratings Audience Score In Clark Gable's only musical performance on film, "The King of Hollywood" plays World War I veteran Harry Van (Clark Gable), who is attempting to revive his career in show business. Twenty years after a brief romantic liaison with beautiful Russian acrobat Irene (Norma Shearer), Harry finds himself stranded in a European hotel during the outbreak of World War II. While he waits for the borders to be reopened, Harry meets a mysterious woman who may be Irene. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Jun 22 Buy Now

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      Critics Reviews

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      John Kinloch California Eagle Clarence Brown has given the film snappy, brisk direction. However, it bogs down toward end and never quite comes off. Oct 30, 2019 Full Review Graham Greene The Spectator Over-acting could hardly go further... Sep 11, 2019 Full Review Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com WWII + Gable+ Gable singing! Add Norma Shearer for more MGM star power. Rated: 4/5 Feb 18, 2008 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 3/5 Jun 19, 2005 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews An unfulfilling adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Rated: C Jan 28, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member This movie, released in January 1939, it is amazingly prescient at predicting what was going to happen in the next few years, namely the horror of World War II. The story itself is charming, as our Clark Gable and Norma Shearer, and features a bravura performance by my favorite actor Burgess Meredith! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Tom M Anti war movie filmed before the outbreak of WW2. Gable and Shearer have great chemistry. Unfortunately, the film descends into dull propaganda. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/08/21 Full Review Audience Member Gable and Shearer give two their best performances in the top film adaptation of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway smash Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member A misfire extraordinaire! Gable dances like he has shackles on his feet; the anti-Astaire. The acting and direction are incredibly stilted; Shearer is absurdly camp. Her affectations are ridiculous. The pacifist message of this movie is almost comical, in light of the actual history of WWII. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review kevin w Gable interestingly (because he's not what you call your first choice for this kind of role) plays a showbiz hoofer, back from WW1 and on the lookout for any job he can tag. Norma Shearer plays vaudeville carny performer. They meet for one night of love and then part, only to meet up again years later in Europe at the outbreak of WW2. Robert Sherwood concocted this basically anti-war message film but it seems to bear the imprint of many other hands and too many cooks... For instance, Shearer's kooky traveling artist persona grates on the nerves and one wishes Gable, ever a rock, would shut her up just once. Here is a mighty effort, although to no avail. Or in conventional terms: a bomb. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Robert E. Sherwood won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for his allegory-like satire Idiot's Delight. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the film rights to the play, and commissioned Sherwood himself to adapt his play to the screen. The result is this astoundingly poignant classic, which features Norma Shearer and Clark Gable in the third and last of their radiant screen pairings... Wonderfully odd--A Russian Countess on the Swiss border is really an American vaudeville performer in disguise; she's not hiding from anything or anyone, she just wants to be bigger than life. Unfortunately, a second-rate song-and-dance man she once dated is staying at the same hotel, while wartime hysteria is breaking out all around them... Shearer and Gable ham it up to this idiot's delight!! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis In Clark Gable's only musical performance on film, "The King of Hollywood" plays World War I veteran Harry Van (Clark Gable), who is attempting to revive his career in show business. Twenty years after a brief romantic liaison with beautiful Russian acrobat Irene (Norma Shearer), Harry finds himself stranded in a European hotel during the outbreak of World War II. While he waits for the borders to be reopened, Harry meets a mysterious woman who may be Irene.
      Director
      Clarence Brown
      Screenwriter
      Robert E. Sherwood
      Distributor
      Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
      Production Co
      Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
      Genre
      Comedy
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Jan 27, 1939, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jun 22, 2009
      Runtime
      1h 45m
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