Adventure (1945)

I'll tell you why so serious

Crappy film

Blistering performances.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Adventure (1945)Surely the title is a huge pun, or a huge mistake. This is an adventure of a man who is no longer looking for the high seas and wartime survival, but the adventure of love with a woman who is not, at fist his type. It's not as bad as some of the reviews suggest, but there is something steady and normal and incipient about it all. While featuring Clark Gable in the lead, and with the same director as Gone with the Wind a few years earlier, there is something stiff about it all, even the humor and fun. Greer Garson is the "serious" woman, someone who has to force herself to have fun, and Joan Blondell is the racy one, out for fun above all else. And if Gable seems suited to the crazy woman, he's clearly also set to be tamed by the other.That's pretty much the adventure, after a few wild scenes from kicking down the door in Chile to getting torpedoed by the Japanese. Garson can be impressive in her cultured way, but here she is hot and cold, on and off. It's partly her speeches are more words than meaning. There's nothing more boring than people talking about being exciting. If in one scene you'll be laughing as Gable and Garson trap some chickens, in the next you'll be forced to think deep thoughts about true adventure and true meaning—when in fact the meaning was in the chicken scene.Blondell never quite gets her due in many of her movies because she plays against (or in contrast to) the leading female who is more grand, or more beautiful, or just more star powered than she is. Too bad. She's fun but she also has fabulous screen presence. That, to me, is what matters most (often) in this era.The movie is too long in parts, and the theme wears thin after while. In the end it's about a sailor's life or the landlubber's, the first filled with freedom, the second with a home and a family. It's 1945, the soldiers are coming home—guess which side wins?

I'm giving this movie 6 stars for the sheer pleasure of looking at Greer Garson, one of my favorites.But I'd put this movie alongside "Remember?" as the weakest Garson films. For me, the problem was Clark Gable.Gable is given the kind of typical "rough guy the dames falls for" role that made him a star...a combination of bluster and charm that won over Jean Harlow or Myrna Loy or Claudette Colbert.Here, I think it's too much bluster and too little charm to realistically connect with Garson in the role she's given.One pleasure here is seeing Joan Blondell -- she did lots of good work after the '30s musicals that she's best remembered for.Also good: Thomas Mitchell.Overall: see it once for the novelty of it, or skip it altogether,

Despite the bad reviews from others I watched this film with much anticipation. After all how bad could any movie be when it featured Garson, Gable, Blondell and Mitchell, and was directed by Victor Fleming. And at first it went along just fine although I must agree with the reviewer who remarked that the chemistry between Blondell and Gable was superior. They just sparkled, they were sexy, they oozed animal magnetism. That's not to say that Greer Garson didn't hold her own. In fact she was the glue that held the whole, confused thing together. Without her there was nothing to maintain the viewer's interest because quite frankly, after a while Gable's barking became just annoying. Perhaps the way he took charge was meant to convey care and affection but came across as arrogance and thoughtlessness. His tendency to overact was probably because this was his first movie after his wartime service but why didn't someone ask him to tone it down a few notches. So there you have it: a good story (that tends toward the melodramatic toward the end) and a great cast should have yielded a much better product.

Clark Gable and Greer Garson were the highly touted combo in "Adventure" when it opened in 1945. It was Clark Gable's first film after the war, and the original slogan was "Gable's back, and Garson's got him!" Well, not really.Of all of the movie stars who returned after World War II, Gable had it the worst. Older than the other movie star soldiers, the years he lost were more precious, plus he had been widowed recently. It would be several years before he started to get good roles in good movies again. Frankly, this heavily scripted film wasn't one of them."Adventure" is the story of a man, Harry Patterson, committed to a life of freedom on the sea and good fun on shore. Garson is Emily, the librarian he meets, spars with, and falls for. Joan Blondell plays her roommate, Helen, with whom Harry has an initial attraction. Thomas Mitchell plays fellow seaman Mudge, who serves in a way as Harry's conscience.There are several problems with this film. First, there is a mystical-spiritual-fantasy aspect to the story that is not brought out in Victor Fleming's direction. The dialogue is weighty, and the whole thing is slow going. The casting is a miss, with the exceptions of Joan Blondell and Mitchell. Garson at 41 isn't quite right for Emily and isn't well cast against Gable. Someone like Maureen O'Hara might have been better. Gable is one dimensional - I would suggest this is Fleming's fault. The direction is not strong or focused.Overall, a disappointment, long, and overdone.