Teacher's Pet (1958)

Very disappointing...

Let's be realistic.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you ask me - This badly dated, 1958, "adult" Comedy/Romance (whose story was, pretty much, just a one-note-joke about identity deception) was so insultingly predictable that, before long, I just couldn't find myself staying in the least bit interested in following its story's contrivances (that were meant to generate laughs) very closely, at all.Besides Teacher's Pet being way too long (at 120 minutes), I also found its 2, big-name stars, Doris Day (Hollywood's oldest virgin) and Clark Gable (pushing 60 years old) were both grossly miscast for their parts. To me, these 2 seriously lacked the essential chemistry needed to keep the floundering momentum of their trite, little on-screen romance going farther than beyond that of just a fizzle and a yawn.I mean, even that platinum-blond bombshell, Mamie Van Doren (yet another Marilyn Monroe clone), as nightclub performer, Peggy DeFore, doing her "The Girl Who Invented Rock'n'Roll" number, couldn't bring the likes of this decidedly "low-on-laughs" comedy to life.

This is a good comedy film. It needs as little as a couple of charismatic protagonists — one of which bearing a special allure, as Clark Gable inquestionably is —, a good quantity of moments and exchanges of words well able to provide amusement and even laugh, and that discreet pair of sadness and depth that, with its absence or presence, tells apart trivial productions from more meaningful works. Teacher's Pet exceeds the requirements for a good comedy, third cast member Gid Young offers a seriously noteworthy play performance, importantly enriching the enjoyment of the story.Light jokes, significant humour, whose back side frequently is bitter irony, add to very vivid black & white photography. Aesthetical prowess, brilliance in dialogue, are the shiny, fetching cover veiling a beautifully played beautiful drama.

Directed by George Seaton ("Miracle on 34th Street"), this coyly titled 1958 romantic comedy has more on its mind than mistaken identities and the May-December relationship at its core. Running a bit too long at 120 minutes, it's actually an intriguing look at the shifting journalism ethos of the late 1950's when hardcore, "Front Page"-style newspapermen were begrudgingly making way for reporters with college degrees. It should come s no surprise that Clark Gable represents the former as Jim Gannon, the no-nonsense editor of the fictitious New York Evening Chronicle, at odds with journalism teacher Erica Kane played with sophisticated élan by Doris Day, who was just embarking on her most fruitful period as an actress with her near-classic pairings with Rock Hudson soon to follow.Written by Fay and Michael Kanin, the plot has the self-made Gannon bristling at the thought of lecturing at Kane's night school journalism class. When his boss forces him, Gannon reconsiders when he sees that Kane is a pretty blonde but is soon forced to take on the identity of wallpaper salesman Jim Gallagher when she humiliates him by reading out loud to her class the nasty letter he wrote her. The ruse continues as Gannon decides to prove that journalism classes are a sham and that nothing replaces the first-hand experience of working in a newsroom. Things get complicated when he becomes her star pupil and sees his competition for Kane's affections, the dapper Dr. Hugo Pine, a self-effacing overachiever who happens to be a much-published psychologist, an expert mambo dancer, a polyglot, and a smooth bongo player. You can pretty much figure out the rest.As Gannon/Gallagher, the 57-year-old Gable was near the end of his career, and he looks tired and paunchy here. Fortunately, he provides enough of his recognizable swagger and snap to get away with the hard-boiled aspects of the role. At this point in her career, Day had already moved securely away from the lightweight musical comedies that were her forte and into leading lady parts with surprising aplomb. Underneath the manicured schoolteacher veneer, she brings a wholesome yet mature sexiness to Kane that makes the age gap between her and Gable less of an issue than one would expect. Playing his standard role of third wheel, Gig Young does an agile turn as the too-good-to-be-true Dr. Pine. Nick Adams (who would attempt to seduce Day the following year as a carefree college boy in "Pillow Talk") has a small part as Barney, the copy boy desperate to become a reporter, while Marilyn Monroe-wannabe Mamie Van Doren has a memorable bit as Gannon's showgirl squeeze. That is indeed a young Marion Ross (Mrs. Cunningham of "Happy Days") as Kane's secretary Katy. There are no extras with the 2005 DVD.

The script is well done. The premise amusing: A hard-boiled editor faces off with a journalism teacher.The gender politics haven't aged well: Today, the Doris Day character would surely be an editor herself. In those days, though, being a nurse or teacher were what bright women did. And Day is a professor here (albeit in a night school.) She and Clark Gable, playing the newsman, don't exactly have chemistry. But they're not supposed to like or trust each other at first. They are both major movie stars in a system that was dying out.Speaking of dying, this was near the end of Gable's career -- only a few films before more famously ill-fated "The Misfits." And two of the major supporting players were to die at their own hands: Gig Young plays a brilliant psychologist Gable sees as a rival for Day's affections. (The scenes in which he's drunk are where it began, for me, to lose its charms a bit. They're slightly mean.)Nick Adams, too, died of unnatural causes. He plays a promising up-and-comer at the paper.Day is stuck with a very unbecoming hairstyle. It sort of bridges the gap between her days singing with big bands and her greatest (popular, if not critical) glory days in the movies with Rock Hudson. She gives a sturdy, likable performance.Mamie Van Doren is a nightclub singer of Gable's acquaintance. She too has a terrible haircut. (Please note: I generally don't notice actresses' hair but these two are notably unflattering.) The nightclub scenes recall "The Awdul Truth." And if, as she sings, she invented rock and roll, the song she sings in the club certainly shows no sign of that.The movie is long for a comedy. It could have been shorter and could have been better. Still, it's pure pleasure most of the way through.