Tonight's Movie: Too Hot to Handle (1938)

The title of this film is rather ironic given the fire situation in California today...I had actually started watching this a few days ago but have had such a heavy work load that I didn't have time to finish it until this evening.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE stars Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon as newsreel photographers who compete with each other for scoops and the attention of Myrna Loy, who plays a dashing aviatrix.

Gable and Pidgeon's characters are as interested in creating news as they are in covering the real thing, which just goes to show that maybe things haven't changed as much in the last seven decades as one might think.

The film is mildly entertaining thanks to the star power of the three leads and a sterling supporting cast, including Walter Connolly, Leo Carrillo, Marjorie Main, and Virginia Weidler. By film's end, however, Gable has been reduced to dancing around a South American jungle in a tribal costume, while saving Loy's brother from a terrible fate, and one is rather glad when the overlong film draws to a close.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE runs 107 minutes. It was shot in black and white and directed by longtime MGM director Jack Conway. Conway directed Gable in other films, including BOOM TOWN and THE HUCKSTERS -- click titles for my posts on those films. Conway also directed WESTWARD THE WOMEN which I enjoyed very much last May.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE has been released on video but has not yet been released on DVD. Perhaps it will be included in a future volume of Gable films.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE can be seen on cable on TCM. TCM has the trailer available for online viewing.

Update: TOO HOT TO HANDLE is now available on DVD-R from the Warner Archive.