Mogambo Blu-ray Review: Clark Gable Goes Back to Africa

Some 21 years after Red Dust (1932) premiered, MGM remade the film (which itself had been an adaptation of a stage play) as Mogambo. It also starred Clark Gable in essentially the same role, with Ava Gardner in the Jean Harlow role and Grace Kelly replacing Mary Astor. It had a bigger budget and was shot on location in Africa. The black and white photography was replaced with glorious Technicolor. The legendary John Ford directed. Even with all that, it pales in comparison with Red Dust.

To me, the problem lies with two things. First, Red Dust is a pre-Code film, while Mogambo was made in the heyday of the Production Code. As such, Red Dust is racy, suggestive, and sexy as hell, while Mogambo seems a little too prim and proper. Second, while I love Ava Gardner and she’s quite fun in Mogambo, she doesn’t hold a candle to Jean Harlow in this part. Harlow is wild, sensual, and wonderful.

The plot is more or less the same. Victor Marswell (Gable) is a big-game hunter and wild-game catcher in Africa (in Red Dust he played a rubber-plantation owner). One day, New York socialite Eloise “Honey Bear” Kelly (Gardner) arrives at his camp looking for a maharaja who was supposed to be waiting for her there (in Red Dust, the same character was clearly a sex worker). The maharaja had to go back home, and so she decided to flirt with Victor for a while.

They have a brief affair, but when Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden – who I always think is George Sanders for the first 15 minutes) and his wife Linda (Grace Kelly) arrive, Victor pushes Honey Bear away and sends her on the next boat out of there.

Victor saves Linda from a panther attack and gets caught in the rain; they share a kiss and fall in love. Honey Bear returns when the boat breaks down. She’s also in love with Victor (everybody falls in love with Clark Gable after sharing more than a few minutes with him on screen). She’s catty with Linda, and they squabble.

They all go out on safari, taking several days to get to where the gorillas are. This gives John Ford the chance to show off even more of his African setting, for Victor and Linda to take romantic walks around waterfalls at sunset, and for Honey Bear to get even more jealous.

Gardner portrays Honey Bear with a playfulness. She’s a big girl from New York who has seen it all. She acts tough and uses humor as her armor. It is an enjoyable performance, but it really can’t compare to what Harlow did in Red Dust. Harlow absolutely owned the screen. Grace Kelly keeps Linda all prim and proper, a true lady. I can believe Victor would fall for her more than I could his character falling for Mary Astor, but that’s mostly because she’s Grace Kelly, and who wouldn’t fall in love with her?

It ends much like Red Dust concludes, with a happy ending. Mogambo is a perfectly good movie. It is impossible not to compare it with that earlier film, and it pales standing next to it. Which isn’t really fair. Had I never seen Red Dust, I’d probably come away liking Mogambo a lot more. But since I have and that was just a couple of weeks ago (when I also wrote a review of it), my feelings toward Mogambo come in second best.

Still, with those stars, that director, and the gorgeous setting, Mogambo is well worth your time.

Warner Archive presents Mogambo with a new 4K restoration from the original negatives.

Extras include the Tom and Jerry cartoon “Just Ducky” and a Traveltalk short film on the life of Hans Christian Anderson.