Any movie fan will tell you that you have to learn to suspend your disbelief from time to time. Movies are make-believe; they are all, at least in part, fantasy. Action heroes could never survive half the stuff they go through in a typical movie. Monsters aren’t real. Space travel doesn’t work like that. Even relatively realistic dramas often contain unbelievable aspects. As a fan, you just have to learn to deal with these inconsistencies. That’s how movies work.
Buy Red Dust from MovieZyngBut I’ll be damned if I can suspend my belief far enough to believe that Clark Gable’s character in Red Dust would be stupid enough to fall for Mary Astor’s boring ass lady when Jean Harlow’s magnificent, lustful beauty is practically begging him to be hers. And there’s no offense meant to Mary Astor, who was a beautiful woman and a fine actress, but come on! In this film, there is no way anyone is going for her over what Harlow is doing.
Set in a rubber plantation in French Indochina, Gable plays Dennis Carson, the owner. He’s a hardscrabble man, a third-generation plantation owner. He works hard, plays hard, and isn’t above treating the local workers (called “Coolies” for some reason) like slaves. Vantine Jefferson (Harlow) is a fast-talking, seductive prostitute who shows up at the plantation on the run from the authorities in Saigon. At first, Carson pays her no mind; in fact, he gets rather annoyed with her constant talking, but soon enough he takes notice and takes her to bed.
Time passes, and Vantine is ready to take the next boat out of there. Before she gets on the boat, she hesitates. It is clear she has fallen for Carson, and she’s hoping to get a warm send-off, perhaps a kiss goodbye. But Carson is busy with work and misinterprets her desire. Instead of a kiss, he gives her some cash with promises that there will be more the next time he comes to Saigon.
Later, surveyor Gary Willis (Gene Raymond) shows up with his prim and proper wife Barbara (Mary Astor). Carson and Barbara don’t get along, but when Gary comes down with a deadly fever, Carson nurses him back to health, winning over Barbara’s affections.
Carson sends Gary to the far corners of the plantation on a job, which will keep him away for several days. He uses this as a means to seduce Barbara. I will say there is a scene in which Carson and Barbara get caught in a storm, and Barbara looks incredible in that moment, and one can see how Carson might fall for her then and there. But this is the movies, so of course it isn’t just lust, but the two fall in love, and Barbara is ready to leave Gary for good.
Meanwhile, Vantine has come back because her boat shipwrecked. There are some funny scenes between her and Barbara with Vantine roaming around in just her slip and taking baths out in the open, while the ever proper Barbara looks shocked.
This is a pre-Code film, so things do get a bit racy. Harlow’s outfits are nothing you wouldn’t see on primetime television now, but for the time, they were pretty wild. She looks amazing, and she’s so brash and hilarious I just love her. I still can’t see how in the world anyone could go for boring Barbara when Vantine is so wonderfully exciting in every way. Pre-Code or not, the film does go for a happy ending, which means marriages aren’t split up and the obvious coupling gets together in the end.
The original nitrate negatives have long been lost so the Warner Archive used the best available elements for this new 4K scan. All things considered it looks terrific.
Extras include the films trailer plus two short films, “Over the Counter” (notable for featuring a pre-fame Betty Grable) and “Wild People” (notable for its racist depiction of the people from Dutch New Guinea).
Buy Red Dust from AmazonWhile the film’s plot is a bit problematic, and I in no way buy Gable and Astor’s romance, Red Dust more than gets by on the charisma of its lead actors, and its pre-Code sex appeal.
