Clark & Carole

Let me officially start this post by stating for the record that I'm not big into romances. You know, the big love affairs that caused a king to abdicate, the star to divorce person A for B, etc. Just not my thing. However, I do have to admit that I TiVo'd a show off PBS called Great Romances of the 20th Century simply because it featured Clark Gable & Carole Lombard.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the facts (they could have told me Gable was left handed and I would have believed it. Is he? Anyhow...) but the 30 minute show sure had a lot of behind-the-scenes footage & home movies.

I'm finding myself forming a habit of looking for Bob Montgomery in anything Hollywood I watch or read. By darned, I'm successful too (would this be the lame equivalent to Six Degrees of Robert Montgomery?). Cases in point:

• Clark had small parts in silent movies. The program was discussing the transition actors had from silents to talkies. Up comes discussion of Joan Crawford's transition. Of course, to illustrate this they're showing a scene from Letty Lynton, from behind the cameras - about 30 seconds worth. Gah, why can't we have the whole movie too?

• For Hitchcock's cameo in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Carole supposedly directed the bit. I guess Life Magazine was on the set for that. Wonder what issue those photos showed up in...

Anyhow, everyone knows the ending, so I won't go any further. If you're cruising PBS schedules and find this coming up, I'd recommend it.