mogambo

I’ve had people telling me about “Mogambo” for years. All I had to do was mention “King Solomon’s
Mines” with Stewart Granger as one of my favorite films and someone invariably would bring up this
Clark Gable movie costarring Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. Well, I finally got my hands on it and
gave it a look. The result? Well, after years of hearing about it, the atmosphere of the film was
everything I thought it would be. The story on the other hand was a real sideswipe.

Clark Gable is this hunter in Africa who captures animals for circuses and zoos, kind of like John
Wayne does in “Hatari !” Anyway, he’s doing his animal capturing thing and Ava Garder shows up
looking for a maharajah she was supposed to go on safari with. Apparently, the guy stood her up,
so she busies herself with seducing Gable, who takes her up on the offer because he’s a sleaze
anyway.

Gardner, now inexplicably in love with Gable, leaves on the next boat against her will. Enter Grace
Kelly as the wife of a scientist who arrives to record and photograph gorillas. Within a day, she’s in
love with Gable too. However, even though Gable wants to exploit that possibility, Gardner returns
unexpectedly and sees his interest in Kelly. Now she’s jealous and keeps making subtle cracks
about their burgeoning love affair right in front of Kelly’s nerdy husband. And now they all have to
go on a long safari together to look for gorillas.

“Mogambo” is an achievement and a letdown at the same time. MGM spent all kinds of dough
getting the location footage of Africa and making the film seem truly epic in scope. It is some of the
best filmmaking in Africa since the aforementioned “King Solomon’s Mines.” The problem is they
merely use it as a backdrop for a typical love story that plays out in a very contrived fashion. Of all
the dramatic possibilities of safari, they choose a love triangle.

Romance was present in “King Solomon’s Mines” as well, but it was seamlessly evolved between
two people within the course of the adventure and in the beginning the two didn’t like each other.
There was conflict. Here, Gable is without real conflicts with the women at all, aside from knowing
that he’s philandering with a married woman and doesn’t care. Gable is a callous home wrecker
and women in this film fall for him too easily and too quickly.

This overly melodramatic tension between the three comprises the majority of the film, with savage
tribes and angry gorillas, which could have been awesome action devices, taking an atmospheric
backseat. Doubly sad is the fact that Gardner’s acting in the first half of the film is plain poor as
she postures and sets up every line like she’s trying for the triple axle spin in a skating competition.
I can’t blame her. The writing for her character in the first half is really substandard. Then the
strength of her character is betrayed when it is realized that she is desperate to have Gable back.
Why? He’s a total jerk, and she says it many times in the film to Kelly’s face to warn her.
“Mogambo” is a movie that makes women look illogically weak.

Great scenery, HIGH production value, but undercut by tedious romantic melodrama, “Mogambo”
could have been great. As it is, it is simply a good 1950s MGM Technicolor spectacle. Try “King
Solomon’s Mines,” “Scaramouche” and “Valley of the Kings” for some great ones.