Honky Tonk (1941 film)

Last updated

Honky Tonk
HonkyTonkPoster.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by Jack Conway
Written by Marguerite Roberts
John Sanford
Annalee Whitmore Fadiman (uncredited)
Produced by Pandro S. Berman
Starring Clark Gable
Lana Turner
Claire Trevor
Frank Morgan
Cinematography Harold Rosson
William H. Daniels (uncredited)
Edited by Blanche Sewell
Music by Franz Waxman
Production
company
Distributed by Loew's Inc.
Release date
  • October 2, 1941 (1941-10-02)
(New York City) [1]
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$899,000 [2]
Box office$3.98 million [2]

Honky Tonk is a 1941 black-and-white Western film directed by Jack Conway, produced by Pandro S. Berman, and starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner. The supporting cast features Claire Trevor, Frank Morgan, Marjorie Main, Albert Dekker and Chill Wills.

Contents

Plot

Con man "Candy" Johnson and his friend "Sniper" flee town using quick wits and magic tricks. They catch a train to Yellow Creek, Nevada, where a gold rush is in progress. Aboard, he meets Elizabeth Cotton; she takes an instant dislike to him. When they arrive, Candy is amused to discover she is the daughter of "Judge" Cotton, an old acquaintance of his. Elizabeth is unaware of her father's crooked past and present.

Later that night, Candy, Sniper and the judge go to the local saloon. There, Candy finds another old friend of his, "Gold Dust" Nelson. She points out to him the owner (and sheriff), Brazos Hearn. When a gambler claims that the saloon is crooked, Candy takes his side. He forces Brazos into a game of Russian Roulette with him. The sheriff gives up after the fourth round and gives Candy $5000 to end the contest. Candy later reveals to Sniper and the judge that he had palmed the bullet; the gun was unloaded.

When Candy brings the judge home, Elizabeth berates him for getting her father drunk and being a bad influence. Candy overhears a hotel guest, Mrs. Varner, the widow of a preacher, say there is no church in the town. Candy gives her $1,500 to build one. Before leaving, Candy manages to kiss Elizabeth three times before being slapped. Mrs. Varner asks her why she did not stop him at the second. Candy opens a rival saloon and gambling den, which becomes more popular than Brazos'. Gold Dust becomes jealous of Elizabeth and tells her not to expect a wedding ring. Undiscouraged, Elizabeth gets Candy to marry her by first getting him drunk.

When Candy tells his new father-in-law, Cotton confesses to Elizabeth that he and Candy are both cheap crooks, and there is no hope of reforming either one. Elizabeth refuses to give up hope. That night, she locks Candy out of her bedroom in order for them to have a "proper courtship", infuriating him. He breaks down the door only to tell her "goodnight" and then storms off to have a "private" dinner with Gold Dust. Elizabeth shows up and makes up with Candy.

The next morning, she persuades him to leave his guns at home. Brazos, seeing he is unarmed, sends one of his men to shoot him. Candy turns out to have a concealed weapon, and kills the man. Brazos tries to call it murder, but the townspeople disagree. When Candy learns that Brazos had appointed himself sheriff, he gets himself elected as his replacement. He soon controls the town and amasses a huge fortune through various underhanded means. Even Brazos joins him.

When Elizabeth announces that she is pregnant, Candy is overjoyed. Upon hearing the news, the judge asks Elizabeth how Candy acquired the wealth to build her a mansion. When she replies that she doesn't care about Candy's method, only the results, Cotton tells her that she did not change Candy, he changed her.

Candy's men pressure him to dispose of the judge, who is telling the townsfolk all he knows about Candy's setup. To save Cotton's life, Candy puts him on a train out of town, but the judge returns and is shot in the back by Brazos during a town meeting. When she hears of her father's death, Elizabeth falls from her carriage, losing the baby and nearly her own life. Following her life-saving operation, a distraught Candy decides to leave Elizabeth, as he is no good for her.

Before he can, Candy learns of an armed confrontation between the townspeople and his men barricaded in city hall. Candy goes inside. He shoots it out with Brazos, who has taken over, and kills him. Then he lies to the crooks, telling them the governor has dispatched the militia to attack them (when in actuality, the corrupt governor offered Candy the militia to put down the rebellious townspeople).

The crooks all flee. Candy and Sniper brazen their way out of town and end up at a hotel in Cheyenne. Sniper sends Elizabeth a telegram telling her where they are. She follows and is reunited with her husband.

Cast

Gable and Turner in a publicity still for the film Clark Gable-Lana Turner.JPG
Gable and Turner in a publicity still for the film

Production

This was the first of four pairings of Clark Gable and Lana Turner. Gable and Turner were paired again in Somewhere I'll Find You (1942). They made two other films together, Homecoming (1948) and Betrayed (1954).

When cast, Lana Turner was only twenty, and her star was flying high, having just starred in the successful films Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Ziegfeld Girl . MGM was looking to make Turner its replacement for the deceased platinum beauty Jean Harlow and therefore cast her alongside the "King of Hollywood" himself, Clark Gable.

Turner was thrilled at the opportunity of working with Gable, but he was not, as she was twenty years his junior and quite green to the world of Hollywood. When reading lines with her idol, Turner was flustered, and blundered quite often. Gable said, "She couldn't read lines. She didn't make them mean anything; it was obvious she was an amateur."

Nevertheless, the pairing proved successful, and their steamy scenes together were unnerving to almost everyone, including Gable's wife Carole Lombard. She knew that he had an affinity for blondes, and upon hearing of Turner's casting, went to production head Louis B. Mayer and told him to specifically tell Turner that Gable was entirely off-limits.

Lombard had a habit of making surprise visits to the sets and was noticeably present during the bedroom scene with Turner and Gable. Turner was so intimidated by Lombard's presence that she went into her dressing room and refused to come out. When she did, Lombard was nowhere to be found. While Turner always vehemently denied rumors that she and Gable were involved in an affair, only going as far as to say she was quite smitten with him but looked up to him as more of a father-figure than anything else, it has always been speculated that a Turner-and-Gable affair had something to do with Lombard's last-minute decision to take a plane back to Los Angeles rather than a train, resulting in the crash which took her life. Turner claimed that the only time she and Gable ever saw each other outside of a professional environment was in the months following Lombard's death. Louis B. Mayer ordered her to have dinner with Gable at his home that he had shared with Lombard. Turner found him a lonely, broken man, a ghost of his former self. [3]

Reception

Critical

Contemporary reviews appraised the film as about average to good. Theodore Strauss of The New York Times described the film as mostly "a crowd-catching midway exhibit in which Miss Turner gives a competent, if limited, performance and Mr. Gable again shows off his muscles." [4] Variety , however, called the performances "uniformly good" and noted that the screenplay "though padded a bit and still open to cutting, is excellent for this action picture purpose". [5] Film Daily wrote, "Both Gable and Miss Turner give ace accounts of themselves in the leads, and there are some slick bits by their fellow players ... Jack Conway's two-fisted direction makes for solidity and realism, and Harold Rosson's photography is expert." [6] Harrison's Reports wrote, "As the rough romantic lover, Clark Gable seems to have done it again, for he is all that and more." [7] John Mosher of The New Yorker called the film "Just a plain Western." [8]

Box office

Honky Tonk was MGM's most financially successful film of 1941, and was the second highest-grossing film of that year, second only to Warner Bros.' Sergeant York . According to MGM records the film earned $2,893,000 in the US and Canada, and $1,087,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $1,895,000. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Gable</span> American actor (1901–1960)

William Clark Gable was an American film actor. Often referred to as The King of Hollywood, he had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in a variety of genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. He was named the seventh greatest male movie star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carole Lombard</span> American actress (1908–1942)

Carole Lombard was an American actress. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

<i>Love Finds Andy Hardy</i> 1938 film by George B. Seitz

Love Finds Andy Hardy is a 1938 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time. It stars Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard and Gene Reynolds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lana Turner</span> American actress (1921–1995)

Julia Jean "Lana" Turner was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid American actresses and one of MGM's biggest stars, with her films earning more than $50 million for the studio during her 18-year contract with them. Turner is frequently cited as a popular culture icon of Hollywood glamour and a screen legend of classical Hollywood cinema. She was nominated for numerous awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hank Thompson (musician)</span> American country music singer-songwriter (1925–2007)

Henry William Thompson was an American country music singer-songwriter and musician whose career spanned seven decades.

<i>Manhattan Melodrama</i> 1934 film by W. S. Van Dyke and George Cukor

Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American pre-Code crime film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. The movie also provided one of Mickey Rooney's earliest film roles. The film is based on a story by Arthur Caesar, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Story. It was also the first of Myrna Loy and William Powell's fourteen screen pairings.

Honky is a derogatory term used to refer to white people, predominantly heard in the United States.

<i>The Devil and Miss Jones</i> 1941 film by Sam Wood

The Devil and Miss Jones is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Sam Wood and starring Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, and Charles Coburn. Its plot follows a department store tycoon who goes undercover in one of his Manhattan shops to ferret union organizers, but instead becomes involved in the employees' personal lives.

<i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 1941 American screwball comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Norman Krasna, and starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. It also features Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Philip Merivale, and Lucile Watson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Conway (filmmaker)</span> Film director, actor

Hugh Ryan "Jack" Conway was an American film director and film producer, as well as an actor of many films in the first half of the 20th century.

<i>No Man of Her Own</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

No Man of Her Own is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard as a married couple in their only film together, several years before their own legendary marriage in real life. The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles, and originated as an adaptation of No Bed of Her Own, a 1931 novel by Val Lewton, but ended up based more on a story by Benjamin Glazer and Edmund Goulding, although it retained the title from Lewton's novel. It is not related to the 1950 film of the same name.

<i>They Met in Bombay</i> 1941 film by Clarence Brown

They Met in Bombay is a 1941 American adventure drama film directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell, with Peter Lorre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Gable filmography</span>

Clark Gable (1901–1960) was an American actor and producer who appeared in over 70 feature films and several short films. Gable first began acting in stage productions, before his film debut in 1924. After many minor roles, Gable landed a leading role in 1931, subsequently becoming one of the most dominant leading men in Hollywood. He often acted alongside re-occurring leading ladies: six films with Jean Harlow, seven with Myrna Loy, and eight with Joan Crawford, among many others.

<i>Somewhere Ill Find You</i> 1942 film by Wesley Ruggles

Somewhere I'll Find You is a 1942 film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner, released by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The film took almost two years to complete and was the last film Gable starred in before he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces for World War II. His next film was the post-war Adventure (1945).

<i>Gable and Lombard</i> 1976 film by Sidney J. Furie

Gable and Lombard is a 1976 American biographical film directed by Sidney J. Furie. The screenplay by Barry Sandler is based on the romance and consequent marriage of screen stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. The original music score was composed by Michel Legrand.

A honky-tonk is a type of bar. The phrase may also refer to:

<i>Fools for Scandal</i> 1938 film by Mervyn LeRoy

Fools for Scandal is a 1938 screwball comedy film starring Carole Lombard and Fernand Gravet, featuring Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, Isabel Jeans, Marie Wilson and Marcia Ralston, and produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. It was written by Herbert Fields and Joseph Fields with additional dialogue by Irving Brecher, and uncredited contributions by others based on the unproduced 1936 play Return Engagement by Nancy Hamilton, James Shute and Rosemary Casey. The songs are by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

<i>Homecoming</i> (1948 film) 1948 film

Homecoming is a 1948 American romantic drama film starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner. It was the third of their four films together, and like two of the others, was about a couple caught up in World War II.

<i>A Gentleman After Dark</i> 1942 film by Edwin L. Marin

A Gentleman After Dark is a 1942 crime/drama film starring Brian Donlevy and Miriam Hopkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradshaw Crandell</span> American artist and illustrator

Bradshaw Crandell was an American artist and illustrator. He was known as the "artist of the stars". Among those who posed for Crandell were Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Veronica Lake and Lana Turner. In 1921, he began his career with an ad for Lorraine hair nets sold exclusively by F. W. Woolworth. His first cover illustration was the May 28, 1921 issue for the humor magazine Judge. In later life, he went from illustrations to oil-on-canvas paintings which included political figures. He also provided poster work for 20th Century Fox. In 2006, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. In March 2010, an illustration for the 1952 Dutch Treat Club yearbook of Crandell's sold for $17,000.

References

  1. "The Broadway Parade". Film Daily . New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 2 September 29, 1941.
  2. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. Honky Tonk , tcm.com
  4. Strauss, Theodore (October 3, 1941). "Movie Review – Honky Tonk". The New York Times . Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  5. "Honky Tonk". Variety . New York: Variety, Inc. September 17, 1941. p. 9.
  6. "Reviews of New Films". Film Daily . New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 6 September 15, 1941.
  7. "'Honky Tonk' with Clark Gable and Lana Turner". Harrison's Reports : 150. September 20, 1941.
  8. "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker . New York: F-R Publishing Corp. October 4, 1941. p. 80.