Teacher's Pet (1958)

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

If you ask me - This badly dated, 1958, "adult" Comedy/Romance (whose story was, pretty much, just a one-note-joke about identity deception) was so insultingly predictable that, before long, I just couldn't find myself staying in the least bit interested in following its story's contrivances (that were meant to generate laughs) very closely, at all.Besides Teacher's Pet being way too long (at 120 minutes), I also found its 2, big-name stars, Doris Day (Hollywood's oldest virgin) and Clark Gable (pushing 60 years old) were both grossly miscast for their parts. To me, these 2 seriously lacked the essential chemistry needed to keep the floundering momentum of their trite, little on-screen romance going farther than beyond that of just a fizzle and a yawn.I mean, even that platinum-blond bombshell, Mamie Van Doren (yet another Marilyn Monroe clone), as nightclub performer, Peggy DeFore, doing her "The Girl Who Invented Rock'n'Roll" number, couldn't bring the likes of this decidedly "low-on-laughs" comedy to life.

So yesterday afternoon i'm at home waiting for the telephone repair man to come and fix the dam phone, and i'm thinking there is no point starting a film if i'm to be interrupted half way thru. I flick thru the listings on British satellite and see something called Teacher's Pet, doesn't ring a bell {no phone pun intended}, i click on the info link and it tells me it stars Clark Gable & Doris Day, and the plot summary is a battle of the sexes romantic comedy set around Day's journalist teacher Erica Stone, against Gable's gruff rough and tough newspaper editor James Gannon, also starring Gig Young & Mamie Van Doren, and that Gig Young was nominated for best supporting actor.Still didn't ring any bells {ok the joke is wearing thin now}, so i figure i'll put it on safe in the knowledge that if i get interrupted it wont make a bit of difference since the film can't be any good on account of me not having heard of it before!. Well for the first time ever i was grateful for a service engineer for actually being late because it enabled me to watch this delightful comedy in its entirety. Gable & Day play off each other a treat as Gable goes undercover in Day's journalist class purely to under-mime her, he believes that you can't teach journalism, the only way to become a good journalist is with hard graft on job experience. The tension is evident from the off, but naturally things start to take a turn into the light hearted department as the pair get deeper into the picture.Some truly great comic moments to be found here with Gable showing a particularly rewarding arc in facial expressions, whilst Day is as bright as a button and as beautiful as she ever was. Yet as good as Gable & Day are together {big age difference a minor irritant}, it's Gig Young who walks away with the picture as Gable's potential love rival, his Dr. Hugo Pine is a man who is great at everything, dancing, bongo playing, writing many best selling books, and handsome to boot. Young has a lot of fun playing the character, and probably lays out the funniest portrayal of a man with a hangover ever, it's a wonderful effervescent performance.Teacher's Pet, a hugely enjoyable surprise of a movie 8/10, oh and the phone got fixed as well!.

Clark Gable quickly becomes "Teacher's Pet" in this 1958 film also starring Doris Day, Gig Young and Mamie van Doren. Gable plays gruff, self-educated reporter Jim Gannon who, after writing an insulting letter to a journalism teacher, is forced to go to the class by his boss. The teacher is Erica Stone (Doris Day), and Gannon suddenly becomes very interested in learning. Using an assumed name, he impresses Erica with his natural talent for journalism, though he claims to be in the wallpaper business. He then learns that her father was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and that she's being escorted around by a professor who hasn't got a thing wrong with him.This is a wonderful black and white comedy that Gable and Day perform beautifully and with great chemistry. Nowadays people comment on the age differences - I'm sure I didn't notice it the first time I saw the film, and it's one time where it doesn't matter. Gable gives us a fully-blown character, a man intimidated by his lack of education and therefore resentful of anyone who has one. In a wonderful scene between him and Nick Adams, who plays a high school dropout, he tells the young man that because of his lack of knowledge, "I've spent my life excusing myself from dinner tables and going to the mens room, and I don't want that to happen to you." Day is a delight, relaxed, charming and beautiful. Her best scene is her imitation of Mamie Van Doren's nightclub act, singing "The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" to the embarrassment of Jim, who was seen with her by Erica and Hugo (Young) in a nightclub.Gig Young, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, is hilarious as superman Hugo, who believes drunkenness is nothing more than state of mine, speaks many languages, plays the bongos, and can exceed Jim's war service record. The confrontations between them are marvelous.In modern times, it's tough to find this intelligent kind of comedy anymore where there are actual characters who have their serious moments, but when one comes along, it's well worth it. "Teacher's Pet" is a great example of Hollywood at its finest - an excellent script, great stars in Day and Young, and a living legend, Clark Gable, doing what he'd been doing for thirty years.

This has the look and feel of a 1938 film. The anachronistic acting style is embarrassing. Since we know from The Misfits that Gable was a smart actor, the dialogs itself is witty, the fault must lie in the heavy-handed direction. It is surprising that George Seaton started in the mid 1940's. Look at Gable's gestures in the early scene in the class room. Awful. Doris Day, on the other hand, gave a very respectable performance. The relevance of the thematic conflict between the uneducated tradesman vs the educated professional lapsed in relevance in the post war GI bill era. In 1938 this movie would have been hip. By 1958 it is unintentionally funny.