Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

wes-connors After a two-month visit to America, Irish-accented Clark Gable (as Charles Stewart Parnell) returns to 1880 Ireland. There, he is treated like an uncrowned King. As you might have guessed, the English oppose Mr. Gable's advocacy of independence for the Irish. Gable is drawn into an uneasy political alliance with Alan Marshal (as William "Willie" O'Shea) and begins a relationship with Mr. Marshall's wife, Myrna Loy (as Katie Wood). His enemies use Gable's affair with Ms. Loy for political gain...This fine looking MGM production is clearly dependent upon a captivating and passionate lead performance from its star. A subdued Gable is unable deliver. Distracting in his fluctuating sideburns, Gable does not excel in biographical characterizations. They should have shipped it to Paul Muni at Warner Bros. Or, made the story more exciting. This is an unexciting adaptation of the Irish hero's life. The romance with Loy is also a bore. And, the direction given by John M. Stahl makes it feel twice as long.*** Parnell (6/4/37) John M. Stahl ~ Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Alan Marshal, Edna May Oliver

sol1218 Epic motion picture about the life times and loves of the immortal Irish patriot Charles Stewart Parnell, Clark Gable, who fought for Irish independence and home rule from the hated and oppressive British Empire. In the end Parnell succumb not to British power bullets or gallows or even his fellow Irishmens infighting but to the woman that he loved Mrs. Katie O'Shea, Myrna Loy. It was Katie's social climbing husband Captain Willie, Alan Marshal, who exposed his love affair with his wife Katie in order to get back at him.Parnell was a man who never turned away from a good fight and his career in Irish/British politics was filled with battles that he both fought and won against almost unbelievable odds. Yet when it came to defend himself in the divorce trial of his love Katie O'Shea he just refused to stand up and fight like a man for her and his honor. Katie's husband Willie never loved her and just kept her around, not giving her the divorce that she begged him for, for only political reasons and nothing else.Coming back to his beloved Ireland after visiting his mother in the United States Parnell is quickly caught up in the vicious and cold-hearted attempt by the British to drive tens of thousands of Irish families out of their homes and farms in a major land-grab on their part. Being himself arrested for inciting violence, which was a bald-faced lie on the part of the British government, Parnell in fact called on his fellow Irishmen to refrain from violence and fight their brutal British overlords with the power of the vote instead.Being framed for the infamous May 6, 1882 Dublin Phoenix Park murders of British foreign secretary Fredrick Cavendish and his aid T.H Burke, Parnell stood on trial for his life and forced the issue when he got the Irish editor Richard Piggot,Neil Fitzgerald, to admit that he forged the letters supposedly written by the Innocent Parnell taking credit for the two British diplomats murders. Exposed on the stand as both a liar and a fraud a shaken Piggot asks to be excused so he can go outside the courtroom for some air and then proceeds to blow his brains out.Parnell now on the verge of his greatest and most sought after political victory, Irish autonomy and independence,is back-stabbed by his lovers, Kate O'Shea's, scheming husband Willie who exposes his affair with his wife by suing Katie for divorce. Refusing to defend himself feeling that his, and Katie's, personal life is nobody's business Parnell is then about to be thrown out of the newly formed Irish Parliament that he, more then anyone else, was responsible from being brought into existence in the first place.With a lifetime of battles under his belt Parnell's decision to turn away from this one the nasty and publicized O'Shea divorce lead him, by the vicious attacks on Katie and himself in the press, to suffer an emotional and physical collapses. In the end Parnell died from pneumonia on October 6, 1891 at the very young age of 45; Parnell was married to Katie some six months at the time of his death.Nowhere as bad as it's critics said it was back in 1937 "Parnell" gives a very accurate description of one of Ireland's most beloved sons and charismatic statesman and Clark Gable is very good in the role as the fiery but tragic Charles Stewart Parnell. The only thing that was bit too overdone in the film was Parnell's long and drawn out illness which could have been at least cut in half so the movie wouldn't have turned out to be a boring TV soap opera. Besides that "Parnell" is one of the best biographies to come out of Hollywood back then in the 1930's.

WarnersBrother When I saw that "Parnell" was coming up on TCM, I eagerly TIVO'd it, as an avid Gable fan and a rabid Loy fan. Plus, it enjoys an infamous reputation as a stinker and Gables worst movie. Coincidently I had earlier this week watched "Gone with the Wind" in it's entirety for the first time in about 5 years. This reinforced my three emotions about "Wind": It's the greatest movie ever made though not the best; It's script is a cloying, almost craven ode to the old South including the racist fantasy of happy slaves "diggin' fo' da South!";Lastly that as great a cast as it has, and how wonderful Vivian Leigh is, Gable steals the picture. He IS Rhett Butler. The film slows whenever he is offscreen, and lights up when he is on. No Gable, and Selznick has half the picture.Having seen "Parnell" (and I made myself watch it twice) I agree with other reviewers that other actors might have been better suited to the script and the director. However, I utterly disagree that that Gable is miscast;He could easily been great in this: He (and the rest of the film)were mis-DIRECTED. I can't imagine how this picture came to completion under the strict system at MGM. Stahl should have been yanked off and sent packing after the first days rushes. Was Louis B. Mayer off somewhere in space? It is the most shocking directorial failure I have ever seen from MGM.Gable merely followed his direction, which I think must have been "Clark, I want you to think of Ronald Coleman underplaying. Now I want you to do it just like that, but think Coloeman on opium....and kinda fey" It is extremely obvious that Stahl imagined this role for Coleman, Leslie Howard, Robert Donat or even as someone else has said, Walter Pigeon. It only makes it worse that that the real George Parnell was much closer to Rhett Butler than he was to the scipt of this piece.Gable, unlike todays leading men, was notoriously not a creampuff. I am frankly surprised that after this thing flopped, he didn't beat the hell out of Stahl. Famously, Gable was afraid of period pieces after this and reluctant to play Rhett. But having now seen Parnell, I believe that this experience also lead him to be wary of "Wind"s first director, George Cukor who, like Stahl, was known for "womens pictures", and summarily helped lead to Cukors dismissal from that film.Having said all this, if you have the chance to see it, do. it's not a zero...maybe a 3.BTW, as a postscript: Someone commented that Gable doesn't affect an Irish accent, which is probably wise....remember, he was the only one in Gone With the Wind without a bad Southern accent :-)

MartinHafer I am an avid lover of the book THE FIFTY WORST FILMS by Harry Medved. It's brilliantly written and funny. However, a few times the book lists movies that are poor but really don't approach awfulness. This movie is one of them (along with THAT HAGEN GIRL and SWING YOUR LADY). While I will gladly admit that it is about Gable's worst film from the mid to late 1930s, it's certainly better than some movies he did in 1931 when he wasn't yet a star. Also, with so many bad films from Hollywood, this movie just seems poor--not bad. After all, even with a saccharine script, this movie STILL stars Myrna Loy and Clark Gable and how bad can a film be when it features these fine actors? Yes, it's true that Clark as Parnell is pretty wussy and unbelievable (and completely unlike Gable in other films, but I actually saw some merit, albeit little, in the film and just can't accept that it deserves a 1 or even a 2.