Red Dust

1932 "She fought for her mate with a tigress' fury…"
7.2| 1h23m| NR| en
Details

Dennis, owner of a rubber plantation in Cochinchina, is involved with Vantine, who left Saigon to evade the police. When his new surveyor arrives along with his refined wife Dennis is quickly infatuated by her.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Reviews

Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!
Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
gavin6942 The owner of a rubber plantation (Clark Gable) becomes involved with the new wife (Mary Astor) of one of his employees (Gene Raymond).The movie was remade by director John Ford in 1953 as "Mogambo", this time set in Africa rather than Indochina and shot on location in color, with Ava Gardner in the Harlow role and Grace Kelly playing Astor's part. Clark Gable returned, twenty-one years later, to play the same character. Ford used African tribal music as the film's score.I like the idea of a film set in French Indochina, especially one made in the 1930s. Now, all anyone associated with the region is the Vietnam War (both the French and later American parts), and it is interesting to see it from another angle -- although, in a sense, it is sort of the same angle. This is very much a film about Western colonialism, even if that was not the original intent.
Maddyclassicfilms Directed by Victor Fleming,with a screenplay by John Mahin,Red Heat pairs two of the biggest stars of the thirties,Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. Set in the deepest jungles of Malaysia the film sees just how far the moral standards of the day could be pushed. The screen practically burns apart from the lust of the two leads whenever they're together.On a quiet rubber plantation in Malaysia, things heat up when the quick tempered manager,Dennis Carson(Clark Gable)falls for two different women.There's tough talking woman of the night,Vantine(Jean Harlow) and the fragile,pampered,uptown girl,Barbara Willis(Mary Astor). Barbara's husband Gary(Gene Raymond)is a new employee on the plantation.Further complications ensue when Gary comes down with a tropical fever and a big storm starts heading towards the plantation.The daily life of the plantation would be explored in a little more detail in the 50's remake Mogambo(with Gable reprising his role alongside Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly). The real star of this film is Jean Harlow,she gets the best lines and makes her presence felt so strongly in every scene she's in that you wish she were in all of them.If there's a weak point here it's the love triangle.It never really gets off the ground due to the casting of Astor.Never at any time can you buy Barbara as a serious rival for Carson's affections,she's too whiny and under-developed,as opposed to the feisty Vantine.Those issues aside though what's here is a lot of fun,the acting is solid,Gable is at his most rugged and much of the dialogue is rather naughty(given the era)to say the least, and the film is a great deal of fun because of it.Memorable scenes include Harlow taking a bath in full view of everyone on the plantation and Gable rescuing Astor from the tropical storm,well worth a watch.
moonbus-982-519398 For viewers who may not be familiar with Jean Harlow, this is a terrific film to start with. Her screen presence was unmatched; certainly the sexiest actress on the silver screen until MM, and extremely well-matched with Gable. Harlow plays a sassy hooker who gets most of the clever lines ("I don't usually sleep nights.").Gable is perfectly cast as the rough plantation owner living in a thoroughly man's world with no use for women (except as playthings). The man had more screen presence in his little finger than most actors have at all. His boyishly arrogant grin after Astor slaps him is simply great.Mary Astor shines as the lady who should be above all this but who succumbs to Gable's animal magnetism. Her face as she reflects on the first wild kiss is a landscape of emotional turmoil: "Oh my God, what have I done? Wasn't it wonderful though!"--should be required viewing for any aspiring actress.There's not much plot--it's yer basic love triangle story: who's he going to end up with? The woman with class, or the sassy hooker? Astor's character is out of her depth in the jungle setting, so she's easily overwhelmed by the overly self-confident Gable-character. Gable's character is out of his depth with a woman of class; she would normally be out of reach for him anywhere else. Their dalliance makes sense only in that setting. Harlow at first snipes at her rival, Astor, but soon realizes that Astor is really only a victim and redirects her heavy artillery at Gable instead. The banter is terrific and bears rewinding as it goes by so quickly.The film lives from its dialog and clever lines. Considering that the film was made so soon after the introduction of talkies, it holds up extremely well--credit to director Fleming, no doubt. The dialog in Marocco, made two years earlier with Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich, was awful by comparison--stilted, wooden, very awkward, and cannot be attributed to lack of actors' ability, but lack of experience with talkies as a medium. Fleming showed that he had mastered it already.A few commentators have derided the film for being racist. DUH. The colonial powers occupying Indochina at the time were racist and probably treated the locals much more savagely than in the film. Sure it's painful to watch--it should be! Drop the political correctness nonsense and just enjoy the banter.
didi-5 This film was the one which really showcased Jean Harlow, fresh at MGM after a stint at Columbia, and a film or two as one of the muses of Howard Hughes.In real life she'd married and been widowed in quick succession, and although the Paul Bern scandal must have been a strain, it doesn't show here on screen. Harlow is absolutely luminous, a wise-cracking hardboiled good-time girl with a soft centre and a hint of innocence. What else could she be but a bright platinum blonde? Mary Astor, tight-laced and classy, arrives at the sexually-charged rubber plantation with feverish husband Gene Raymond, and catches the eye of wide-boy hard-man Clark Gable (a real he-man of the 'grab em by the hair' school).A fascinating slice of 1930s pre-Production Code history, 'Red Dust' sizzles and is always in heat. Remade as 'Mogambo' and apart from the addition of colour, some recasting (Gardner for Harlow, Grace Kelly for Astor, Donald Sinden for Raymond), it remained a heady brew, even down to the indefatigable Mr Gable reprising his role as Carson!