Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

boblipton Gable and Rosalind Russell play a couple of jewel thieves who meet in ..... well, guess where, and keep running into each other thereafter. It's a fairly formulaic film carried on the charms of the leads; director Clarence Brown can't overcome the MGM gloss to provide the screwball details that the first half of the film really needs, although Peter Lorre as a shady and unctuous tramp steamer captain is a lot of fun. I have the feeling Miss Russell replaced Myrna Loy at some stage in the production and the first couple of reels show damage. Clarence Brown directs the comedy bits for everyone but the two leads, a telling indictment of his opinion of their chop. Even worse, William H. Daniel's high-lit camerawork makes Miss Russell look a trifle jowly.

SimonJack This film has a choppy plot with a mix of genres and its screenplay doesn't fit them together very well. But, it has a fine cast of actors in interesting roles, and is quite entertaining. It's also eerily prophetic about an event of WWII. Two independent thieves, unaware of each other, have their eyes set on the prize Star of Asia. Each has his/her own plan and way of going about nabbing the prize. That's the setting for the start of "They Met in Bombay."Clark Gable is Gerald Meldrick (aka, Captain Houston), and Rosalind Russell plays opposite him as Anya Von Duren. Jessie Ralph is wonderful as the Duchess of Beltravers. Matthew Boulton is excellent as the persevering and frustrated Inspector Cressney. Reginald Owen is superb as the general in charge of the British forces in Hong Kong. Eduardo Ciannelli is the perfect hotel manager in Bombay. And, Peter Lorre looks the role for his Chinese Captain Chang who commands a freight ship. What starts off as a comedy caper soon turns into a chase and escape adventure with romance. By the film's end, the adventure turns into war action and the romance turns into love and reform. The ending is an uncanny twist with history. Gerald and Anya are in Hong Kong when the Japanese Army nears the city. Masquerading this time as a captain in a Canadian regiment – which he had served in before, Gerald is ushered into active service in the Hong Kong garrison. He leads a convoy to rescue Europeans and Chinese in an outlying village from the advancing Japanese army. The war action takes place here, and Gerald's heroics save the convoy from a Japanese ambush. He is wounded and is presented the Victoria Cross – the British counterpart of the American Medal of Honor. His actions and his falling in love with Anya lead to their reform. So, they give up the gem they stole and Gerald plans to return to military lifeAs I said, the story is quite far-fetched, but interesting and entertaining. The movie was based on a story by John Kafka. One might think that he and/or MGM had an uncanny premonition of the turns that were about to take place in the war. This film was released on June 27, 1941. Less than six months later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, Dec. 8, Japan began its assault of Hong Kong. A heavily outnumbered British force of 11,000 men withstood the Japanese Army and six Japanese bomber squadrons for 18 days before running low on ammunition and supplies and having to surrender on Christmas Day, 1941. About 4,500 British troops were killed and 6,500 taken prisoner. The Japanese lost 2,750 men. Although the film is fictional, the General probably would be Maj. Gen. C.M. Maltby. The combat scenes with the Japanese were likely filmed in the Santa Monica Mountains, west of Los Angeles. The film appears to have a scene from Bombay with the opening credits. The sets are quite opulent and real. This is an example of the Hollywood studio arts and crafts of being able to make sets and stage scenes that appear to be the real thing in the real place. The Chinese village that Captain Houston goes to rescue looks like something right out of China – not a set in the hills outside Los Angeles. The street scenes in Hong Kong give the feel of a sprawling Chinese city. The opening has a scene of Gerald's friends in crime making an imitation of the so-called Star of Asia. We never know what kind of a jewel it is. But, it's probably a star sapphire. There's also no specific value attributed to the gem. There is a real Star of Asia though. It's a 330-carat star sapphire. It is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The deep blue gem was mined in Burma (today's Myanmar), and is said to have belonged to the Maharajah of Jodhpur at one time. An even larger blue sapphire is the Star of India. The 563-carat gem is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It has a colorful history that includes being heisted in 1964 from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The unusual stone, with stars on both sides, was recovered the following year. It was mined in Sri Lanka around the year 1600, but much of its past before the 20th century is clouded. Here are a couple funny lines from exchanges early in the film between Anya and the Duchess of Beltravers. Duchess, "Do you read much?" Anya, "Oh, a little." Duchess, "Oh, I'm glad to hear it. No woman should read much. Every line in my face comes from reading some book or another." Later, as the two imbibe, the duchess says, "Well, I carried my children like a lady, and I carry my liquor like a gentleman."

weezeralfalfa It was great to see another little remembered Gable film made before he went off to war. When he was paired with Rosalind Russell in "China Seas", they met in Hong Hong and traveled by ship to Singapore. Here, they meet in Bombay and travel by ship to Hong Kong, under quite different circumstances, as fugitive jewel thieves. In general form, this film reminds me of the later "The Big Steal", a chase thriller-screwball romantic comedy combo in an exotic locale, involving a man and woman, unknown to each other, looking for the same thing. Toward the end, it turns into a forerunner of "The Great Imposter", with Gable successfully fooling the British Hong Kong garrison into believing he is a British officer, who happens to be passing through. This gets him into more hot water than he bargained for, as the Japanese invade Hong Kong(as they actually did less than a year later!). Peter Lorre doesn't fool anyone as the supposedly Chinese captain of the ship taking the thieves to Hong Kong. This is mostly Gable's film. Sometimes, I wondered if I was looking at a deglamourized Heddy Lamarr instead of Rosalind Russell. All in all, an entertaining, if silly, romp, with Gable still looking in peak form and seeming to enjoy himself.

MartinHafer This film is rather formulaic. Clark plays an international con man thief who falls in love with a female version of himself (Ms. Russell). While this certainly doesn't break any new ground and is a very predictable by-the-numbers MGM production, you are still left with a movie that is great fun but won't change your life. I, for one, love films like this. That's because I like the formula--as did the rest of America at the time. That's because despite its short-comings the film was dripping with quality. Both actors are at the top of their game, the writing and dialog is snappy fun and the direction is on target. All-in-all, a lot of fun and sure to please fans of this genre.