Blu Ray Review: Teacher's Pet

Clark Gable’s heyday was the 1930s where he went from small timer to King of Hollywood, winning an Oscar for It Happened One Night and culminating the decade with the towering classic Gone With The Wind.  He missed some of the 1940s mourning the death of Carole Lombard and serving a stint in the military.  When he returned to movies post-war, he could bank on his pre-war popularity.

As the 1950s were coming to a close, Clark Gable was nearing the end of his life, but still could offer a strong performance, as in Teacher’s Pet, newly released to bluray by Kino Lorber.  Clark is a tough veteran journalist (a throwback to It Happened One Night) who believes newspaper reporters learn on the job, not in the classroom.  When he is asked to speak at a college, he fires off a nasty letter to the instructor (Doris Day) who he catches reading it to her students.  Unrecognized, he joins the class to prove his point.

Doris Day was doing some of her best screen work around the time she filmed Teacher’s Pet, having turned in fine performances in Love Me or Leave Me opposite James Cagney, and co-starring with James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much (where she sang the Oscar winning song Que Sera Sera).  She and Gable have discernible chemistry.

Teacher’s Pet is a fun romantic comedy with strong support from Gig Young, Mamie Van Doren, Nick Adams, Charles Lane, and Marion Ross.  Fay and Michael Fanin received an Oscar nomination for their sharp, witty screenplay. 

Kino’s blu ray is a brand new HD master by Paramount Pictures from a 6k scan of the 35mm VistaVision original camera negative.  It features an audio commentary by film historian/writer Julie Kirgo and writer/filmmaker Peter Hankoff.

The blu ray is available at this link: TEACHERPET