Red Dust (1932 film)

This article is about the 1932 film. For other uses, see Red Dust (disambiguation).
Red Dust

A theatrical release poster
Directed by Victor Fleming
Produced by Hunt Stromberg (uncredited)
Irving Thalberg
(uncredited)
Written by Donald Ogden Stewart (uncredited)
Screenplay by John Mahin
Based on Red Dust
by Wilson Collison
Starring Clark Gable
Jean Harlow
Mary Astor
Gene Raymond
Cinematography Harold Rosson
Arthur Edeson
Edited by Blanche Sewell
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
 October 22, 1932 (1932-10-22)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $408,000[1]
Box office $1,223,000[1]

Red Dust is a 1932 American pre-code romantic drama film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Mary Astor.[2] The film is based on the 1928 play of the same name by Wilson Collison, and was adapted for the screen by John Mahin.[2][3] Red Dust is the second of six movies Gable and Harlow made together, and was produced during the pre-code era of Hollywood. More than 20 years later, Gable starred in a remake, Mogambo (1953), with Ava Gardner starring in a variation on the Harlow role and Grace Kelly playing a part similar to one portrayed by Mary Astor in Red Dust.

The film, which is set in French Indochina, provides a view into the French colonial rubber business. This includes scenes of rubber trees being tapped for their sap, the process of coagulating the rubber with acid, native workers being rousted, gales that can blow the roof off a hut and are difficult to walk in, the spartan living quarters, the supply boat that arrives periodically, a rainy spell that lasts weeks, and tigers prowling in the jungle. The film's title is derived from the large quantities of dust that are stirred up by the storms.

In 2006, Red Dust was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Mary Astor and Clark Gable in Red Dust

On a rubber plantation in French Indochina during the monsoon season, the plantation's owner/manager Dennis Carson (Gable), a prostitute named Vantine (Harlow), and Barbara Willis (Astor), the wife of an engineer named Gary Willis (Gene Raymond) are involved in a love triangle. Carson abandons an informal relationship with Vantine to pursue Barbara, but has a change of heart and returns to Vantine.

Vantine arrives at the plantation first, on the lam from the authorities in Saigon. She displays an easy comfort in the plantation's harsh environment, wisecracks continually, and begins playfully teasing Carson as soon as she meets him. He resists her charm at first, but soon gives in, and they quickly develop a friendly, casual relationship in which they tease each other and pretend to be too tough for affection. One of their favorite games is to call each other "Fred" and "Lily", as though neither can be bothered to remember the other's name.

However, Carson loses interest in Vantine when the Willises arrive. Gary Willis is a young, inexperienced engineer, and his wife Barbara is a classy, ladylike beauty. Carson is immediately attracted to Barbara, and, after sending Gary on a lengthy surveying trip, he spends the next week seducing Barbara as Vantine watches jealously. He successfully persuades Barbara to leave Gary for him, but recants after visiting Gary in the swamp and learning how deeply he loves Barbara. Carson has also seen that Barbara is unsuited for the primitive conditions on the plantation, as is Gary, and he has a painful memory of his own mother's death on the plantation when he was a boy. He decides to send both of them back to more civilized surroundings.

At the story's climax, Carson turns Barbara's feelings against himself by pretending that he never loved her, at which point she shoots him. This provides a cover for Vantine and Carson to save Barbara's marriage and reputation by insisting to Gary that Barbara rejected Carson's advances. The film ends after Carson has sent the Willises away, with Vantine reading bedtime stories to him as he recuperates from the gunshot wound and tries to fondle her.

Jean Harlow

Cast

Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $781,000 in the US and Canada and $442,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $399,000.[1]

Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Remake

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.

Home media

Red Dust was first released to home media on VHS by MGM.[2] In November 2012, the Warner Archive Collection released the film on manufactured-on-demand DVD.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. 1 2 3 Roberts, Jerry (2003). The Great American Playwrights on the Screen: A Critical Guide to Film, Video, and DVD. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 110. ISBN 1-55783-512-8.
  3. ↑ Vieira, Mark A. (2009). Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince. University of California Press. p. 207. ISBN 0-520-94511-5.
  4. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  5. ↑ Hicks, Chris (November 10, 2012). "Classic Harlow & Gable flick 'Red Dust' arrives on DVD at long last". deseretnews.com.
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