Idiot's Delight

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Idiot's Delight

Released Jan 27, 1939

1h 45m

Comedy

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40%

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5 Reviews

47%

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500+ Ratings

In Clark Gable's only musical performance on film, "The King of Hollywood" plays World War I veteran Harry Van (Clark Gable), who is attempting to revive his career in show business. Twenty years after a brief romantic liaison with beautiful Russian acrobat Irene (Norma Shearer), Harry finds himself stranded in a European hotel during the outbreak of World War II. While he waits for the borders to be reopened, Harry meets a mysterious woman who may be Irene.

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John Kinloch

California Eagle

Clarence Brown has given the film snappy, brisk direction. However, it bogs down toward end and never quite comes off.

Oct 30, 2019

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Graham Greene

The Spectator

Over-acting could hardly go further...

Sep 11, 2019

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Steve Crum

Video-Reviewmaster.com

WWII + Gable+ Gable singing! Add Norma Shearer for more MGM star power.

Rated: 4/5

Feb 18, 2008

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 3/5

Jun 19, 2005

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

An unfulfilling adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Rated: C

Jan 28, 2005

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Frank S

Regardless of the ratings this movie is pure gold if only to see Clark Gable dancing to Irving Berlin's masterpiece - "Puttin' On The Ritz"

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/25

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Audience Member

This movie, released in January 1939, it is amazingly prescient at predicting what was going to happen in the next few years, namely the horror of World War II. The story itself is charming, as our Clark Gable and Norma Shearer, and features a bravura performance by my favorite actor Burgess Meredith!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

Gable and Shearer give two their best performances in the top film adaptation of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway smash

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Audience Member

A misfire extraordinaire! Gable dances like he has shackles on his feet; the anti-Astaire. The acting and direction are incredibly stilted; Shearer is absurdly camp. Her affectations are ridiculous. The pacifist message of this movie is almost comical, in light of the actual history of WWII.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

Robert E. Sherwood won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for his allegory-like satire Idiot's Delight. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the film rights to the play, and commissioned Sherwood himself to adapt his play to the screen. The result is this astoundingly poignant classic, which features Norma Shearer and Clark Gable in the third and last of their radiant screen pairings... Wonderfully odd--A Russian Countess on the Swiss border is really an American vaudeville performer in disguise; she's not hiding from anything or anyone, she just wants to be bigger than life. Unfortunately, a second-rate song-and-dance man she once dated is staying at the same hotel, while wartime hysteria is breaking out all around them... Shearer and Gable ham it up to this idiot's delight!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

good and enjoyable com-dram

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Clarence Brown

Director

Norma Shearer

Irene Fellara

Clark Gable

Harry Van

Edward Arnold

Achille Weber

Charles Coburn

Dr. Hugo Waldersee

Joseph Schildkraut

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Synopsis

In Clark Gable's only musical performance on film, "The King of Hollywood" plays World War I veteran Harry Van (Clark Gable), who is attempting to revive his career in show business. Twenty years after a brief romantic liaison with beautiful Russian acrobat Irene (Norma Shearer), Harry finds himself stranded in a European hotel during the outbreak of World War II. While he waits for the borders to be reopened, Harry meets a mysterious woman who may be Irene.

Director: Clarence Brown
Producer: Clarence Brown, Hunt Stromberg
Screenwriter: Robert E. Sherwood
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 27, 1939, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 22, 2009
Runtime: 1h 45m

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