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Idiot's Delight

Play trailer Poster for Idiot's Delight 1939 1h 45m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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33% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 45% Popcornmeter 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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Idiot's Delight

Critics Reviews

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Jul 5
2.5/4
A toothless drama further hampered by Shearer’s unbearably exaggerated performance. Go to Full Review
John Kinloch California Eagle 10/30/2019
Clarence Brown has given the film snappy, brisk direction. However, it bogs down toward end and never quite comes off. Go to Full Review
Graham Greene The Spectator 09/11/2019
Over-acting could hardly go further... Go to Full Review
Steve Crum Video-Reviewmaster.com 02/18/2008
4/5
WWII + Gable+ Gable singing! Add Norma Shearer for more MGM star power. Go to Full Review
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 06/19/2005
3/5
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 01/28/2005
C
An unfulfilling adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Frank S Jan 25 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" See more 01/09/2021 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! See more 12/22/2019 Gable and Shearer give two their best performances in the top film adaptation of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway smash See more 11/17/2019 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. See more 02/20/2015 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!! See more 09/08/2012 good and enjoyable com-dram See more Read all reviews
Idiot's Delight

My Rating

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Movie Info

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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