TEACHER'S PET (1958)

The movie starring Clark Gable and Doris Day, TEACHER’S PET, is better than you'd think. A “romantic comedy,” it was originally scripted as a drama, which shows in several well written and acted dramatic scenes that offset the silly ones. Gable plays a school-of-hard-knocks newspaperman who belittles journalism schools ... until he meets an idealistic instructor (Day) in whose class he enrolls as a novice. What ensues is a learning experience for student and teacher alike. Gable's bluff masculinity is key to the storyline and appeal of the movie, to such a degree that even in his Evening stage of life (57) he somehow doesn't seem too old for Day (33). They’re good together, and in fact, Day agreed to work in the movie during a rough patch in her life (her brother had just died) because of Gable. The film is often talky and runs too long, but it’s fun to watch and good to see these two old-fashioned movie stars so completely at ease within their established personas. The film co-stars Gig Young, playing his familiar charming, know-it-all Gig Young character (the same as in YOUNG AT HEART, in which he and Day co-starred five years earlier). As an ex-newsman, I got a kick out of the scenes in the city room, which looks and operates pretty much like the city room I worked in years ago.