China Seas

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Starring: Mary Doran
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Reginald Le Borg
Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 2006-06-20
Rugged Captain Alan Gaskell (Clark Gable) sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only risky cargo he carries. Both his fiery mistress (Jean Harlow) and his refined fiancee (Rosalind Russell) are aboard! With their wisecracking banter, gutsy glamour and dynamic physicality, Gable and Harlow prove once again that they were the '30s most scorching screen pair in this rough-and-tumble tale of the sea. Highlights include a raging typhoon, a battle with bloodthirsty Malay pirates, and Harlow's drinking contest with bluff villain Wallace Beery, who wants the gold and the platinum blonde. Adventure (and Golden Era allure) dead ahead on China Seas.

Harlow rocks this campy boat!
This movie is so corny and hilarious (sometimes unintentionally). It's one of my feel good fav's. I bought this one for Harlow and she is at her trashy, sarcastic, platinum blonde best!

"Just showering dewdrops off the body beautiful..."
CHINA SEAS reunited Clark Gable and Jean Harlow following their celebrated partnership in "Red Dust"--exchanging the sultry jungle setting for an exciting adventure on the seas. Rosalind Russell and Wallace Beery co-star.

Clark Gable plays Captain Alan Gaskell, at the helm of a ship bound for Singapore; and trying to shake off his unwelcome stowaway, former mistress Dolly "China Doll" Portland (Jean Harlow). Adding even more complications is Gaskell's prim fiancee Sybil Barclay (Rosalind Russell). The love triangle is set against the Hong Kong-Singapore voyage, complete with a ferocious storm and a pirate attack.

CHINA SEAS is a briskly-paced romantic adventure, peppered with razor sharp dialogue. Clark Gable and Jean Harlow fall effortlessly back into the easygoing chemistry they shared in "Red Dust". In a severely under-written role (which might have originally been pegged for Mary Astor), Rosalind Russell tries her best; Wallace Beery puts in a good-humored performance as the resident heel of the piece.

The DVD includes Vitaphone musical short "A Girl's Best Years", Fitzpatrick TravelTalk short "Cherry Blossom Time in Japan", and the trailer. Also available as part of Clark Gable - The Signature Collection (Dancing Lady / China Seas / San Francisco / Wife vs. Secretary / Boom Town / Mogambo)

Gable Harlow and Beery
Good old fashioned adventure/romance like they can't make anymore. I hadn't seen it in a long time when I purchased the DVD and was surprised by the absence of a grand guns-blazing battle near the end that seemed to be set-up by the film's progress. Still, worth your dime.

Grand entertainment, MGM style!
China Seas isn't a profound or lasting classic, but it is a rip-roaring example of just how entertaining the studio system could be at its best during the Golden Age, as Clark Gable battles typhoons, Malay pirates with big feet and Malay boots and the differing charms of Jean Harlow and Rosalind Russell while Wallace Beery plots to steal his cargo and a blotto Robert Benchley bobs along dispensing non-sequiters to all and sundry. At heart it's just a post-Code Red Dust on the Hong Kong-Shanghai run, Harlow's distinctly not at her best rehashing her brassy platinum blonde act for the umpteenth time and Russell is more affected than alluring, but Tay Garnett keeps it moving so fast that it doesn't matter. Great entertainment with all the stops pulled out.

Extras are a James Fitzpatrick travelog on Japan, a short film A Girl's Best Years and theatrical trailer.

Has any couple ever sizzled like Harlow vs Gable?
I don't think so, be it in the jungle, a New York high rise or at sea. Hepburn & Tracy were great, no argument. But they were so modern & urbane, not rowdy & sexy, always fighting like Harlow & Gable. China Seas is a fine example of this chemistry. Yeah, & its a pretty good story too. Gable is Capt. Gaskell, skipper of a passenger/merchant ship running from Hong Kong to Singapore. Harlow is the floozie, Dolly, he had a fling with on shore. The ship is carrying gold. There is a terrific typhoon, & a pirate raid in which the ship is seized for a while. They torture the Captain, but he doesn't reveal where the gold is. Dolly is mixed up in a conspiracy with a crewman, Wallace Berry, against the Captain because she is mad at him. She of course changes her mind. The Captain is trying to ditch Dolly & thinks he's meant for Lady Sybil, played by Rosalind Russell, an old flame. But he & Dolly really are in love. Unfortunately the collaborations between Harlow & Gable was cut short at five movies with Harlow untimely & early death several years later.