Main Cast: Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Marilyn Maxwell, Frank Morgan, Raymond Burr
Release Year: 1950
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
Plot
George Sidney directs this pleasant romantic comedy concerning mayoral love. During a convention of mayors in San Francisco, Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young), the mayor of a small town in Maine, meets Steve Fisk (Clark Gable), the down-to-earth leader of a tiny northern California community. During the rowdy proceedings of the convention, the two find themselves pushed together frequently, with the typical result -- they fall in love. After the convention, the two head back to Steve's town, where crooked local politician Les Taggart (Raymond Burr) is squaring off against Fisk in a mayoral election. With the help of Clarissa, Steve gears up for his reelection bid. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Key to the City is a run-of-the-mill "opposites attract" romantic comedy, enlivened and made worth watching thanks to its star leads. Perhaps because Clark Gable and Loretta Young had an actual history offscreen (with Gable secretly fathering a child with Young), there's a palpable chemistry between the two that is simply delicious. Oh, they're helped by some decent lines from screenwriter Robert Riley Crutcher, some of which have actual wit and others of which at least give the impression of actual wit. But it's what they do with the lines -- and just as importantly, what they do between the lines -- that really counts here. Certainly, Crutcher hasn't helped them out by providing them with characters of real depth to play, or by placing them in situations that are particularly imaginative. But Gable and Young accept the circumstances and make the most of them, helped along no doubt by George Sidney's slick direction. The stars get able support from the always dependable Frank Morgan, the luscious Marilyn Maxwell, and the staunch Lewis Stone, among others. Key to the City is predictable, sometimes to a fault, but the cast works very hard to make that "predictable" feel more like "comfortably familiar." ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Hans Peters - Art Director, Irene Sharaff - Costume Designer, George Sidney - Director, James Newcom - Editor, Bronislau Kaper - Composer (Music Score), Jack Dawn - Makeup, Harold Hal Rosson - Cinematographer, Wayne Z. Griffin - Producer, Alfred E. Spencer - Set Designer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Arnold A. Gillespie - Special Effects, Douglas Shearer - Sound/Sound Designer, Albert Beich - Screen Story, Robert Riley Crutcher - Screenwriter
