Main Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Gene Raymond, Mary Astor, Donald Crisp
Release Year: 1932
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Red Dust was lensed almost entirely on MGM's back lot; even so, we are utterly convinced that the film takes place in Indochina (never mind that everyone pronounces "Saigon" as Say-gone). Even more importantly, the audience never doubts for one moment that the relationship between "hero" Clark Gable and "heroine" Jean Harlow has gone far beyond the meaningful-glances stage. Gable plays the overseer of a rubber plantation, whiling away the hot, lonely nights with his drunken assistant Tully Marshall. Donald Crisp, another of Gable's cohorts, arrives by boat with stranded prostitute Jean Harlow in tow. Gable wants no part of Harlow at first, telling her that she's history the moment the next boat to Saigon shows up. But Gable and Harlow are, in the parlance of the time, made for each other. After the inevitable affair, Harlow leaves, just as engineer Gene Raymond shows up to participate in the construction of a bridge. Raymond has brought along his seemingly proper wife Mary Astor; it isn't long, however, before Astor is throwing herself at the not altogether unwilling Gable. Raymond is such a good egg that Gable feels ashamed of himself for enjoying Astor's favors. When Harlow returns, Gable goes back to her, which drives the already unstable Astor completely off her trolley. She shoots Gable in a fit of jealous rage. Hearing the shot, Raymond rushes in. Proving that she's "aces," Harlow quickly covers up for Astor, insisting that it was she who shot Gable. None the wiser, Raymond returns to the mainland with Astor, while Gable and Harlow end up in each other's arms for keeps. Fairly "hot" even by pre-code standards, Red Dust has gained legendary status thanks to rumors concerning Jean Harlow's famous bathing scene in a shaved barrel; according to rumor, footage still exists of Harlow totally au naturel (some stories go as far as to claim that the overseas version of Red Dust shows Gable and Harlow "doing it".) For all the sexual badinage, our favorite bit occurs when Harlow, cleaning out a parrot's cage, mutters "Watcha been eatin', cement?" A heavily laundered remake of Red Dust, Mogambo, appeared in 1954, again with Clark Gable in the lead, but this time with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly in the Harlow and Astor roles, respectively. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The story revolves around a love triangle, set on a rubber plantation in Indochina (Vietnam) during the monsoon season, between the plantation's owner/manager Dennis Carson (Gable), a prostitute named Vantine (Harlow), and Barbara Willis (Astor), the wife of an engineer named Gary Willis (Raymond). Carson abandons an informal relationship with Vantine to pursue Barbara, but has a change of heart and returns to Vantine.
Vantine arrives at the plantation first, on the lam from the authorities in Saigon. She displays an easy comfort in the plantation's harsh environment, wisecracks continually, and begins playfully teasing Carson as soon as she meets him. He resists her charm at first, but soon gives in, and they quickly develop a friendly, casually sexual relationship in which they tease each other and pretend to be too tough for affection. One of their favorite games is to call each other "Fred" and "Lily", as though neither can be bothered to remember the other's name.
However, Carson loses interest in Vantine when the Willises arrive. Gary Willis is a young, inexperienced engineer, and his wife Barbara is a classy, ladylike beauty. Carson is immediately attracted to Barbara, and, after sending Gary on a lengthy surveying trip, he spends the next week seducing Barbara as Vantine watches jealously. He successfully persuades Barbara to leave Gary for him, but recants after visiting Gary in the swamp and learning how deeply he loves Barbara. Carson has also seen that Barbara is unsuited for the primitive conditions on the plantation, as is Gary, and he has a painful memory of his own mother's death on the plantation when he was a boy. He decides to sent both of them back to more civilized surroundings.
At the story's climax, Carson turns Barbara's feelings against himself by pretending that he never loved her, at which point she shoots him. This provides a cover for Vantine and Carson to save Barbara's marriage and reputation by insisting to Gary that Barbara rejected Carson's advances. The film ends after Carson has sent the Willises away, with Vantine reading bedtime stories to him as he recuperates from the gunshot wound and tries to fondle her.
Along with the love triangle, the film emphasizes the contrast between Carson and Vantine, who are simple but tough, and the Willises, who are sophisticated but weak. Vantine has a sturdy, voluptuous physique, and always keeps her nerve, even when Carson orders her to push an iodine-soaked rod through his bullet wound. Barbara, by contrast, has a thin figure, behaves imperiously at first, and is frightened by a tiger prowling outside the compound. As for the men, Willis foolishly brought his wife into an environment that neither of them was prepared for, with useless tennis rackets in their luggage, and almost dies from malaria because of his own refusal to stay in bed. Carson is more muscular than Willis, runs the plantation, acts as the local medic, saves Willis's life, and kills a tiger.
Finally, the film provides a view into the Indochina rubber business. This includes scenes of rubber trees being tapped for their sap; the process of coagulating the rubber with acid; native workers being rousted; gales that can blow the roof off a hut and are difficult to walk in; the spartan living quarters; the supply boat that arrives periodically; a rainy spell that lasts weeks; and tigers prowling in the jungle. The film's title is derived from the large quantities of dust that are stirred up by the storms.
The movie was remade by director John Ford in 1953 as Mogambo, this time set in Africa rather than Indochina and shot on location in color, with Ava Gardner in the Harlow role and Grace Kelly playing Astor's part. Clark Gable returned, twenty-one years later, to play the same character.
In 2006, Red Dust was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
