Themes: Opposites Attract, Teachers and Students, Members of the Press
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gig Young, Mamie van Doren, Nick Adams
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
Hard-boiled, self-educated newspaper editor Clark Gable turns down an opportunity to lecture before a night-school journalism class, publicly ridiculing the notion that the art of news writing can be taught. Gable's publisher, sensing a good story, orders the recalcitrant editor to appear at the lecture. Upon entering the classroom, Gable overhears journalism teacher Doris Day, the daughter of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, condemn Gable's attitude towards higher education. Intrigued by the lovely Day, Gable enrolls in her class under an assumed name. He quickly goes to the head of the class (after all, he's had more experience than all the other students combined), then begins a campaign to romance Day. But there's a fly in the ointment: Day's fiance Gig Young, who gives an Oscar-calibre performance as a smug know-all. Likewise stealing every scene she's in is Mamie Van Doren, playing an exotic dancer who's set her sights on Gable. Fay and Michael Kanin's sprightly screenplay for Teacher's Pet manages to steer clear of any and all potential cliches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Teacher's Pet is a surprisingly enjoyable comedy that manages to avoid the many pitfalls into which it could very easily become entrapped. While its premise would seem to indicate it would be a run-of-the-mill, by-the-numbers, high-concept comedy, Fay and Michael Kanin's screenplay somehow hits all the expected plot points without coming across as mechanical. Chalk a lot of this up to the flavorful dialogue, finely observed characters, and an ability to skirt with, but avoid falling into, clichés. George Seaton has directed with a light hand, keeping things moving at a nice clip and setting each scene up so that it scores and then moves on. He has also created a New York that is real without being gritty; the newsroom looks like a newsroom and these middle-class characters don't live in spacious penthouses overlooking the river. Leads Clark Gable and Doris Day are in top form, navigating the up-and-down moves of the romance with skill, and generating a surprising amount of chemistry in the process. Even better is Gig Young, in a wonderfully nuanced performance that is enormously appealing. Mamie van Doren is also delightful as Gable's zaftig performer/girlfriend. While Teacher's Pet is perhaps too slight to qualify as a genuine classic, it's still a film that pleases on all levels. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Earl Hedrick - Art Director, Hal Pereira - Art Director, Edith Head - Costume Designer, George Seaton - Director, Alma Macrorie - Editor, Roy Webb - Composer (Music Score), Joe Lubin - Songwriter, Haskell Boggs - Cinematographer, William Perlberg - Producer, Robert R. Benton - Set Designer, Sam Comer - Set Designer, Farciot Edouart - Special Effects, Michael Kanin - Screenwriter, Fay Kanin - Screenwriter, Pat Moore - Music Editor
James Gannon (Clark Gable) - city editor for a large metropolitan newspaper, with no education past the 8th grade, who is convinced that formal education is “a waste of time” for anyone who would like to get into the newspaper business and that experience in the workplace is the key to success.
Erica Stone (Doris Day) - journalism instructor at a local university whom Gannon falls in love with.
Dr. Hugo Pine (Gig Young) - a worldly and attractive psychologist who has "more degrees than a thermometer" and Gannon's (perceived) rival for Stone's affections.
Plot
Stone asks Gannon to speak before a night-school college journalism class. He turns down the invitation, writing a nasty letter to the instructor stating his viewpoint, but is ordered to go before the class by his editor-in-chief. He finds the attractive Stone teaching the class. Before he is able to introduce himself and apologise for the letter, Erica reads it aloud and mocks Gannon before the class.
Humiliated, he decides to join the class to show her up, posing as a wallpaper salesman named Jim Gallagher. Erica is quite taken by this charming man, whom she unwittingly finds exceptional for a novice journalist. Gannon continues his ruse as he becoms quite enchanted with Erica, and has to fend off Dr. Pine, as well as his own girlfriend Peggy DeFore, a nightclub singer (Mamie Van Doren). When Erica discovers Gannon's deception, she immediately calls their relationship off, but convinced by Dr. Pine, she gives Gannon another chance.
By the end of the film, both Jim and Erica have come to understand, and partially adopt, the other's point of view.
Trivia
Cary Grant and James Stewart both turned down the role of James Gannon because they knew they were too old for the part. Incidentally, Grant would go on to star with Doris Day in That Touch of Mink in 1962.
The Erica Stone character's father, Joel Barlow Stone, who won a Pulitzer Prize for an editorial in his small-town newspaper, is modelled upon William Allen White.
