Red Dirt (1932)

Victor Flemming's Red Dirt is a saucy little pre-code romp about a no-nonsense plantation owner and a prostitute on the run. Although it is laughably tame by today's standards of "show it all and let the public sort it out," this was pretty risqué stuff for it 1932. For those of you who don't know, the Production Code was a lengthy set of guidelines and restrictions that governed what you could and couldn't show in a motion picture. It included such things as how long a kiss could last, how much of a woman's body could be uncovered and even moral issues such as the fact that all murderers had to receive their just deserts by the movie's end. The code was in effect from 1930 to 1968; although, the strictest version of it was in force from 1934 to 1955. Red Dirt is one of the films that helped create the stricter version of the code. It also helped make the careers of Clark Gable and Gene Harlow. This movie is all about sex. That's the only way to put it. Every scene drips with innuendo, as Harlow, Astor and Gable do a sexual dance so carefully choreographed that not one inch too much skin is shown, not a single scene of actual intercourse. But we're left with no doubt whatsoever about what's going on off camera.

Set in French Indo-China (Viet Nam), the Red Dirt centers on Dennis Carson (Clark Gable), the owner of a rubber plantation. Denny is struggling through a dusty, dry monsoon season, and not feeling any too happy about his prospects for the coming year. When the monthly supply boat arrives from Saigon, it brings with it Vantine (Gene Harlow), a prostitute who got in trouble with the law and decided to head up river until things cooled off. When Vantine first arrives at the plantation, Denny is angry at her for barging in and wants nothing to do with her. But there's no denying the electricity between these two. The air around them is practically crackling with it. Soon, with the help of the primitive bathing facilities at the plantation, Denny succumbs to Vantine's rather obvious charms, and they engage in a romance that's so hot it threatens to burn the jungle down. The fun is short lived though. The next supply boat brings a wet blanket to throw all over the party. Gary Willis (Gene Raymond), Carson's new surveyor, arrives with his sleek, sophisticated wife Barbara (Mary Astor) in tow. Well, Gary wastes no time in coming down with malaria, and Denny wastes no time trying to get Barbara to come to his room and check out his etchings, much to Vantine's dismay. By the time Gary has recovered, Denny has stolen Barbara from him. His only problem now is how to get rid of the useless husband. The answer presents itself in a tiger hunt. Denny will take Gary with him to hunt a tiger that's been terrorizing the locals. At the crucial moment, Denny will delay firing for just a second or two, while el tigre does his dirty work for him. Problem is that Denny's really a descent guy at heart, and he can't bring himself to let Gary take one for the team. In the end, Gary and Barbara head for home, and Denny and Vantine settle back into their scorching affair once more.

I love this film. I know I say that a lot, but that's only because I mean it. I love any film with Gable in it. And Red Dirt is one of his best. It lifted him above the pack of "actors" and made him a "movie star." Didn't hurt Harlow's career any either. Both of them are fun to watch as they trade insults and innuendos, barbs and embraces. Mary Astor is both aloof and alluring as the high-society gal who decides to go slumming withe her husband as visits the wilderness and leaves her lover with a bullet to remember her by. Nothing says "I Love You" like a well-placed slug! And Gene Raymond is appropriately sexless and ineffective as the cuckolded Gary, who's simply no match for Gable's virile manliness. After all, who's gonna want a surveyor who drops like a rock whenever anyone sneezes, when they can have the muscly guy who chopped a plantation out of the jungle single handed? Well, maybe he did have a little help. Like several hundred Viet Namese peasants. But still, you get the idea. Which brings me to another interesting thing about this film - it shows an image of Viet Nam from the Western perspective, when it was a French colony to be exploited for its resources. Always interesting to see what folks here in sunny SoCal thought was really going on in places like that back in the day. You can see where a lot of the world's current problems began. Interestingly, Red Dirt was remade in 1953 as Mogambo, with Gable reprising his earlier role, and Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly playing the parts of the prostitute and the society dame. I'll leave it to you to guess which of the two is the better film.

Red Dirt is unrated and is presented in its original black and white format. Running time is 83 minutes.