Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7434 in VHS
• Released on: 1994-06-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 83 minutes

Amazon.com
Red Dust is the second of six movies Clark Gable and Jean Harlow made together. As usual, he plays a rugged man's man whose devilishly sexy good looks and deep-rooted gallantry make him irresistible to women; she, a tough, no-nonsense broad with a smart mouth, champagne hair, a body that won't quit, and a heart of mush. Their presence elevates this otherwise melodramatic soaper to the rank of classic. Directed by Victor Fleming (who, at Gable's insistence, took over the direction of Gone With the Wind from George Cukor), it definitely bears Fleming's macho mark.

Dennis Carson (Gable) runs a Southeast Asian rubber plantation. Vantine, a "woman of easy virtue" (Harlow), drifts into camp looking for a place to evade the law. One look at Dennis and she falls, hard. Her incessant chatter drives him nuts--and out of sheer impudence she insists on calling him "Fred"--but she finally wears him down. "You talk too much, but you're a cute little trick at that," he grins, pulling her onto his lap as the camera cuts away...

Then Dennis falls for Babs Willis (Mary Astor), the genteel wife of visiting surveyor Gary Willis (Gene Raymond). (The couple arrives at the dangerous, ramshackle camp with tennis rackets.) Babs can't help but succumb to Dennis's raw masculine power. Come the monsoons, he carries her in out of the rain. Their ensuing first kiss is one hot movie moment--and her a married woman! Of course this can't last: Gable and Harlow have to end up together. Dennis takes pity on Gary and abandons his plan to run away with Babs. "I've been noble," he tells Vantine, taking her in his arms. "Well, it's about time!" she replies. --Laura Mirsky

Customer Reviews

Gable and Harlow electrify the screen
"Red Dust" is a classic early 1930's drama filled with plenty of steamy sexual tension and barbed dialogue that would never have got by the censors later in that decade. The film at first glance really doesn't look like a typical MGM product what with its depiction of a seemy side of life not commonly associated with Metro products. Indeed it has an almost modern feel to some of the exchanges between the leading players and the situations it depicts...I strongly recommend "Red Dust" to you as a terrific tale of lust and passion,... pre code style. It is first and foremost an unforgettable Gable/Harlow teaming where you get to see the types of characters for which both are best known vividly acted out. Both made great films with other perfomers in the future but to see first hand what made the Gable/Harlow combination such magic on screen you need go no further than the classic "Red Dust".

"I'm Pollyanna the glad girl!"
Thanks to the pure-gold performances of Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, RED DUST remains an enjoyable early example of the melodrama potboiler genre. The story is based on the play by Wilson Collison, and centers around hard-nosed rubber plantation owner Carson (played by Clark Gable). Jean Harlow plays Vantine, a good-time girl on the run from the Saigon police. The two strike up an unlikely relationship, which is disrupted when an engineer (Gene Raymond) and his beautiful wife Barbara (Mary Astor) arrive. Carson and Barbara become inseparable, leading to a violent confrontation when the situation becomes too much to bear...

Mary Astor and Jean Harlow offer excellent performances as the women vying for Carson's love. Harlow utters some of her trademark zinger-quips and the movie is enlivened immensely by her presence. Also featuring Donald Crisp.

Later re-made in 1953 as MOGAMBO, with Clark Gable reprising his role opposite two new leading ladies (Ava Gardner in the Harlow role; Grace Kelly in the Astor role). RED DUST is a real masterpiece of melodrama, romance and action.

Harlow steals the show!
As a diehard fan of Clark Gable I rented this movie for him and came out of it completely under the spell of Jean Harlow. Who cares what their personal lives were like, does it really matter? No, when they're on the screen together everything else just disappears. While some actresses seem to shrink in the presence of legends like Gable, Harlow actually steals scenes from him. Her tough talking Vantine is the one you're rooting for from the beginning. And when she's not on the screen the story gets a bit sappy and diluted. But as always she returns to save the day (and the picture) with her wise-cracking unapologetic manner. Hooray for Harlow and Gable! Whatever genius got them together on the screen did film fans everywhere a favor!