Living in an age where romantic comedies are more likely to induce cringing than laughter or pleasant feelings, it’s nice to revisit a time when Hollywood imbued these films with clever humor and likeable characters.
Now 58 years old, “Teacher’s Pet” is a smart, prototypical rom-com. The delightfully deadpan Clark Gable plays a self-taught newspaper editor who believes real-world experience is the only way to become a good journalist. When Doris Day, a journalism teacher, invites him to lecture to her class, he goes to give her a piece of his mind. Gable walks in just in time to hear Day insult him, so he decides to upstage her by enrolling and excelling in her class. Antics and romance ensue.
In one of his final roles, Gable is as charming as ever, even as a hard-edged professional. Day keeps up, portraying an idealist who still seems grounded in reality. Both characters seem authentic, which is surprising and refreshing in a genre that tends to be overflowing with insincerity.
The setting, in fact, is as interesting as the plot. “Teacher’s Pet” captures the concerns of hard-working Americans at a time when college education was becoming commonplace and not just the domain of the elite. And in a particularly prophetic conversation, the characters debate how newspapers and journalism must change in response to the emergence of new media (television and radio at the time).
“Teacher’s Pet” is not too serious, though. Supporting actors Gig Young and Mamie Van Doren, who play a psychology professor and a nightclub singer respectively, steal the show and introduce some of the film’s most hilarious gags – so much so that this role got Young a nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year.
Intelligently written and well-acted, “Teacher’s Pet” shows off the best qualities of films of its era. It is well worth watching nearly six decades after its original release.
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
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