Red Dust

The first, and perhaps the best, of five Clark Gable-Jean Harlow vehicles. [08 Feb 1998, p.67]

An unpretentious, rowdy, lecherous good show. [28 Nov 1999, p.35]

Familiar plot stuff, but done so expertly it almost overcomes the basic script shortcomings and the familiar hot-love-in-the-isolated-tropics theme [from the play by Wilson Collison].

Harlow is intensely liable, delivering her zingy wisecracks with a wonderful dirty good humor, and Gable is at that early peak in his career when he is so sizzlingly sexual that it seems both funny and natural for the two women to be fighting over him.

No amount of resourceful set dressing can convince us that this poky MGM backlot is a perspiring slab of French Indochina in monsoon season. [03 Aug 2014, p.6]

The second pairing of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow is a steamy drama of infidelity, set against an exotic background and peppered with dialog and situations that pushed the boundaries of Hollywood self-censorship as far as they would go.

The atmosphere of this tale is more interesting than its story, especially the glimpses of the men at work.