If there would have been a zero instead of a 1 I would have selected that. The supporting actors that appear here in small and bit parts are more believable and certainly less annoying than Brolin and Clayburgh. James Brolin was made up with mustache, hair/wig, and bizarre prosthetic ears that don't enhance his portrayal as Clark Gable. The Brolin to Gable transformation generally consists of a silly contortion of his facial expression that he had difficulty holding and really does nothing to bring forth any recollection of the real Clark Gable. Nor will you recognize any similarity in Brolin's voice mimicking of Gable and a very bad impersonation of the real man. Of the two lead actors Brolin is better than Jill Clayburgh, so what does that say? When I first started watching this I felt it was so bad it must have been a TV movie till I heard Clayburgh's loud curse word language that I imagine wouldn't have passed TV censors of the 1970s. Despite the 1930s glamour getups for Ms. Clayburgh she manages to look completely unattractive and bears no resemblance to Carole Lombard. There are lots of silly scenes as she carries her "Lombard banter" sometimes as a drunk /foul/life of the party Lombard who seems adored by the supporting actors who appear as party goers (of course). In those scenes she flits from one person to the next with lots of one liners that are must have been designed to show Lombard's personality, but are not well delivered, funny or interesting. This is one 'portrayal' that if you encountered a Miss Clayburgh behaving this way with anyone in real life would have made you wonder "what the hell is wrong with this annoying person?" Fortunately she went on to make a few much better movies where her looks and physical acting adequacy do not take away from the memory of lifestory of anyone else or the whole movie.
Review of Gable and Lombard
