''Parnell'' is a 1937 biographical film produced by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

, starring

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...

, the famous Irish politician. It was Gable's least successful film and is generally considered his worst, and it is listed in ''

The Fifty Worst Films of All Time ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. The movie addresses the sex scandal that destroyed Parnell's political career, but its treatment of the subject is highly sanitized (and fictionalized) in keeping with Hollywood content restrictions at the time.

Plot

The life of Irish politician and

Home Rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

activist,

Cast

Credited Cast *

Myrna Loy Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...

as Katie O'Shea *

Edna May Oliver Edna May Oliver (born Edna May Nutter, November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the better-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters. ...

as Aunt Ben Wood *

Edmund Gwenn Edmund Gwenn (born Edmund John Kellaway; 26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), for which he won th ...

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

* Alan Marshal as Captain

William O'Shea Captain William Henry O'Shea (1840 – 22 April 1905) was an Irish soldier and Member of Parliament. He is best known for being the ex-husband of Katharine O'Shea, the long-time mistress of the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. ...

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor ...

as Davitt *

Billie Burke Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North ...

as Clara Wood *

Berton Churchill Berton Churchill (December 9, 1876 – October 10, 1940) was a Canadian stage and film actor. Early years Churchill was born in Toronto, Ontario. After his family moved to New York City, he graduated from high school there, studied law a ...

as The O'Gorman Mahon *

Donald Meek Thomas Donald Meek (14 July 1878 – 18 November 1946) was a Scottish-American actor. He first performed publicly at the age of eight and began appearing on Broadway in 1903. Meek is perhaps best known for his roles in the films '' You Can't T ...

Murphy Murphy () ( ga, Ua Murchadha) is an Irish surname and the most common surname in the Republic of Ireland. Origins and variants The surname is a variant of two Irish surnames: "Ó Murchadha"/"Ó Murchadh" (descendant of "Murchadh"), and "Mac ...

Montagu Love Montagu Love (15 March 1877 – 17 May 1943) was an English screen, stage and vaudeville actor. Early years Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Love was the son of Harry Love and Fanny Louisa Love, née Poad; his father was listed as accountant ...

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

* Byron Russell as Healy *

Brandon Tynan Brandon Tynan (born James William Tynan; April 11, 1875 – March 19, 1967) was an Irish-born American stage and screen actor. In his early stage career he appeared with Alla Nazimova on Broadway in her early years after migrating from Russia. He ...

as Redmond *

Neil Fitzgerald Neil Fitzgerald (15 January 1893 – 15 June 1982) was an Irish actor. Cornelius James Fitzgerald was born at Henry Street (now O'Brien Street), Tipperary, the son of James Joseph Fitzgerald, a grocer, and Ellen McGrath. He was educated in Trini ...

as Pigott/ Dr. Gillespie *

George Zucco George Zucco (11 January 1886 – 27 May 1960) was a British character actor who appeared in plays and 96 films, mostly American-made, during a career spanning over two decades, from the 1920s to 1951. In his films, he often played a suave ...

as Sir Charles Russell Uncredited Cast *

Halliwell Hobbes Herbert Halliwell Hobbes (16 November 187720 February 1962) was an English actor. Early years The future actor was the son of William Albert Hobbes (1841-1909), a Warwickshire solicitor, and his wife, Marion Hobbes, née Dennis, (1838-1925). ...

W.H. Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

Robert Homans Robert Edward Homans (November 8, 1877 – July 28, 1947) was an American actor who entered films in 1923 after a lengthy stage career. Life and career Robert Homans was born November 8, 1877, in Malden, Massachusetts. Although he studied ...

as Irish Cop in New York *

Olaf Hytten Olaf Hytten (3 March 1888 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1955. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack, while sitting in his car ...

as House of Commons Member *

Murray Kinnell Murray Kinnell (24 July 1889 – 11 August 1954) was a British-born American actor, recognized for playing smooth, gentlemanly, although rather shady characters. He appeared in 71 films in the USA between the pre-code era of 1930 and 1937. He ...

as Sir Richard Webster *

Frank Mayo Frank Mayo may refer to: * Frank M. Mayo (1839–1896), American actor and comedian * Frank Mayo (actor) Frank Lorimer Mayo (June 28, 1889 – July 9, 1963) was an American actor. He appeared in 310 films between 1911 and 1949. Biograp ...

as Judge * Frank McGlynn Sr. as Pat Hogan *

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...

as Pat * Frank Sheridan as Sheriff

Production

''Parnell'' had originally been cast to star Gable and his frequent co-star

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...

, meanwhile, was to star in '' The Last of Mrs. Cheyney'' (1937).

flipped the assignments as Crawford did not want to do another costume picture after 1936's ''

The Gorgeous Hussy ''The Gorgeous Hussy'' is a 1936 American period film directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor. The screenplay was written by Stephen Morehouse Avery and Ainsworth Morgan, which was based on a 1934 novel by Samuel ...

''. Another issue was how much to alter Gable's appearance to suit the period when the film took place. Fans balked at the idea of Gable wearing a beard as the real Parnell had done, and Gable, whose limit in facial hair was his mustache, agreed with them. He wound up adding only a set of sideburns instead of a beard. The film was Gable’s pet project. He insisted MGM make the film and wanted Joan Crawford as his co-star. She correctly thought the story was dull and would not agree to star in it with him. Gable was so upset he refused to speak to her for months. Later, when the film bombed at the box office and with critics, he told her she was right. As filming began, Gable felt very uneasy with his role, either unable or unwilling to portray the sensitive nature required to capture the character. Loy later recalled, "I learned about another side of him at that time. He was a man who loved poetry and fine literature, read it, and knew it. He would read poetry to me sometimes during breaks, but he didn't want anyone to know it." One of the many concerns that Gable had about this production was the acting that would be required of him to play out a believable death scene. During the filming of the death scene, Stahl put on mood music to help the actors get into character. Gable loathed the music and complained to

Carole Lombard Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 2 ...

. The next day, when Stahl called for the music to be turned on, a jazzy version of "

I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You ''I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop, and featuring Koko the Clown and Bimbo (Fleischer), Bimbo. The cartoon features music by ...

", went floating throughout the studio.

Reception

According to MGM records ''Parnell'' earned $992,000 in the US and Canada and $584,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $637,000. Writing for '' Night and Day'' in 1937,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

gave the film a mildly poor review, decrying the anodyne and sterilized story and condemning "the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer dream of how history should have happened". Greene's only concession was that he was well "pleas dto think how ... virginal and high-minded" were MGM's dreams. The film was included in the 1978 book, '' The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and How They Got That Way)'', by Harry Medved, Randy Dreyfuss, and Michael Medved. ''Parnell'' has been labeled the worst film in both Gable's and Loy's long and successful film careers. Loy said of the film later, "Disgruntled fans wrote to the studio by the thousands — they did that in those days. Some of the critics complained that we played against type. We were actors, for God's sake. We couldn't be Blackie Norton and

Nora Charles Nick and Nora Charles are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel ''The Thin Man''. The characters were later adapted for film in a series of films between 1934 and 1947; for radio from 1941 to 1950; for television from 1957 ...

all the time."TCM - Parnell
Following ''Parnell'', Gable vowed never to do a costume drama or biopic again. Its failure made Gable afraid of doing ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Win ...

'', but he was persuaded otherwise, and ultimately went on to his greatest success with his role as

Rhett Butler Rhett Butler (Born in 1828) is a fictional character in the 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell and in the 1939 film adaptation of the same name. It is one of Clark Gable's most recognizable and significant roles. Role Rhe ...

References

External links

* * * * {{John M. Stahl 1937 films 1930s biographical films American biographical films Films directed by John M. Stahl American black-and-white films Films set in Ireland Films set in the 1880s Films set in the 1890s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1930s historical films American historical films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films