Louis B. Mayer and William Randolph Hearst had a terrific row, as a result of which Hearst pulled up stakes and moved his entire unit from M-G-M to Warner Bros where he was personally welcomed by Jack Warner. My guess is that Warner interceded for Hearst with Mayer and that Marion Davies was blamed for the split. In any event, Mayer and Warner remained on extremely friendly terms and here we see Mayer lending his top star, Clark Gable, to Warner, something I don't think he ever did for anyone else. Mayer and Warner were also staging a friendly competition as to who could underwrite the most expensive musical number. Mayer won, but number two comes mighty close. Coney Island is a delight too. Yes, the screenplay does tend to strain its metaphors, but it's sharply acted by both Hearst's mistress and Mayer's top star. The wonderful musical interludes were brilliantly directed by Bobby Connolly, and these were allied to a noisy, fast-talking screenplay with the sort of wisecracks that most people (including me) find highly amusing. Busby Berkeley was the original choice to direct both the movie itself and the musical numbers, but when Marion Davies heard of Busby's reputation as a slave driver, she said no-no! So Bobby Connolly was hired for the musical numbers and dapper clotheshorse Lloyd Bacon (who was always nice to the ladies but would scream and fling one of his $200 hats at actors who missed their cues) became the director.
Review of Cain and Mabel
