Never Let Me Go (1953) Online

Clark Gable and Gene Tierney are teamed in "Never Let Me Go," a 1953 film. An American news writer, Philip Sutherland, (Gable) falls in love with a beautiful ballerina Marya, (Tierney), but she isn't allowed to leave Russia with him, despite being given an exit visa. A desperate Gable devises a plan to smuggle her out. British star Kenneth More plays a friend, Steve, who helps him, and Richard Haydn and Belita play another couple in similar circumstances.

Gable went through a tough time post-war - he returned from the service a widower, in the shadow of Rhett Butler, and well into his forties, older than many of the leading men who had gone into the service. Men his age had stayed home. Also, MGM hadn't been sitting around waiting - they had new stars. His immediate films post-war aren't memorable.

"Never Let Me Go" is a good romance, however, and a good watch. Gene Tierney is beautiful, if not very Russian, and Gable is earnest and sympathetic as a tough guy who will do anything to reunite with his wife. Thanks to some good acting, one feels invested in these characters.

You have to give it to Gable - his first credited film was in 1931, and when his last film, The Misfits, was released in 1961, he was still a huge star. Despite some so-so movies, he never lost his appeal. "Never Let Me Go" is better than a lot of films MGM gave him during this period.

To me, the films Clark Gable made in the 1950s are a notch below his prior films. That's because too often Clark played "Clark Gable" (sort of like many of John Wayne's later films) and he didn't veer far from the expected. However, NEVER LET ME GO, dares to be different. While not a great plot, it is interesting and worth seeing. Gable falls for dancer, Gene Tierney, and marries her. However, she is Russian and the government basically holds her hostage and ships Gable out of the country and refuses to renew his VISA. So, Gable organizes a mission where he sneaks into the country to smuggle his wife out from under the commies' noses. While difficult to believe, it is a great curio of the era and illustrates life in the Stalinist era (which ended the same year the film debuted).

Some of the scenes for this movie were filmed at Lusty Glaze beach in Newquay Cornwall. I visited there some years ago and there was a tea cafe with some stills from the film, Having seen the film,one could take in the atmosphere of the night filming which took place there. I also met local people who saw the filming and of course the stars. To reach Lusty Glaze, you have to decend over 100 steps to the beach. One wonders how all the cameras and lighting equipment actually got down there. There is only one access to the beach and one can imagine the actors having to climb and decend those steps to complete the take. Never Let Me Go was in my opinion one of Clark Gables most memorable films and his co star Gene Tierney was magnificent.

An odd film but one that is surprisingly watchable and provides an interesting insight into the early stages of the Cold War. The film conveys the menace of the era and the grim, cold and hate filled place that the Soviet Union always was. Indeed from what we now know, one may even regard the film as being soft on the Communists, as the two Russian women in the film who take western husbands would quite likely have been taken off to labour camps (and 90% likely to have been killed therefore) by Stalin's secret police rather than just denied the chance to leave the country.

Some of the acting leaves a little to be desired and Clark Gable particularly seems like he is being forced into a part and a budget that was several sizes too small for him, but nevertheless a worthy and reasonably intelligent effort.

The Anglo-American angle in the film is one I always enjoy, it is always good to see the Brits and the Americans getting together!

"Never Let Me Go" is truly Clark Gable's last romantic movie. It shows the hardships on how an American reporter and a Russian ballerina must endure in order to marry and leave Russia. The movie shows how the Russian government interferred with the romance. In real life, Russia would hve done worst things to stop the romance, but this is a Hollywood romantic movie in the 1950's.

Clark Gable and the beautiful Gene Tierney make a beautiful couple and you route for them to escape and live happily ever after. This is a great movie to see on a rainy day or any day. It is on video.

For Never Let Me Go Clark Gable has dusted off his American correspondent role from Comrade X. In that very funny comedy, Gable was playing an American newspaperman covering the Soviet Union before World War II. He's back at his correspondent's desk in this film. However here he's deadly in earnest as a man driven by love to get his Russian bride out of the police state.

Sadly the film was dated from its release with the prominent use of newsreel footage involving Joseph Stalin. The film was released on May 1, 1953 and Stalin had died in March of 1953. The state was the same, but the personalized red bogeyman that Stalin had become was no longer there. I'm sure that must have lessened the impact for those who saw Never Let Me Go in the theater.

During the war Gable meets ballerina Gene Tierney and in the spirit of the wartime alliance they fall in love and get married. But when the shooting war against Hitler stops and the Cold War starts, no one tells them NYET concerning romance. The increasingly cynical tone of Gable's stories make him an undesirable in the Soviet Union, he gets deported and Tierney is left behind. The Soviets don't recognize marriage and romance with the enemy.

Clark's not going to take that lying down. With Richard Haydn, another man who married a Russian girl left behind, they hire Bernard Miles who has a seaworthy craft and plan a rescue. It's quite a plan and a last minute hitch should have told any sensible person to try another day. Of course that's not what happens, but it does render the last minute rescue somewhat silly.

Tierney and Gable make a sincere of pair of romantic lovers. Even without the personalization of Stalin, the film is an accurate reflection of the times. Russians are a mighty suspicious lot of people, before, during, and after the Soviet Union. Kenneth More has a very nice role as a television broadcaster presumably for the BBC who helps the leads with some coded messages in his broadcasts.

Gable was getting a bit old for these kind of romantic daring do roles by 1953 though. It's not one of the top films of his career or in that last decade of that fabled Gable career.

I almost wrote off watching this film because I saw a one star review for it and it involves the ballet, both turn off's for me. However many other reviewers gave it reasonable reviews and it had Clark Gable in post WW2 USSR (notice I did not write Russia, there is a difference). I'm happy I did watch it, although I would have enjoyed it more had I watched it with my wife (we are separated due to work issues), I know she would have liked or loved it. In response to another comment here, some of my favorite Gable movies are from the 50's. He did "Run Silent Run Deep", "Betrayed", and a personal favorite of mine "Soldier Of Fortune". He was a product of the Hollywood machine and couldn't be expected to go too far out of character, that's what people were paying for. Harrison Ford seems to me to be a modern day equivalent, all his acting roles seem similar to each other. To equate Gable to Wayne's film's is OK, Wayne probably actually had more diverse roles if you think about it. I guess neither played a gay role but that was before the time these film's were made. Anyway see this film, it's pretty good, and I like the black and white photography over color, it adds to the third world USSR element. I give it a respectable 8 of 10, more entertaining for me than many other Gable film's I remember. See it with your wife or partner to enjoy it even more as it is really a date movie; elements to please each gender.

Usually it doesn't even occur to me when I am watching a movie, but for some reason it really did occur to me that Gene Tierney and (especially) Clark Gable were tooooooooo old for their parts in this movie. Note especially Clark Gable in the bathing suit! That's not to say, however, that the acting isn't good in this film. Gable was darned good here. And, while it may have been a little difficult to see Tierney as a ballerina, it wasn't at all difficult to see her as a Russian. I particularly enjoyed watching Richard Haydn as Gable's friend. Haydn was often relegated to rather silly supporting comedy roles (such as in "Sitting Pretty" or "Money From Home", although you may remember him best as the agent in "The Sound Of Music"). Here he's straight dramatic, and quite good.

The drinking scene is quite entertaining (though clichéd), if for no other reason than enjoying watching Gable pretend he can't hold his liquor.

The plot is very cold war-ish. Gable -- a reporter -- falls in love with a Russian ballerina shortly after the end of WWII. Gable is forced out of Russia after marrying her, but is determined to rescue her by hook or by crook...or in this case by boat. The most illogical part of the film is him swimming to shore in only his shorts and t-shirt, expecting -- with no clothes -- to get into the auditorium where she is performing, and to somehow sneak her out. Which he does!!! Ah, Hollywood. There are some good moments here, and while it is not Gable at his best overall, he has some very good moments where he seems to have matured as an actor.

Very worth watching, though not necessarily one you'll want for your DVD shelf.

This movie is bad but not in an interesting or entertaining way. Its politics are kind of peculiar. Its plot is minimal. And Clark Gable looks rather heavy and unengaged. (Did men during this period actually swim in old fashioned two-piece bathing costumes? If not, why were swimming scenes included?) Gene Tierney was a beautiful woman and a good actress under the right circumstances. She's touching in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and amusingly over-the top in "Leave Her To Heaven." However, casting her as a Russian ballerina? She doesn't sound or look Russian. She looks ravishing but the whole movie is exceptionally bad.

This film was an oracle for (Cold war) before their accident ten years not by war or politics or satellite but by art and love upon a story of an American writer that fell in love with Russian dancer during the WWII and the Russian Authorities refused this love because of political misunderstanding between two countries.

I like this film because of romantic spirit and good ballet upon the shows of this movie upon different situations between love , thriller and suspense.

Clark Gable succeeded in this role as a lover but not as (Gone with the wind) and he made in his profile as an actor his still style as (A lover of Hollywood).

we are here in-front of American-Russian story as a root of cold war before ten years of it in the real of it.