Just perfect...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Since Clark Gable became famous for punching women in films (notably Barbara Stanwyck in Night Nurse), it is worthy to note that Marion Davies gives HIM the black eye! Cain and Mabel has a cute premise: a boxer and an actress get together for the sake of publicity but secretly despise each other! Unfortunately there isn't much spark here. Davies is serviceable in the reluctant golddigger role with platinum hair and impossibly blue eyes that seem to have no iris at all, but she doesn't seem particularly committed. Gable also phones it in as a one-note brute -- almost a parody of his many other roles. The subplot that they'd both rather stay home and eat pork chops than act out their romance for the audiences, seems a little too real. This is one of those films that pairs up two huge stars in a mediocre script, hoping sparks will fly with arguments and overturned ice buckets, but mostly it fizzles.The one stunning exception comes in the third reel when Davies performs in the finale of her Broadway show. It is a jaw-dropping tableau of romantic imagery in huge puffy sleeves and fluffy white feathers. From Louis XVI wigs, to Venice canals, to flying angels, to a choir arranged to look like a pipe organ. Curving staircases, ornate bridges, miles of drapery, and a princess double-cone hat with cascading tulle..., and it just keeps coming. Thematically it steals -- I mean, pays homage to half-a-dozen depression era musicals like "Shall We Dance", and even borrows the violin song from "Gold Diggers of 1933". At the center of it all Davies struggles to keep a relaxed smile, like a bride statuette on a wedding cake so ornately decorated with white icing there is no room left for the groom!Without this scene I would have only given the movie a 4, but this sequence is EVERYTHING YOU WATCH SILVER-AGE MUSICALS FOR! I have to bump it up to an 8 as a "must see" in musical history.

Marion Davies and Clark Gable star together in a second film (they had co-starred in POLLY OF THE CIRCUS) as a Broadway star and a prize fighter who get tricked into a phony publicity romance to increase their box office draw. Lots of snappy lines here as the two stars go through their paces, accompanied by a solid supporting cast. Davies gets doused with a bucket of water. She gets even, dousing Gable with water in a hallway. They trade insults Davies gets to star is two lavish production numbers. The "Coney Island" romp is fun with Davies singing and dancing with Sammy White. The "Thousand Love Songs" number is built on a huge stage (biggest ever, the roof was raised 35 ft to accommodate the massive sets) and includes a human pipe organ, a Venetian canal, and even a white wedding, with Davies as the centerpiece in all of them. Davies cracked a rib during a dance number. Too bad the dance double is badly done. Still a lot of fun all round.Ruth Donnelly, William Collier, Allen Jenkins, Pert Kelton, Robert Paige (billed as David Carlyle), Hobart Cavanaugh, Marie Prevost, E.E. Clive, Walter Catlett, and Roscoe Karns co-star. Sammy White is terrific in the "Coney Island" number, following up a great turn in SHOW BOAT with Irene Dunne. Jane Wyman is one of the chorus girls.Davies would make only one more film after CAIN AND MABEL.

By this point in time, Marion Davies has received an honest evaluation as a performer: far from being a hopeless, no-talent Susan Alexander who appeared before the public solely through the wealth and ego of Hearst, she was nevertheless overmatched in many of her roles, displaying the abilities of a competent supporting player if the material were not too challenging.Casting her in CAIN AND MABEL was a mistake. She has no discernible flair for comedy, her timing being awkward, her gestures and facial expressions being studied, rather than natural. If in fact it is her own singing voice that we hear, its lack of expressiveness is thankfully limited to a few bars. Being a former hoofer, Davies might be expected to acquit herself with some distinction as a featured dancer, but in fact in her one extended number here, her nimble and stylish male partner, Sammy White, rather than making her look good, illustrates just how numerous her limitations were. Further along, there is a balletic production number in which she poses gracefully in the close and medium shots, while the challenging movements and steps are all photographed in long shots, obviously performed by a double.The story is trite and flimsy - not at all the screwball comedy it was clearly intended to be. Roscoe Karns and Allen Jenkins perform their characteristic screen roles, while Walter Catlett and Ruth Donnelly are unfortunately kept somewhat under wraps. Caught in the midst of all this - but doing his earnest best, as usual - is Clark Gable.Postscript: Is it a fact that Hearst issued an order that Miss Davies was not to be kissed on the lips? In the half-dozen or so romantic clinches that follow the leading players' confession of their mutual love, Gable kisses her on the cheek and on the chin, getting as close to her mouth as possible, but clearly off-target.....like a number of other things in this forgettable picture.

This movie is a must see for anyone who is a screwball comedy fan. I found it to be very very funny. Why it is not on video, I don't know. It is something that can could be seen multiple times. It is packed full of one liners, glamour (Marion and Clark), humorous story line and a few rather interesting show numbers. I would rate it right up there with "Red Dust" and "Idiot's Delight".