PARNELL (1937)

This sixth pairing of Clark Gable and Myrna Loy finds them portraying real life 19th century Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell and his wife Katharine O'Shea.  Before watching the film, I'd never even heard of Charles Parnell and afterwards I still didn't know much and cared even less, but I did look him up on Wikipedia and from just the few minutes I spent on there, it seems like this film was wildly inaccurate.  Example: In the film they only had a brief courtship and a very short marriage before his early death, but in reality they had three children together while she was still married to another man!!!

Historical inaccuracies aside, PARNELL is still a snoozer.  I love Gable and Loy, but watching them here was a chore.  Neither have anything to work with and as a result the entire film is just lifeless scene after lifeless scene...Gable gives a lame speech, Loy and Gable talking, more talking, politic rivals dislike Gable, Billie Burke talks and it make me daydream about THE WIZARD OF OZ, Donald Meek shows up and I start daydreaming about YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, more talking, Gable and Loy eat potatoes, Gable and Loy love each other, Gable goes on trial, more talking, The End.

As far as the filmmaking qualities go PARNELL looked good and the acting was passable, but the story was just terrible!  Zero ups or downs, boring characters, dull romance.  Ugh, PARNELL is simply a nothing movie.  Skip it.