ada the leading man is my tpye

Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

theowinthrop I am certain that THEY MET IN BOMBAY must have done well with the U.S. and British Commonwealth states (possibly India excepted) in 1941. The last half hour must have struck many a patriotic heart in these countries against a supposedly bloodthirsty and sneaky foe. But if analyzed it does not fully work. It tries to do too much, and the results show it.Jessie Ralph is a Duchess who has a famous jewel, and Gable and Russell are jewel thieves, who are after the jewel by themselves. As a result of two separate schemes they manage to keep derailing each other's plans. Finally they decide to work together and steal the jewel, but they are being pursued by a Scotland Yard Inspector. They get aboard a freighter captained by Peter Lorre as a Chinese seaman. Lorre soon realizes they are not two innocents and they pay him to let them off the freighter before the ship arrives in port. But he contacts the authorities and says they are on his boat. Gable figures out there will be a double cross, and he and Russell steal a boat and get ashore just as Lorre is allowing the inspector on board.Up to a point the film has a positive momentum (the director, Clarence Brown, does not really lose much time with his actors. But now a bit of script padding occurs which only barely makes sense. Gable reads in a local newspaper that a merchant is being investigated for corruption in selling grain to the British army. He is able to steal a Captain's uniform (his character was in the Canadian Army) and gets a new uniform to wear that fits him. He proceeds to commandeer British soldiers, go to the offices of the merchant, and plunder him of a box of money. So far the character of Gable's role is maintained. But now he finds he is ordered to report to the office of the local General (Reginald Owen) for sudden orders. An emergency to rescue British nationals and some Chinese (who requested asylum from some territory the Japanese army has been advancing in) requires all the British military to this rapidly deteriorating situation. Gable tries to get out of it, only to be brought up sharply by Owens that there is no exception to the orders.I won't go into this side trip (brining the still scheming Gable into confrontation with the Japanese officer in charge (Philip Ahn)). The result is that Gable manages to present the military with a problem and finds himself the center of unwanted publicity. The film ends happily for Gable and Russell, but it has a conclusion that was only possible in the make-believe of Hollywood in 1940 regarding the British Empire and the Sino-Japanese War of that day (Britain and Japan did not go to war until December 7, 1941, the same day that they went to war with the U.S. - the equivalent to Pearl Harbor was the attack on Singapore and the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse).The cast is perfect, and not lethargic (as they should be with a questionable script like this). Brown (a good technical director) did not make a single mistake. That part of the forced plot is a variant of the old "Koepenick" Incident in Germany in 1906 (see the film THE CAPTAIN FROM KOEPENICK with Albert Basserman) where a convict, to get out of Germany, dressed up like a Captain and commandeered soldiers to bully his way around a town by his competent seeming swagger, does not seem to be avoidable. That the original story line got derailed unpardonably is too true to ignore. That the image of cruel Japanese soldiers just hit the patriotic nerves at a perfect time is also true. Those audiences must have cheered Gable in that sequence.It was not a washout film - one can enjoy all the fine actors going through their paces. But it is not a well made film. Still it gets six stars for cast and director.

blanche-2 Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell team up in "They Met in Bombay," a 1941 film also starring Peter Lorre. The two are both thieves, both with their eye on a valuable necklace, when they meet - she posing as aristocracy, he posing as a detective. They end up on the lam and in love.The fun part of this film takes place later on when Gable, trying to come up with an escape plan for the two of them, gets a uniform and poses as a soldier. Unfortunately, a situation arises and a superior officer grabs him off the street for special duty. He's then in a very difficult position indeed.It's fun to watch the two stars together. MGM didn't always know what to do with Russell's strong beauty - in "Trouble for Two" she is extremely Garboesque - here, her hairstyle and makeup are pure Hedy Lamar. Either way, she looks great and gives a nice performance as a woman in love in spite of herself. Gable is charming and plays it dead serious, which makes his war duties even more bizarre, as he's totally believable. Peter Lorre is on hand for a touch of the sinister.The script could have been stronger to support these two stars and a good story. Nevertheless, it's good, breezy entertainment.

MartinHafer This film is rather formulaic. Clark plays an international con man thief who falls in love with a female version of himself (Ms. Russell). While this certainly doesn't break any new ground and is a very predictable by-the-numbers MGM production, you are still left with a movie that is great fun but won't change your life. I, for one, love films like this. That's because I like the formula--as did the rest of America at the time. That's because despite its short-comings the film was dripping with quality. Both actors are at the top of their game, the writing and dialog is snappy fun and the direction is on target. All-in-all, a lot of fun and sure to please fans of this genre.

KyleFurr2 This movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise because i wasn't that interested in seeing out and it turned out to be one of Gable's better pictures. The movie was directed by Clarence Brown who has worked with Gable several times before in movies like Possessed and Idiot's Delight. Both Gable and Rosalind Russell are professional thieves who are interested in stealing a very expensive necklace worth millions of dollars. Once they finally have it and think they are going to get away they find the police on their tail the entire way. They wind up on a boat going to Hong Kong with Peter Lorre as the captain who only cares about money and tries to turn them in for the reward. Once they arrive in Hong Kong the movie takes an unexpected turn and Gable winds up becoming a military hero. It's a pretty good movie and probably one of Gable's best.