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Too Hot to Handle (1938 film)

Too Hot to Handle
Too Hot to Handle (1938).jpg
Directed by Jack Conway
Produced by Lawrence Weingarten
Written by
Starring
Music by Franz Waxman
Cinematography
Edited by Frank Sullivan
Production
company
Distributed by Loew's Inc.
Release date
  • September 16, 1938 (1938-09-16)
Running time
106 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,564,000
Box office $2,396,000

Too Hot to Handle (a.k.a. Let 'Em All Talk) is a 1938 film about a newsreel reporter, the woman he is attracted to, and his fierce competitor, played by Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Walter Pidgeon respectively. Many of the comedy gags were devised by an uncredited Buster Keaton.

Union Newsreel reporter Chris Hunter (Clark Gable) is sneakier and has fewer scruples than his rivals in war-torn China. When the Japanese do not oblige with a convenient aerial attack to film, Chris fakes one with a model aircraft with his cameraman José Estanza (Leo Carrillo).

Outraged when he finds out, Chris's main competitor, Atlas Newsreel's Bill Dennis (Walter Pidgeon) decides to do the same, having his aviator friend Alma Harding (Myrna Loy) fly in "serum" for an imaginary cholera outbreak. Chris finds out and swoops in to film her landing. José, however, drives too close to the aircraft, causing it to crash and burst into flame. Chris rescues Alma, but when he starts to go back for the serum, she has to admit the truth.

Chris piles on lie after lie to romance Alma, even pretending to get fired by his boss, "Gabby" MacArthur (Walter Connolly), for burning the footage. Chris convinces her to work for Union. She reveals that she needs the money to mount a search for her brother Harry, lost in the Amazon jungle and given up for dead by everyone else. They travel to New York (where Gabby is eagerly awaiting the landing footage Chris is secretly bringing). Bill follows to protect the woman he has loved for years from his unscrupulous competitor.

However, the whole charade is eventually revealed, discrediting Chris, Bill and Alma. Both reporters are fired, and people begin to question whether Alma's brother is really missing. Chris's budding romance with Alma is quashed when she learns of his numerous lies. Ashamed, Chris and Bill hock their equipment and have José pretend to be a generous, kind-hearted South American plantation owner. He presents Alma with nearly $8,000 and a compass supposedly from Harry's aircraft. He tells her one of his workers brought it to him. In reality, Chris etched a fake serial number on it.


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