CATCH A CLASSIC
TCM Spotlight: Met on Set: ‘Passionate Affairs’
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
As this month’s “Met on Set” spotlight continues, Turner Classic Movies features films costarring actors who met on set and started passionate affairs that were scandalous in the public eye. Tonight’s first film is the 1931 crime drama Dance, Fools, Dance
(pictured). Starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, it was Gable’s first leading role after Crawford requested him for the part, the first of eight films that they made together. Next is the 1950 drama Stromboli, starring Ingrid Bergman and directed by Roberto Rossellini, whose affair started during filming, creating a public scandal. Bergman gave birth to their son the same month the film was released, and she and Rossellini were married for seven years. The 1962 historical drama Cleopatra follows, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, whose extramarital affair began during filming. They were married in 1964 despite the public’s disapproval — the first of two marriages between the couple, with both ending in divorce. After that is the 1939 drama Dark Victory, starring George Brent and Bette Davis. It was one of 11 movies they made together, completed soon after both had gotten divorced. They found romance with each other and started a relationship that lasted for a little over a year. The 1942 crime thriller Johnny
Eager follows, starring Lana Turner and Robert Taylor, whose relationship was rumored to have begun shortly after meeting on set. They had undeniable chemistry, but Turner denied that anything ever happened between them, since Taylor was a married man at the time of filming. The final film is the 1926 silent romantic drama Flesh and
the Devil, starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. It’s said that the romantic chemistry between Garbo and Gilbert was a director’s dream, since it was not faked. They moved in together and were engaged before production was even complete, and the film marked one of the most famous romances of Hollywood’s golden age. — Evan McLean