Somewhere I'll Find You Reviews

Notable mainly because this was the film Clark Gable was working on when his beloved wife, actress Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash, SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU is a standard war romance that marked the second screen pairing of Gable and Lana Turner. (The first was HONKY TONK.) Gable and Sterling play two brothers, American correspondents in Germany, who suddenly find themselves without work after their editor calls them back to New York, refusing to believe the siblings' predictions of world war. While visiting some old friends, Gable runs into Turner. He quickly introduces himself--and kisses her. She reminds him that they have met before, when she was a cub reporter, and tells him that she had a crush on him then. Gable is bemused by this revelation, but then learns that Turner is now his brother's steady girl. Feeling she's untrustworthy, he sets out to prove to Sterling that Turner is no good, too capricious. This causes tension between Sterling and Gable, especially when Turner breaks off her romance with the younger brother because she thinks Gable wants to marry her. Her illusions are shattered, however, when she is assigned to cover the fighting in Indochina and Gable makes no attempt to stop her. Weeks later, the brothers find themselves rehired by their old editor, who has finally realized that their predictions are coming true. They are also sent to Indochina, where they happen to meet Turner, who is now involved in smuggling refugee Chinese babies out of danger. Seeing Turner's obvious dedication to the children, Gable begins to soften toward her. Meanwhile, the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor and the patriotic Sterling joins the armed forces. Turner decides to become a nurse and all three end up on Bataan. Sterling is killed during the bloody struggle, Turner is missing, and Gable covers the story for the folks back home. Eventually, he finds Turner alive and admits his love for her. Three days into the production of SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, on January 16, 1942, Carole Lombard was killed while returning from a war bonds drive, the TWA twin-engine DC-3 she was flying in having crashed into the side of a cliff 13 minutes after takeoff from Las Vegas. MGM was about to close the set permanently when Gable returned to complete the picture less than a month after the tragedy. Gable, who was normally open and quite friendly to cast and crew, requested that the set remain closed to all visitors and that he be left alone in his dressing room. Police were hired to guard his privacy. To the amazement of all, he forced himself to finish the film. After the film's release the critics, while applauding his show-must-go-on determination, noted that Gable's performance seemed subdued and strained. But though the old Gable sparkle was missing, the public--perhaps because of the tragedy, or perhaps because of his teaming with Turner--came out in droves to see SOMEWHERE I'LL FIND YOU, and the film became one of the studio's biggest hits.