Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

tieman64 Clarke Gable and Doris Day lock horns in "Teacher's Pet" (1958), a romantic comedy by director George Seaton. Day plays Erica Stone, a professor who believes that journalism can be taught in schools, and that journalists should be intellectual types who investigate their subjects from a bevy of perspectives. Disagreeing with Stone is James Gannon (Clarke Gable), a renowned journalist who believes in street smarts, unpretentious writing and a willingness to pander to both market forces and the whims of the common man. The film quickly develops into a "battle-of-the-sexs" comedy, the mustachioed Clarke and the svelte Day bumping bodies and ideologies."Teacher's Pet" loses steam during its final act, and eventually starts repeating itself. For its first hour, though, this is nevertheless a cute comedy, competently directed by Seaton. It ends with Gannon and Stone begrudgingly accepting each other's point of view. Early scenes feature the infamous Mamie Van Doren as Pegggy DeFore, a nightclub singer.7/10 – Worth one viewing. See "In A Lonely Place", "His Girl Friday", "Sweet Smell of Success", and "Deadline" (1952)

kellyadmirer Clark Gable was the man! He easily pulls off this romantic comedy that is about more than romance, and actually has very important things to say about life. While co-star Doris Day was the future and Gable was running out the string as an actor, he still dominates this film and demonstrates his awesome chops as an actor, not just as a pretty face.Gable plays a hard-bitten newspaper editor, James Gannon, who learned the business by doing it, without any formal education. He is old school, and while defensive, still proud and confident of his abilities. Day is a professor who thinks that Gannon especially and the rest of his kind are badly in need of an education, and she lets the newspaper know her feelings.So, Gable goes down to Day's journalism class at his editor's command, takes a sudden shine to her, and enrolls without revealing his identity. The rest of the film revolves around Gannon's pursuit of Day, who is involved with an accomplished psychology teacher played by Gig Young, and their attempts to teach each other some lessons. There are many humorous incidents along the way, most flowing from Gannon's manly competition with Young - who doesn't fight back at all, and in fact winds up helping him - for Day's favors. If Gable has the Rock Hudson role, Young plays the Tony Randall sidekick. Mamie van Doren has a stunning supporting role, little more than a cameo, as Gannon's singer girlfriend whom Day memorably mimics outrageously later at her apartment.But the competition between the Gable and Young characters is just a sideshow. That wouldn't be a fair fight in any event, Gable's virility even at his advanced age is undeniable. The real fight is between Day's and Gable's ideas about journalism. Gable constantly surprises Day with the quality of his work, and Gable starts questioning everything he does because many of her ideas make a lot of sense. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Apparently so. And have some fun along the way, too.An enjoyable romp that is made infinitely better because of the very serious message underlying the film. Question everything, and learn from that process! Nothing wrong with that. And Gable and Day make an amazingly cute couple, Day actually managing to look sexy now and then and not just perky as usual.

junkregister This has the look and feel of a 1938 film. The anachronistic acting style is embarrassing. Since we know from The Misfits that Gable was a smart actor, the dialogs itself is witty, the fault must lie in the heavy-handed direction. It is surprising that George Seaton started in the mid 1940's. Look at Gable's gestures in the early scene in the class room. Awful. Doris Day, on the other hand, gave a very respectable performance. The relevance of the thematic conflict between the uneducated tradesman vs the educated professional lapsed in relevance in the post war GI bill era. In 1938 this movie would have been hip. By 1958 it is unintentionally funny.

David (Handlinghandel) The script is well done. The premise amusing: A hard-boiled editor faces off with a journalism teacher.The gender politics haven't aged well: Today, the Doris Day character would surely be an editor herself. In those days, though, being a nurse or teacher were what bright women did. And Day is a professor here (albeit in a night school.) She and Clark Gable, playing the newsman, don't exactly have chemistry. But they're not supposed to like or trust each other at first. They are both major movie stars in a system that was dying out.Speaking of dying, this was near the end of Gable's career -- only a few films before more famously ill-fated "The Misfits." And two of the major supporting players were to die at their own hands: Gig Young plays a brilliant psychologist Gable sees as a rival for Day's affections. (The scenes in which he's drunk are where it began, for me, to lose its charms a bit. They're slightly mean.)Nick Adams, too, died of unnatural causes. He plays a promising up-and-comer at the paper.Day is stuck with a very unbecoming hairstyle. It sort of bridges the gap between her days singing with big bands and her greatest (popular, if not critical) glory days in the movies with Rock Hudson. She gives a sturdy, likable performance.Mamie Van Doren is a nightclub singer of Gable's acquaintance. She too has a terrible haircut. (Please note: I generally don't notice actresses' hair but these two are notably unflattering.) The nightclub scenes recall "The Awdul Truth." And if, as she sings, she invented rock and roll, the song she sings in the club certainly shows no sign of that.The movie is long for a comedy. It could have been shorter and could have been better. Still, it's pure pleasure most of the way through.