TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

TheLittleSongbird 'They Met in Bombay' had a lot going for it. Having Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell and Peter Lorre in the same film, a really conceptually interesting story and a talented director being the primary ones, plus MGM were responsible for many classics of all genres (especially musicals) that are too numerous to list.On the most part, 'They Met in Bombay' doesn't disappoint. Not quite one of those completely living up to high expectations and exceeding them, but it nearly does and in no way a waste of potential. 'They Met in Bombay' is not necessarily great. It is uneven and disjointed for reasons that will be explained later and actually have been covered already in previous reviews. 'They Met in Bombay' having said that is also very entertaining, would classify it as a good film that is hard to dislike and with nothing to be offended by.Good things are a great many. Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell are terrific in the lead roles, particularly Gable. Lots of charm and with great comic timing, their chemistry sparkles. Peter Lorre, Reginald Owen, Matthew Boulton and Jessie Ralph give nice support, Lorre and Boulton coming off most memorably. Production values are lovely to look at, particularly the crisp photography. The score is suitably peppy and the direction sees someone with a lot of talent doing a more than solid job. 'They Met in Bombay' goes at a snappy pace, the script is funny, witty and surprisingly sophisticated and the story for the near-perfect first two thirds is immensely engaging with plenty of well done scenes (including a hilarious scene in a beauty parlour). It is a shame that the last third is not as good. The pace slackens, the wit and sophistication disappears and the patriotic element that is introduced feels heavy-handed and almost tacky, it just felt very misplaced. With the more action-heavy and political edge 'They Met in Bombay' did feel like a completely different film, and one that wasn't near as interesting or entertaining as the first two thirds (which only had the predictability to fault it).Also thought that Gerald's character went through a character change to a more heroic personality trait that also jarred, almost like there were two different Geralds.Concluding, a good and entertaining film let down by a disappointing final third that was enough to bring the film's quality quite a bit. 7/10 Bethany Cox

mark.waltz The first half is a jewel robbery caper a la "Trouble in Paradise". Posing as the Scotland Yard representative from Lloyds of London, the oh-so-British Clark Gable (!) shows up in Bombay hoping to steal the Star of India necklace worn by the eccentric Duchess of Beltravers. He doesn't realize he has company; Rosalind Russell, posing as a Baroness, has shown up with the same intention. It is obvious that one of them will end up with it, but who? Fate throws them together, and that's where the second half comes in, a tale of war in China where the pre-Pearl Harbor Japanese are preparing to attack British troops. Gable and Russell find themselves thrust into this battle as the threat of being discovered for the jewel heist hangs over them.First half sophisticated comedy, second half patriotic cry for arms. It really changes the mood of the film which would have been fine had the change not been so jarring. The comedy of the first half is really entertaining with Gable and Russell an attractive romantic team. Throw in the marvelous Jessie Ralph as the Duchess and you've got a marvelous display of scene stealing. The Duchess, who "came to aristocracy via the stage door", is a salty lush who "carries my children like a lady and my liquor like a gentleman". Ralph, so marvelous as the society leader of Gable's 1936 smash "San Francisco", is a Marie Dressler/May Robson type dowager with her vinegary voice and acid delivery. But once the film departs Bombay, the comedy lessens, adventure increases (with an excellent chase sequence), until taken over by a well-filmed war sequence. In the scene where Russell gets her hands on the necklace off the passed-out duchess, she slithers out of the room, reminding me of the cat-like Gale Sondergaard in "The Letter".Peter Lorre appears briefly as the slimy, whiskered Chinese captain of the ship that picks up the escaped Gable and Russell. He must have been the Asian cousin of Lorre's equally sleazy character in Gable's 1940 adventure "Strange Cargo". MGM perennial Reginald Owen is also on hand as the British commander in China. There are moments of farce (the chase sequence gets a bit silly with the poor Indian man carrying two buckets on each end of a long stick), tension (Will Gable and Russell get off Lorre's ship before Scotland Yard catches them?) and romance (the initially antagonistic couple realizing their attraction towards each other) to hold onto one mood for a long period of time. But Clarence Brown, one of MGM's best directors, makes the film move fast enough so these quibbles do not lessen the entertainment value of the film as a whole.

skiddoo I almost gave up on the movie, it was so dull with such a tired plot of a couple of thieves working against each other and falling in love. It had no energy. We've all seen the same thing done better. I just felt, "Oh, I don't want to go through this." But then it started to pick up, or morph into a different movie that I preferred. With that movie a person could think, "How are they going to get out of THAT." Gable did a nice job directing his troops, as it were, with an air of authority that wasn't entirely bluffing. I was SO grateful that Russell didn't turn up with a group of orphans that they had to rescued!! That would have left me screaming at the TV. Gable and Russell never got all mushy, never got out of character as the hard-nosed types who would steal missionaries' clothes and passports, as Grant and Russell stayed in character in His Gal Friday. I would have given this more stars if it had skipped the first movie and enlarged on the second. One of the things that interested me about this movie is it didn't show the Japanese as vicious thugs trying to take over the Far East, or even the world. As far as Gable and Russell were concerned, they were just people who were in the way of escape and it didn't matter one bit if they occupied the town or not. Of course the movie had to end as it did in that era. Nobody would have gone to see it if it hadn't. But at least we were spared the charming orphans bit.

bkoganbing Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell had worked twice together before. Russell was a supporting player in two of Gable's previous films, China Seas and Forsaking All Others. But in They Met in Bombay they make a bright pair of competing and then cooperating thieves.Bombay is in fact where they do meet, both of them working individually on a caper to steal a really big diamond belonging to inebriated Dutchess, Jessie Ralph. When they discover who each really is, there's some antagonism, but the police chasing them forces some cooperation which becomes more and more willing as the film progresses.The pair eventually arrive in Hong Kong and I dare not say more, but some of Gable's con games involve him something far bigger than he can handle as the plot takes some unbelievable turns.Gable and Russell worked well together, it's a pity that this was their only teaming on the big screen. Look also for good performances by Peter Lorre as the sly Chinese freighter captain and Reginald Owen as the British General and Matthew Boulton as the frustrated British police inspector. Also if you look fast you'll see Alan Ladd in a minute part as a British soldier in a scene with Gable while the leads are in Hong Kong. They Met in Bombay is fast paced and very funny and still holds up remarkably well today.