With Oscar-winner Rosalind Russell

Tonight's lineup on TCM is a night of "Bob's Picks", which is more or less Robert Osborne acting as a GUest Programmer, except of course that he's not a guest. The night kicks off at 8:00 PM with The Oklahoma Kid, which is a fun western mostly because it's got Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney in the cast, and you have to wonder what Warner Bros. was thinking putting those two in a western.

The second movie is China Seas, at 9:30 PM. Ship's captain Clark Gable gets involved in a love triangle with Jean Harlow and Rosalind Russell, while having to deal wiht Wallace Beery and a band of pirates. The Straits of Malacca were a haven for piracy before Malaysia and Indonesia got their act together. Now, the pirates are all operating out of Somalia, as you may have seen if you recall the movie Captain Phillips. The trailer for China Seas is available on Youtube:



I'll admit to not watching the Youtube video, but if it's the same one that's shown up on TCM, it's interesting to see the movie e called an MGM "Hall of Fame" Picture, whatever that's supposed to mean. More interesting, though, is what Warner Bros. has on the Youtube page for the trailer above:

Legendary screen icon Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind) stars as a sea captain who is caught in a romantic triangle and who has to fight off modern-day pirates. Co-starring the Blonde Bombshell Jean Harlow (Dinner at Eight), Oscar-winner Rosalind Russell (Auntie Mame) and Oscar-winner Wallace Beery (The Champ).

Russell may have been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar four times (the last for Auntie Mame), but she only won a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.