Clark Gable
1945–1953: After World War II

Immediately after his discharge from the service, Gable returned to his ranch and rested. Personally, he resumed a pre-war relationship with Virginia Grey, a co-star from Test Pilot and Idiot's Delight, that newspapers reported might be the next Mrs. Gable. Professionally, Gable's first movie after World War II was Adventure (1946), with Greer Garson, by then the leading female star at MGM. Given the famous teaser tagline "Gable's back, and Garson's got him", the film was a commercial hit, earning over $6 million, but a critical failure.

Gable was acclaimed for his performance in The Hucksters (1947), a satire of post-war Madison Avenue corruption and immorality, which co-starred Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner. The film was popular with audiences, placing 11th at the box office, but both Variety and The New York Times reviewed it as a sanitized version of the novel with script issues, that was heavy on Gable screentime, who struggled in the role. Gable followed this up with Homecoming (1948), where he played a married doctor enlisting in World War II and meeting Lana Turner's army surgical nurse character with a romance unfolding in flashbacks. After that he made the war film Command Decision (1948), a psychological drama with Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, and John Hodiak. It was a hit with audiences, but it lost MGM money due to the high cost of the all-star cast. Variety said, " is a believable delivery, interpreting the brigadier-general who must send his men out to almost certain death with an understanding that bespeaks his sympathy with the soldier... ".

A very public and brief romance with Paulette Goddard occurred after that. In 1949, Gable married Sylvia Ashley, a British model and actress previously married to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The relationship was profoundly unsuccessful; they divorced in 1952. Gable did a series of films with female co-stars: Any Number Can Play (1950) with Alexis Smith, Key to the City (1950) with Loretta Young, and To Please a Lady (1950) with Barbara Stanwyck. They were reasonably popular, but he had more success with two Westerns: Across the Wide Missouri (1951), and Lone Star (1952). He then made Never Let Me Go (1953) opposite Gene Tierney. Tierney was a favorite of Gable's, and he was very disappointed when her mental health problems caused her to be replaced in Mogambo by Grace Kelly.

Mogambo (1953), directed by John Ford, was a somewhat sanitized and more action-oriented remake of Gable's hit pre-Code film Red Dust, with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor. Ava Gardner, in her third and final pairing with Gable, was well received in Harlow's leading lady role, as was Kelly in Astor's role, with both receiving Academy Award nominations, Gardner for Lead Actress and Kelly for Supporting Actress. While on location in Africa, reports of an affair between Gable and Kelly began to surface (the result of private dinners the stars were having), but their relationship was an intense friendship according to costar Gardner, with Kelly herself later commenting on the lack of any sexual aspect, "maybe because of the age difference". The publicity only helped ticket sales as the film finished No. 7 at the box office, grossing 8.2 million for the year, easily his most popular hit since he returned to MGM after the war.
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