Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

wes-connors Beautiful secretary Joan Crawford (as Diane Lovering) enjoys both working and sleeping with the boss, Otto Kruger (as Richard I. Field). Mr. Kruger wants to marry his willing mistress, but the wife refuses to grant him a divorce. To console a disappointed Ms. Crawford, Kruger sends her on a luxury cruise. On the ship, Crawford spurns "hot and bothered" Stuart Erwin (as John "Johnnie" L. Smith) at the bar, intending to be faithful. Then, she meets sexy rancher businessman Clark Gable (as Michael "Mike" Bradley)...Will Crawford stay "Chained" to Kruger, or fall in love with Gable?This is an MGM box office star power production, with Crawford and Gable doing what they do best. "When she's in his arms, it's the grandest thrill the screen can give!" Not quite, but director Clarence Brown and cameraman George Folsey handle the performers very well; the combination showed Crawford in her best light. Highlights include a fast stroll aboard ship, and a shimmering swimming pool sequence. The later includes young Mickey Rooney and pal Delmar Watson cavorting with Gable and Crawford.****** Chained (8/31/34) Clarence Brown ~ Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Otto Kruger, Stuart Erwin

Michael_Elliott Chained (1934)*** (out of 4) Predictable soap from MGM has Joan Crawford playing a heartbroken woman who takes a cruise to try and relieve her of the pain of her lover (Otto Kruger) being rejected by his wife when he asked for a divorce. On the cruise she is pursued by another man (Clark Gable) and the two begin to have feelings for one another but she decides to stay true to the man she left behind. If you're looking for something original or fresh then you'd be best to look somewhere else as this film isn't either of those things. The movie is incredibly predictable and there's not a single thing that happens that you won't see coming from a mile away but if you're watching this movie it's more than likely to see Crawford and Gable and the two are so good here that it makes the thing worth sitting through. Great actors can pull off just about anything and both Crawford and Gable are very good here but there's obviously something else going on. You can just tell that the two have some wonderfully chemistry and it really seems as if they're having the time of their lives together. Just take a look at a sequence where they're speed walking around the boat. The laughs they share certainly appear to be very real. There's's another wonderful scene in a swimming pool. The two stars certainly have enough sex appeal to carry the film and they do just that. They work the romance well, the drama well and they even manage to be quite funny. Kruger turns in a fine performance as well even though the screenplay does him no favors. We get a nice supporting performance by Stuart Erwin, Una O'Connor (THE INVISIBLE MAN) and we quickly see a young Mickey Rooney during the pool sequence. If you pause and think about the movie too much you'll realize that the Crawford character really isn't that good of a person considering she's spending her time with a married man and then when she ends up marrying him she just turns around and cheats on him. The film never makes her character look bad for this obviously because it's Crawford. With that said, it's best to just turn your brain off and enjoy the two legends and the fireworks they bring.

blanche-2 Joan Crawford is "Chained" in this 1934 film, but alas, it's not to Clark Gable, but to Otto Kruger. Crawford and Gable were a wonderful team, and this is one of the eight films they made together. Crawford plays a young woman, Diana Lovering, whose married boyfriend Richard (Kruger) is unable to get a divorce from his wife. She goes on a long cruise to South America and on the boat meets Mike (Gable), who has a horse ranch in Argentina. And guess what. She feels that she needs to return to tell Richard that she's fallen in love with Mike. When she returns home, however, she finds out that Richard has gotten a divorce from his wife and had to give up seeing his children in order to do so. She then believes she's obligated to marry him and writes a Dear Mike letter. However, she and Mike cross paths again a year later.There isn't anything special about this film, directed by Clarence Brown, except for the chemistry of the two stars. They made better films together - "Possessed" (the '30s one) and "Strange Cargo" being two off the top of my head. But I have to admit that I always love seeing them, and Crawford was so striking in those days, it's worth a look.

gerry-russell-139 Even if you took out the typical yet entertaining love triangle between Gable, Crawford and Otto Kruger, you'd still have a film that offers fun each time you see it. Personally, I'd never miss a film with Gable playing the tall-dark-and-handsome heartthrob who gets the girl in the end... his natural talent for the quick-witted quips was (and still is) what attracts us men to him and his manly, muscular physique to our women. Isn't he what all of us guys want to emmulate?! Crawford, although I hate her with a passion, is an actress who I can't deny has a great flair for acting. And when it comes right down to it, how can anyone hope that Kruger would win over a man as perfect as Gable? It's the typical boy-gets-girl, happily-ever-after ending that was so popular in the thirties that audiences ate up and some still do today. It's a cute little farce worth watching every once in a while.