They Met in Bombay

1941 "Stealing jewels for profit . . . and hearts for pleasure!"
6.5| 1h32m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 27 June 1941 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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A jewel thief and a con artist are rivals in the theft of a valuable diamond and gem necklace in Bombay and as the Japanese Army invades China.

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Director

Clarence Brown

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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They Met in Bombay Audience Reviews

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
boblipton Gable and Rosalind Russell play a couple of jewel thieves who meet in ..... well, guess where, and keep running into each other thereafter. It's a fairly formulaic film carried on the charms of the leads; director Clarence Brown can't overcome the MGM gloss to provide the screwball details that the first half of the film really needs, although Peter Lorre as a shady and unctuous tramp steamer captain is a lot of fun. I have the feeling Miss Russell replaced Myrna Loy at some stage in the production and the first couple of reels show damage. Clarence Brown directs the comedy bits for everyone but the two leads, a telling indictment of his opinion of their chop. Even worse, William H. Daniel's high-lit camerawork makes Miss Russell look a trifle jowly.
Bolesroor Any movie that features Clark Gable in a pith helmet has got to be great, right?Well... kind of...The first two-thirds of "They Met In Bombay" is simply fantastic. Clark Gable is at his cocky-best as a con artist trying to steal a rare jewel, and Rosalind Russell is gorgeous as his love-interest/rival. The story moves along at a brisk pace and soon the two stars find they have more in common than they knew… and that they might be falling in love. The beauty parlor scene is hilarious, as is the scene where the two leads are stuck in an elevator. The movie is funny, engaging, romantic and sweet… classic Hollywood at its best. Sadly, the final third of the movie takes a strange and sudden turn and the story falls apart as a result.Most of the movie is a joy, with Gable and Russell romancing on the lam, and Peter Lorre turns up as some money-loving Chinaman crackpot, still speaking with his exaggerated coo, but then the movie swerves off the road and over the embankment. Gable impersonates a Canadian soldier as part of a scam and is then remanded to a military base and denied any access to the outside world. Still being mistaken for a soldier he is thrown into battle, where his sweet but unlikely heroism is almost as hard to believe as Russell's presence on the sidelines.Finally, Gable is awarded the Victoria Cross- the military's highest honor- only to discover he's been double-crossed by his true love. But that's no problem, because the serious part of the story is evidently over, and Gable is able to sneak in two bizarre and implausible twists in the final 90 seconds of the story. The awkward, contrived ending negates most of the movie's nice moments… they met in Bombay, and they should have stayed there.GRADE: C
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.
MartinHafer This film is rather formulaic. Clark plays an international con man thief who falls in love with a female version of himself (Ms. Russell). While this certainly doesn't break any new ground and is a very predictable by-the-numbers MGM production, you are still left with a movie that is great fun but won't change your life. I, for one, love films like this. That's because I like the formula--as did the rest of America at the time. That's because despite its short-comings the film was dripping with quality. Both actors are at the top of their game, the writing and dialog is snappy fun and the direction is on target. All-in-all, a lot of fun and sure to please fans of this genre.