Cain and Mabel

Cain and Mabel is a 1936 American romantic comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and designed as a vehicle for Marion Davies in which she co-stars with Clark Gable.

The story had been filmed before, in 1924, by William Randolph Hearst's production company, Cosmopolitan, as a silent called The Great White Way, starring Anita Stewart and Oscar Shaw.

Waitress-turned-Broadway star Mabel O'Dare (Marion Davies) and garage-mechanic-turned-prize fighter Larry Cain (Clark Gable) dislike each other intensely, but press agent Aloysius K. Reilly (Roscoe Karns) cooks up a phony romance between them for publicity.

Marion Davies, whose acting career was supported by her lover William Randolph Hearst, left Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after she failed to receive parts in The Barretts of Wimpole Street and Marie Antoinette.

[2] Shooting on Cain and Mabel was delayed because the part of the leading man, which eventually went to Clark Gable, had not yet been cast.

[1] Hearst wielded considerable influence on the production: he also rejected Dick Powell for the part which went to Robert Paige – billed here as "David Carlyle" – apparently because he was jealous.