James Gannon, a tough city editor who never went to college, is forced to attend a journalism class — taught by a professor who does not know who he is.
In Teacher’s Pet (1958), Clark Gable plays James Gannon, the managing editor of a New York newspaper, who believes that journalism is learned on the job, not in a classroom. When his paper’s owner orders him to take a night class in journalism, Gannon enrols under a false name, and he falls for his teacher, Erica Stone, played by Doris Day, who is also the daughter of a famous journalist.
Gable plays Gannon with a gruff charm, a man who is sure of himself at work and unsure of himself in love. His sparring with Day, who plays Erica as intelligent and independent, is the film’s pleasure, and their romance is played with warmth and humour.
Teacher’s Pet is a bright, late-career comedy for Gable, and it shows that his screen persona — direct, confident and good-hearted — still worked beautifully in the late 1950s.