To Please a Lady (1950)
Mike Brannon is a former war hero turned midget car racer. His ruthless racing tactics have made him successful but the fans consider him a villain and boo him mercilessly. Independent, beautiful reporter Regina Forbes tries to interview him but is put off by his gruff chauvinism, and when Brannon's daredevil tactics cause the death of a fellow driver, he finds himself a pariah in the sport thanks to her articles. When she finds him earning money as a barnstorming daredevil driver hoping for a comeback, they begin to become mutually attracted.
https://s.ltrbxd.com/static/img/icons/letterboxd-decal-l-16px.a8f34e0d.svg
Goodness I enjoyed this. It's entirely unsubtle and the dialogue in the one formal date between Mike Brannan (Clark Gable) and Regina Forbes (Barbara Stanwyck) is all clever quips and not a conversation, but it's also a lot of fun and surprisingly mature in the relationship it depicts.

Brannan is a bad boy racing driver, a long-in-the-tooth, old school sort who's survive too many crashes that killed other drivers to be anything other than a villain to fans, while Forbes is a nationally syndicated columnist with millions of readers and so much power that politicians fly to see her to try to convince her to ease up on them (she doesn't). The two meet accidentally and, as they say, sparks…

“Would you like to hit me again?”

Forget Fifty Shades Of Grey! To Please A Lady is Hollywood‘s first big-budget S&M romance. Like the recent adaptation of E.L. James’ erotic novel, this film begins with a woman interviewing a sexually charismatic but intimidating man. The power dynamics are very different here, though. Barbara Stanwyck plays a smug columnist whose 40 million readers gives her the ability — and, she tells herself, the responsibility — to expose any dangerous frauds she finds. The man she interviews, race car driver Clark Gable, strikes her as one such fraud. His steely focus on his own driving and emotional coldness make him (seem?) ruthless when another driver dies in a crash Gable managed to avoid. Stanwyck…

“I’ll bet women don’t leave him alone with all that sex.”

Four Wheels Good

🟢 Lap 1 | Lap 2 | Lap 3 | Lap 4 🏁

Gable at his charming best! Miss Stanwyck in a flip characterization which counts. In their first love scene, Gable slaps her face, and she comes back for more.

— Motion Picture Exhibitor, date unknown

Magazine columnist Regina Forbes (Stanwyck) wants to do a feature on rough around the edges mini derby villain, Mike Brannan (Gable). He’s been involved in one too many fatal crackups and her sensational story on his ruthless style and devil-may-care attitude gets him banned from every track east of the Mississippi. When she catches up with Brannan, he’s the star…

What can I say, To Please A Lady certainly pleased this lady. It's hard for me to write about the film without sounding like a total horndog because I couldn't believe how sexy it is! Like were the entire Hays Office staff all on annual leave or something when this came through for review?? There's an actual phone sex sequence for god's sake. It's not a modern interpretation of the scene, it's undeniably what's happening there on the screen.

The scene that I probably found the sexiest also happens to be something that many reviewers here seem to have found offensive, so I don't quite know what that says about me but I shan't let others lack of enjoyment diminish…