RandomCha

Possessed [1931]

1. She watches the train as it slowly rolls into the station. Each train car features a compartment, brightly lit, illustrating the kind of glamorous life she craves: various servants and porters performing tasks for the passengers, members of the idle rich who are dressing for dinner, shaving, dancing to the music from a radio. As the caboose comes into view the train finally comes to a stop. An older gentleman is leaning over the railing, a cocktail glass of “champagne” in his hand. He says hello and offers her some. (I think he’s gay.)
2. The menu is all in French; she can’t read it. She orders roast beef, startling the waiter. “You heard madame,” Clark Gable says. “I’ll have the same.”
3. Amazing scene: first he teases her for not kissing him; when he finds out she’s been seeing Whitney, he calls her a streetwalker; then, realizing that her influence is the key to getting the contract, he hastily apologizes and entreats her to call up Whitney at once. She walks across the room, picks up the telephone and informs the doorman that a gentleman is on his way down and needs a cab.