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Which MGM films made Clark Gable a leading star during the early 1930s?

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During the early 1930s, Clark Gable established himself as one of Hollywood’s top stars through a series of successful films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Following his breakthrough performance in the 1931 western The Painted Desert, he gained significant public attention for his roles in A Free Soul and Night Nurse (both 1931).1

Among his most successful MGM films during this period were:

  • Red Dust (1932)
  • Strange Interlude (1932)
  • Dancing Lady (1933)
  • Hold Your Man (1933)
  • Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
  • Men in White (1934)

While It Happened One Night (1934) was a pivotal film that earned Gable an Academy Award for best actor, it was produced by Columbia Pictures while he was on loan-out from MGM.1