| China Seas | |
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| Directed by | Tay Garnett |
| Produced by | Irving Thalberg Albert Lewin |
| Written by | Crobie Garstin (book) James Kevin McGuinness Jules Furthman |
| Starring | Clark Gable Jean Harlow Wallace Beery Lewis Stone Rosalind Russell Robert Benchley |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Cinematography | Ray June Clyde De Vinna (2nd unit} |
| Editing by | William LeVanway |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | August 9, 1935 |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
China Seas is a 1935 adventure film starring Clark Gable as a brave sea captain, Jean Harlow as his brassy paramour, and Wallace Beery as an extremely suspicious-looking character. The oceangoing epic also features Lewis Stone and Rosalind Russell, while humorist Robert Benchley memorably portrays a character reeling drunk from one end of the film to the other.
The lavish MGM epic was written by James Kevin McGuinness and Jules Furthman from the book by Crosbie Garstin, and directed by Tay Garnett. This is one of only four sound films with Beery in which he didn't receive top billing.
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Clark Gable had several temper tantrums on the set, which were tolerated by MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer because the star had recently won an Academy Award for Best Actor in It Happened One Night (1934) on a loan-out to Columbia Pictures, and he did not want to risk losing him. Mayer even tolerated that Gable risked his life by refusing a stunt double in a sequence in which he assisted numerous Chinese extras in roping in a runaway steamroller that crashed up and down the decks of the cantilevered studio ship.[1]
Clark Gable and Jean Harlow had worked together as supporting players four years earlier in the Wallace Beery vehicle The Secret Six, and Beery and Gable both starred that same year in Hell Divers. Wallace Beery had received top billing in both Pre-Code films.
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