Fools for Scandal

and it was largely because of the Lombard/Gable ''scandal''. Their affair had become very public by 1938 and was probably not greeted with open arms by the American filmgoing audience at the time, considering that Gable was already ''respectably'' married. Lombard did not then endear herself to her public and why should she have? Gable was the idol of millions of women and Lombard was an unwelcome bubble burster. Look at the box office performance of this and her subsequent films, they were virtually all flops until her fortunes began to revive, slightly, with Mr and Mrs Smith. By this time the burning jealousy of those millions of women had softened somewhat. It's kind of fascinating. Fools For Scandal was an expensive and derisive echo of My Man Godfrey, and nowhere near as good. But it was by no means the worst film of the year. A misfire, no doubt. But one with a certain amount of cache. One thing's for sure, it did not result in any kind of a contract for Lombard at Warner Brothers, under the helm of the miserly Jack Warner.