At first, MGM didn't understand this change in Gable, and that's why his first outing post war, "Adventure", is such an abysmal failure. That character is pre-Carole's death Gable; he could never be convincing as that again. "Homecoming", made a few years later, is closer to Gable's own life experience, and is therefore more appropriate. Here we encounter Gable as he is on a ship returning stateside after the war has ended in Europe. There's a poignant scene of him just sitting on the deck as he is lost in thought, remembering something that is painful for him. We learn as the story unfolds through flashbacks that he had a romantic involvement with a nurse, played by Lana Turner, and that she was killed in action. So that scene on the deck, that's not really acting for Gable, is it? He's thinking of his own wife's death and what potentialities died with her.
The plot of "Homecoming" concerns how Gable's character, a society doctor who enjoyed an insulated, high-society life and a somewhat superficial marriage to Anne Baxter, comes back determined to change his life. Will people understand why he's doing all this? What will happen to this pre-war marriage of his, can this wife adjust to the stranger who came home to her? That sort of thing. If there's a problem with the movie, it's that I think Anne Baxter was too young to play a wife of a number of years to Gable. She comes across as more naive than out of touch with him and what he's gone through. Any one of the other Metro actresses about ten years older than Anne would have been better. But, nobody's watching this movie for her anyway, so you could argue what does it matter. Personally, I think it was very brave of Clark Gable to make a movie that must have been very difficult for him to do. However, like the character he portrays here, Gable was able to find happiness again in love; he went on with his life and married again. So, "Homecoming" both looks back on the tragedy in Gable's life and looks ahead to the life-affirming lessons that were there for him and anyone else who has ever lost a loved one. View it yourself and see if you find that to be the case.
