 Clark Gable (qv)s last picture under his MGM contract. He first  signed with the studio in 1930 (hed first appeared at the studio as  an extra in _Merry Widow, The (1925)_ (qv)). By the 1950s his box  office was spotty and MGM found it difficult to justify his $500,000  per year salary. Gable too was anxious to enter into far more  lucrative percentage deals and would do so exclusively for the  remaining 6 years of his life.