Tragic Romance of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo...

[shadowkat]

I haven't seen the film The Artist yet, but every film review I've read sounds like a run-down of what happened to silent film star John Gilbert, and his great and doomed romance with Greta Garbo.

I am a bit bemused by the fact that none of the reviewers seem to know about Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, the silent film stars that the film appears to be based on. Instead they keep talking about Charlie Chaplin. And as far as I can tell from the reviews? The film has zip to do with Chaplin. Chaplin wasn't the only silent film star, just the most translatable to modern times. And he didn't do these types of romances nor was his life tragic in that way. According to one professional reviewer they borrowed from Rudolph Valentino, Chaplin and Gilbert. But...the plot provided in each of the reviews is however, very similar to the real life events of John Gilbert's life not really Chaplin. I think I saw a made for tv miniseries in the 70s about it as well? Can't remember, but I can swear I've seen the story before. And certainly both A Star is Born and Singing in the Rain referenced it.

Here's what Wiki says about John Gilbert:


Known as "the great lover," he rivaled even Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw. Though he was often cited as one of the high profile examples of an actor who was unsuccessful in making the transition to talkies, there was speculation that his decline as a star had to do with studio politics and money and not the sound of his screen voice.

Audiences awaited Gilbert's first romantic role on the talking screen. The vehicle was the Ruritanian romance His Glorious Night (also 1929). According to film reviews of the day, audiences laughed nervously at Gilbert's performance. The fault was not Gilbert's voice but the awkwardly scripted, overly ardent scenes of lovemaking; in one scene, Gilbert keeps kissing his leading lady (Catherine Dale Owen) while saying "I love you" over and over again. (This scene was parodied in the MGM musical Singin' in the Rain (1952), where a preview of the fictional The Dueling Cavalier flops disastrously). Director King Vidor stated that Rudolph Valentino, Gilbert's main rival in the 1920s for romantic leads, probably would have suffered the same fate in the talkie era, had he lived.

Regarding Garbo and Gilbert:

Here's the a video :

Watch on YouTube

In case you can't get it?

Here's the write up of their romance.

Cinema Magazine proclaimed, "John Gilbert stands alone at the top-most pinnacle of film fame. There is no one that can approach him." John was making $10,000 a week and romancing star Greta Garbo, with whom he made several highly successful, lust-filled films that included Flesh and the Devil (1927), Love (1927), and Woman of Affairs (1928).

On the day of Gilbert and Garbo’s elaborate wedding, September 8, 1927, at the fantastic Hearst mansion hosted by Hearst’s paramour, star Marion Davies, Greta changed her mind, did not appear, and left John alone at the altar. During the party, John had a terrible row with studio boss Louis B. Mayer after Mayer stated to John, "What do you have to marry her for? Why don't you just screw her and forget about it?" John flew into a rage, attacked and punched the magnate. Mayer shouted up from the floor, "You're finished, Gilbert. I'll destroy you if it costs me a million dollars."

Mayer kept his word, and did his best to harm John, putting him into films of inferior quality, hurting his reputation, and warning other studios not to hire him. It is rumored that Mayer himself or his chief sound engineer manipulated the knobs of Gilbert's first talkies so that the sound of his naturally higher pitched voice came out shrill, a "white noise," and when Gilbert's declarations of love, "I love you, I love you, I love you," were first heard in His Glorious Night (1929), audiences throughout the country were sent into uncontrolled snickers and howls of laughter. It was the beginning of the end of the career of the screen's highest paid matinee idol, who was earning $250,000 per film. That same year, John married actress Ina Claire, and they divorced in 1931.

John's career continued to decline, not really because his voice was actually high-pitched, as is legend, but, perhaps, because his refined and cultured manner of speech seemed at odds with his visual image. His was not the voice which audiences had heard in their minds. Depressed and insecure, the handsome actor, always a heavy drinker, increased his consumption.

-http://emol.org/film/archives/gilbert/index.html

Am I the only one whose mother was obsessed with old movie stars and their personal histories? I was weaned on this stuff. The Momster is a virtual encyclopedia of film lore.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

My mother clearly remembered the day that the train, carrying Rudolph Valentino's coffin eastward, passed through her little town in the midwest. I can't say anyone in my family was obsessed. But the names of most of the silent era stars were part of family conversation 20+ years after the last of the silent movies. It was interesting on Downton Abbey last night hearing the actors mispronounce both of silent star Theda Bara's names, and perhaps Britons of that day did mispronounce them. ;o)