On Tues., Dec. 2 at 3PM ET, one of the rarely seen talkies of John Gilbert's career will be broadcast on TCM. While it would be a few years before the great silent star's career finally collapsed along with his health, I am curious about this movie, since it is directed by a young Mervyn LeRoy, some of whose early talkies, such as Five Star Final, High Pressure, and Heat Lightning have a raw energy and underlying realism that make them occasionally electrifying and--at moments--vastly entertaining and instructive.
I'm not sure if Gentleman's Fate is a particularly good movie since a quick check around the internet indicates that it has received, at best, mixed reviews.
It also features a great character actor, Louis Wolheim's next to last performance on film before his relatively early death (at 51) from cancer, playing--believe it or not--Gilbert's brother. Other notable actors in the cast trying to make the transition into talkies include Leila Hyams, Marie Prevost and Anita Page.
Earlier this year, the generosity of Dewey allowed me to see John Gilbert in the fine early talkie about the servant class in Weimar Germany, Downstairs (1932) (which he wrote as well as starred in during his last years at MGM & which is being broadcast on TCM on Jan. 15th, 2009 at 7:15AM ET). Downstairs is a wonderfully observant story, capturing the the way that human beings live with class tensions, the identification of servants with their master's values, and the pesky way that sexuality can trip up anyone at one time or another. Gilbert, for once in the sound era, seems to be having a grand time as a bounder who is the kind of servant that Dirk Bogarde would bring to life in another breakthrough performance in the '60s in The Servant. In that time, for a generation primed to accept the corruption of a character while relishing it, Bogarde won acting kudos galore, but in Gilbert's day his bravura performance does not appear to have helped check his decline, alas. To be honest, looking back, Downstairs seems to be the more adult of the two once scandalous films, (and more entertaining, as chauffeur Gilbert sidles up to anyone in a skirt or any male in a position to help him). Housemaid (and one of Gilbert's wives off-screen) Virginia Bruce gives an excellent performance as an innocent bride who learns a great deal about her starchy husband (Paul Lukas) and her own needs and wants through her acquaintance with Gilbert.
Gilbert with Virginia Bruce & Olga Baclanova in "Downstairs".
I'd also seen the knockabout working class comic drama Fast Workers (1931) with Gilbert on TCM in the past and hope that it will be broadcast again. In this film, he plays the kind of role Jimmy Cagney might have been cast in at Warners in the same period. Gilbert appears opposite Robert Armstrong, though in the Cagney film, the character would undoubtedly have been played by Frank McHugh. Gilbert and Armstrong play iron workers with Gilbert as the cynical manipulator of women and Armstrong as a naive fool who is constantly being taken advantage of during their extra-cirricular adventures. Mae Clarke gives a good performance as a woman who treads lightly on the borderline between con artist and good time gal in this film. I'm sure that L. B. Mayer loathed these movies as much as he did their star, but they are prime examples of a cheerful cynicism that kept audience spirits afloat in the early '30s.
Both of these films confirmed for me that the man was a much better actor than he appeared to be in Queen Christina (1933), a film that rightfully belongs to Garbo, but that also shows Gilbert at his most awkward and old-fashioned by contrast.
If you've seen this movie or would like to voice an opinion about John Gilbert's later career, it would be a pleasure to read them. Thanks.
Again, the rushed ending of MAN, WOMAN & SIN was literally pieced togther from very rough outakes, which was disappointing. Jeanne Eagels was gone, having been released from her MGM contract at the urging of Director Monta Bell. But they had already shot to much film to start the project over with someone else as Gilbert's leading lady. 
In truth after the careful build-up, the second half of this movie was never actually produced. I personally thought that it was coming along quite well. It would have been interesting to see the film completed. This is not a bad print at all. But it almost looks like the recording is from a copy-protected tape? Maybe that guy in Britain has a better recording?
John Gilbert's THE COSSACKS (MGM, 1928) with Renee Adoree, Ernest Torrence, and Nils Asther one of my favorite Silent films is in New York tomorrow afternoon at the Museum Of Modern Art! I sure wish I had known about this sooner! Maybe Warner's is finally getting ready to do something with this great feature? It will be repeated on Friday, December 26, 2008 at 8:30 p.m.
