Raoul Walsh

[JackFavell]

I know Monta was good friends with John Gilbert and directed at least 2 of his films in the latter part of the 20's....

Didn't Lowell Sherman direct The Greeks had a Word for Them? I am longing to find a copy.

Here's an article from the NY Times 1950's style, still playing into the Walsh legend:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pd ... 5F448585F9

[RedRiver]

I once stepped into a one-act play about four hours before curtain time

Will Rogers did that with a performance of AH, WILDERNESS. As I recall the story, he did his best to learn the lines. When they didn't come to him, he made something up! Not sure how O'Neill felt about that.

it is an old critical belief, frequently held by very young people (you won't see me throwing any stones!), that to elevate one you must lower another

It's not just young people. I've ended more than one friendship because of this very syndrome. It's one of the few things I have no tolerance for. I have to be bad, to make them look good. This is something for the "Life's Too short" file.

[JackFavell]

I sometimes think comparisons are a way of not saying anything at all original about the subject.

[Robert Regan]

Right, Wendy, John Gilbert was friends with Monta Bell, Paul Bern (another subject for further research!), and Irving Thalberg before he was canonized. Bell directed my two favorite Gilbert roles, both from stories by Jack, the silent Man, Woman and Sin which also has a stunning performance from Jeanne Eagels, and the early talkie Downstairs, a precursor of Renoir's Rules of the Game. The former is, alas, particularly hard to find and only in a poor transfer of a poor print, but it is so good that the stars and director shine through.

Lowell Sherman did indeed direct The Greeks Had a Word for Them (aka Three Broadway Girls), one of the true gems of the pre-Code era, unlike so many of the recent releases that are not such good movies, just titillatingly "naughty". Sherman plays the likable rake her, along with Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, and Madge Evans, all of whom have never been better. He plays a similar role in his Bachelor Apartment with Irene Dunne on the way up and Mae Murray on the way down. He was set for Becky Sharp, but alas died while working on pre-production. What wonders he could have done with Miriam Hopkins!

Thanks for the link.

[JackFavell]

Gosh and he's so great acting in What Price Hollywood, too and a million other movies. It's a real shame he died so young.

I haven't seen Man Woman and Sin, but Downstairs is a pretty fabulous movie, funny and cynical, really quite a film. Gilbert is just wonderful as a rotten sleaze. Virginia Bruce was perfection, in fact this movie changed my ignorant opinion of her, leading me to discover that she was a really good actress. Of course the never-turn-in-a-bad-performance Paul Lukas is quite fine as usual. Downstairs should have changed Gilbert's career but sadly didn't.

[Robert Regan]

Wendy, the Gilbert biography Dark Star written by his daughter Leatrice Fountain is excellent, not "daddy dearest" nor a whitewash, but well-researched and well-written.

[JackFavell]

I've read it, already, thanks Robert, that's where I found out about Monta Bell!

I thought it was a great book. The background of why it was written is almost as interesting as the subject himself.

[Robert Regan]

I should have known, Wendy, that you knew Dark Star. There's not much I can tell you about Jack Gilbert. I was married for a long time to the young woman who researched the book. She got to meet Leatrice Joy several times. Apparently, in her old age, she chose to forget the difficulties and pain of being married to Jack and only remembered what a great time it was!

[JackFavell]

That's amazing Robert! I don't know what I would have asked her, myself, if I had been a researcher on the book! I guess I would have just sat there dumbfounded at meeting her. She was a star in her own right. I always thought that she carried a torch for him.

[Robert Regan]

Maybe she did, Wendy, but according to "young" Leatrice she complained about him for many years.

[JackFavell]

Maybe old age is a good thing, it makes us forget others' faults.

I found another newspaper article on Walsh, about the filming of The Big Trail. This article is not very PC, sorry, but I can hear Walsh's fables in this one. Also of note are the articles about Adolphe Menjou (appearing in a picture "about Algiers" ), Frances Dee, and a miniature of New York, circa 1980 for a picture called Just Imagine.... I'd love to see that film!

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pd ... 5B808FF1D3

[charliechaplinfan]

Did someone mention John Gilbert? Thanks for sharing that Robert, it's kind of nice to think of the older Leatrice remembering John Gilbert with such fondness as she got older. A much better actor than 'legend' would have, I think I must say that everytime someone mentions him. Where everyone sees Douglas Fairbanks in The Artist I see John Gilbert too.

As for neglected directors that would be Mitchell Leisen and Anatole Litvak.

[movieman1957]

I know just about enough of Leisen that if I see his name I'm hanging around.

[Robert Regan]

Right, Alison, Gilbert was one of the greatest actors of the twenties, and I think he would have been one of the greatest of the thirties if he had not punched the odious and highly punchable Louis Mayer.

I agree about Leisen, especially in the thirties, Hands Across the Table, Easy Living, Midnight, and Remember the Night. I think he was not comfortable with the changes in Hollywood in the forties and didn't reach his top level as often, though No Man of Her Own and Song of Surrender are awfully good.

Litvak I have some problems with. I think he tended to be rather heavy-handed, though there are some very good performances in a lot of his films. I don't think he ever got used to color. I always liked Decision Before Dawn best of his post-War movies, though I would like to see The Deep Blue Sea, as I liked the recent version very much.

What are the Leisens and Litvaks that you like best?