- TCM’s 2024 “Summer Under the Stars” schedule – Aug. 19: Turner Classic Movies will be airing 13 titles starring John Gilbert, one of the silent era’s most iconic names who is perhaps best remembered for his precipitous downfall at the dawn of the sound era.
- This John Gilbert article includes a brief overview of five of his TCM movies: Bardelys the Magnificent, Love, Way for a Sailor, Downstairs, and Queen Christina.
TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars’ Aug. 19 schedule: 13 John Gilbert movies showcasing one of silent cinema’s biggest box office draws and the most notorious casualty of the sound era
Turner Classic Movies’ 2024 “Summer Under the Stars” series continues on Monday, Aug. 19, with 13 titles starring John Gilbert (1897–1936), one of the biggest names of the silent era and a troubled talent whose popularity plummeted after the coming of sound. (See TCM’s John Gilbert movie schedule further below. Most titles will remain available for a while on the Watch TCM app.)
Of course, correlation doesn’t imply causation. Even so, sound undeniably played a role in the demise of Gilbert’s stardom: His voice may not have been all that bad – it wasn’t a strong, masculine voice either – but his acting style remained calibrated to the silents.
In his first released talkie vehicle,[1] Lionel’s Barrymore’s 1929 period romance His Glorious Night, when Gilbert exclaimed “I love you! I love you! I love you!” (see Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain) to Catherine Dale Owen, audiences did laugh.
Noted movie columnist Herbert Howe remarked on it at the time. Film historian Anthony Slide told the author of this article about reading a letter from the period in which a moviegoer described the audience cracking up at that scene. In his review of His Glorious Night, The New York Times’ Mordaunt Hall wrote:
“It is quite evident that the producers intend to keep Mr. Gilbert, even now that he talks in his amorous scenes, before the public as the great screen lover, for in this current narrative this actor constantly repeats ‘I love you’ to the Princess Orsolini as he kisses her. In fact, his many protestations of affection while embracing the charming girl, who is incidentally impersonated by Miss Owen, caused a large female contingent in the theatre yesterday afternoon to giggle and laugh.”
Likely it wasn’t just the “female contingent” that “giggled and laughed.” But anyhow, it must be noted that His Glorious Night was no flop. In fact, its profits ($202,000) nearly matched its – admittedly, modest – budget ($210,000).
Let’s also point out that it’s hardly as if Gilbert’s fellow MGM stars of the early sound era – Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery – became naturalistic performers after 1929. Let’s also remember that the Tough Guys portrayed by the likes of Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, John Garfield, and Humphrey Bogart were no less artificial than Gilbert’s Ardent Lover.
And yet, John Gilbert did bomb in the talkies.
More than just an inadequate voice
In all, John Gilbert’s downfall was not the result of any one thing but a combination of occurrences and circumstances, some of his own doing, others not:
- A voice and line delivery that didn’t match what audiences heard in their heads while watching his macho screen self in blockbusters like The Big Parade and The Merry Widow.
- An acting style that, for a guy, seemed overly exuberant in sound movies.
- A newly signed contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer – $250,000 per film, for six films – that made him one of the highest-paid individuals in show business. An unintended downside was that Gilbert’s exorbitant salary made it unwise for the studio to further invest (i.e., hire big-name costars) in his increasingly costly but money-losing vehicles, especially as the Great Depression deepened. (One example: The Irving G. Thalberg-supervised Way for a Sailor cost $889,000. It ended up $606,000 in the red.)
- The star’s explosive nature and lingering personal issues, which led him to become a raging alcoholic. That affected not only Gilbert’s reliability but also his appearance. In Gentleman’s Fate, for instance, he looks about a decade older than his actual age; in Queen Christina, he is a shadow of the dashing John Gilbert of a mere five years earlier.
Now, the stories about Louis B. Mayer having Gilbert’s microphone sabotaged are ludicrous. Bear in mind that Mayer may have been MGM’s imperial ruler and no friend of Gilbert’s, but he was still a Loews, Inc. employee. That meant he had to answer to his boss, Marcus Loew, and, after Loew’s death in 1927, to the New York office’s Nicholas Schenck.
No premieres or rarities
As for TCM’s John Gilbert’s offerings, not one is a premiere. For movie lovers, every single title is worth checking out – even if, in some cases, solely for historical reasons – but not one of them is a rarity.
There are restored (or at least decent) prints of Emmett J. Flynn’s Monte Cristo (1922) and John Ford’s Cameo Kirby (1923) out there – both are good movies – but tough luck. Just as hard-to-find are Gilbert’s extant MGM silents like His Hour, with Aileen Pringle; Twelve Miles Out, with Joan Crawford; Man, Woman and Sin, with Jeanne Eagels; and The Masks of the Devil, with Alma Rubens and Eva von Berne (she who “died twice”).
As for His Glorious Night, it has apparently been mired in some sort of legal tangle. However, on Jan. 1 next year it’ll be in the public domain. So, maybe then.
Below is a brief glimpse at five John Gilbert movies (listed in chronological order) airing on his “Summer Under the Stars” day: Bardelys the Magnificent, Love, Way for a Sailor, Downstairs, and Queen Christina.
Bardelys the Magnificent (1926)
Long thought lost, King Vidor’s period romantic adventure Bardelys the Magnificent is a handsome production – TCM’s restored print is mostly very good – that fully comes to life only in its second half, particularly in the eye-popping final third.
“Envied, elegant and superior,” John Gilbert’s bewigged, goateed Marquis de Bardelys doesn’t look as alluring as the actor’s better-known silent era characters, but his charisma is undeniable. Vidor’s soon-to-be wife Eleanor Boardman is Gilbert’s appealing paramour. A brief segment featuring the couple romancing in a small boat is simply magnificent.
Note: Joan Crawford can be easily spotted as a court gossip; just make sure not to blink. Not sure about John Wayne, though. Is that guard really him?
Love (1927)
How would you like your Anna Karenina served with a happy ending sauce? If that sounds yummy, Edmund Goulding’s Love is the dish for you.
Now, don’t berate Hollywood for being Hollywood. After all, studio chiefs have always done their utmost to give the masses what the masses want. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s the masses.
But happy ending or no (there’s an alternate – and very abrupt – tragic ending for, supposedly, the European market), Love is an above-average romantic melodrama featuring a radiant Greta Garbo as Anna Karenina (whose relationship with her young son, played by an angelic Philippe De Lacy, is a little odd).
As Count Vronsky, John Gilbert is his dashing, fiery-eyed silent era self. But his one good dramatic moments comes near the end, when Anna’s son becomes his sole connection to his lost love.
Note: TCM has shown a barely acceptable print of Love from a live 1994 screening at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The score by Arnold Brostoff is excellent, but you’ll also hear the audience laughing (and clapping at the end).
Way for a Sailor (1930)
A major box office bomb (see further up), Sam Wood’s Way for a Sailor is notable for featuring John Gilbert and rough-looking drifter, pugilist, and reporter/Hollywood columnist Jim Tully (Beggars of Life is based on his memoirs).
According to the gossip mill of the time, Tully and Gilbert didn’t get along, especially after a brawl in which Tully gave Gilbert a punch that sent the silent era idol flying.
Also of note, you may be able to spot future Best Actor Academy Award winner Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend, 1945) in a bit part.
Downstairs (1932)
Now largely forgotten, Monta Bell was one of MGM’s most important filmmakers of the silent era; the Pre-Coder Downstairs reunited him with John Gilbert, with whom he had collaborated on The Snob (1924) and Man, Woman and Sin (1927).
The reunion was only partly fortunate: A money-loser ($286,000 in the red), Downstairs presents a more self-assured Gilbert in the role of an unscrupulous con man who uses his body the way Barbara Stanwyck uses hers in Alfred E. Green’s Baby Face. Even so, his is an interesting performance – the silent era icon as a scuzzy, unredeemable heel? – not a good one.
If you want John Gilbert at his Oscar-worthy best, check out his final film, Lewis Milestone’s The Captain Hates the Sea (1934).
Queen Christina (1933)
Rouben Mamoulian’s Queen Christina would have been the perfect star vehicle for Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro, who had been previously seen together in George Fitzmaurice’s 1931 mega-hit Mata Hari.
Alas, while MGM was miscasting Novarro elsewhere, Garbo sent Laurence Olivier packing so Gilbert could return as her leading man (after Flesh and the Devil, Love, and A Woman of Affairs).
The result is that Queen Christina is a perfect star vehicle for Greta Garbo, who, as the mannish Swedish queen, delivers one of her most entrancing performances. Billed below the title, John Gilbert plays the Spanish envoy who wins the queen’s heart, but there’s a good chance you’ll not be paying much attention to him.
Immediately below is John Gilbert’s “Summer Under the Stars” schedule.
John Gilbert movies on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ schedule (EDT)
6:00 AM The Show (1927)
Director: Tod Browning.
Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Connelly, Gertrude Short, Andy MacLennan.
76 min. Silent Drama.7:30 AM Downstairs (1932)
Director: Monta Bell.
Cast: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen, Olga Baclanova, Bodil Rosing.
75 min. Drama.9:00 AM Way for a Sailor (1930)
Director: Sam Wood.
Cast: John Gilbert, Wallace Beery, Jim Tully, Leila Hyams, Polly Moran, Doris Lloyd, Ray Milland.
83 min. Musical.10:30 AM Gentleman’s Fate (1931)
Director: Mervyn LeRoy.
Cast: John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Anita Page, Marie Prevost, John Miljan, George Cooper, Ferike Boros, Ralph Ince, Frank Reicher, Paul Porcasi.
90 min. Crime.12:15 PM Bardelys the Magnificent (1926)
Director: King Vidor.
Cast: John Gilbert, Eleanor Boardman, Roy D’Arcy, Lionel Belmore, Emily Fitzroy, George K. Arthur, Arthur Lubin, Theodore von Eltz, Karl Dane, Edward Connelly, Fred Malatesta, John T. Murray, Emile Chautard, Joan Crawford, John Wayne.
89 min. Silent.2:00 PM The Merry Widow (1925)
Director: Erich Von Stroheim.
Cast: Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Roy D’Arcy, Josephine Crowell, George Fawcett, Tully Marshall, Edward Connelly, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable.
137 min. Silent.4:30 PM Queen Christina (1933)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian.
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, Elizabeth Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen, Georges Renavent, Barbara Barondess.
97 min. Romance.6:15 PM A Woman of Affairs (1928)
Director: Clarence Brown.
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Hobart Bosworth, Dorothy Sebastian, Anita Louise.
90 min. Silent.8:00 PM Love (1927)
Director: Edmund Goulding.
Cast: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, George Fawcett, Emily Fitzroy, Brandon Hurst, Philippe De Lacy, Mathilde Comont.
82 min. Silent.9:30 PM Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Director: Clarence Brown.
Cast: John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, Barbara Kent, William Orlamond, George Fawcett, Eugenie Besserer, Marc McDermott, Marcelle Corday, Philippe De Lacy, Polly Moran.
97 min. Silent.11:30 PM The Big Parade (1925)
Director: King Vidor.
Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell, Claire Adams, Robert Ober, Tom O’Brien, Karl Dane, Julanne Johnston, Kathleen Key.
142 min. Silent.2:15 AM La Bohème (1926)
Director: King Vidor.
Cast: Lillian Gish, John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, George Hassell, Roy D’Arcy, Edward Everett Horton, Karl Dane, Mathilde Comont, Gino Corrado, Frank Currier.
93 min. Epic.4:00 AM The Cossacks (1928)
Director: George Hill.
Cast: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Ernest Torrence, Nils Asther, Paul Hurst, Dale Fuller, Mary Alden.
100 min. Drama.
notes/references
John Gilbert’s first talkie?
[1] A few months before His Glorious Night came out, John Gilbert was one of the stars seen and heard in MGM’s The Hollywood Revue of 1929, playing a funky Romeo opposite Norma Shearer’s Juliet.
Making things a tad more confusing, Fred Niblo’s godawful Redemption was filmed before His Glorious Night, but released only in spring 1930.
John Gilbert “Summer Under the Stars” movie schedule via the TCM website.
John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman Bardelys the Magnificent image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
“John Gilbert Movies on TCM: Silent Era Icon” last updated in August 2024.