Gentleman's Fate

Earlier this morning I was watching a movie on TCM from 1931 - "Gentleman's Fate". It was the first "talkie" that John Gilbert did after reigning as the matinée idol of the "silents", and the fateful movie that revealed his nasally throated voice, sadly. Yet, it was a great teaching on how movies struggled with sound after being quiet for many years.

The awkward moves and scene flows of each actor, and no music rising or lowering under scenes, made for an interesting movie.

In my opinion though, the best part in the whole flick was when a character was coming down the stairs obviously intoxicated.

The "dame" who sees him is cracking and eating walnuts and asks,

"Hey. Are you plastered?" In which he replies, "Plastered? Sistah ... I'm Stuccoed!" Another character enters the scene as the drunkard leaves. The "dame" reaches out her hand to offer the cracked walnuts and says, "...nuts?"

He looks at the drunk struggling to climb back up the stairs, looks back at her and just nods..."...yes".

Ya just can't get dialog like that anymore! Loved it.

This film begins with a rich playboy by the name of "Jack Thomas" (John Gilbert) living the life of luxury while also courting a beautiful woman named "Marjorie Channing" (Leila Hyams) who he absolutely adores. His life changes, however, when he is shocked to learn that, rather than being an orphan, his father is alive but in critical condition in New Jersey due to a gunshot wound incurred while operating an illegal bootlegging operation. Not only that, but upon visiting his father he also learns that he has an older brother named "Frank Tomasulo" (Louis Wolheim) who has been taking care of the family business during his father's injury as well. What he isn't prepared for, however, is the reaction from his fiancé when he tries to help his dying father by taking the blame for a crime he did not commit. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good this film turned out to be. For starters, I really liked the performance of John Gilbert who seemed tailor-made for his role. Additionally, having two beautiful actresses like Anita Page (as "Ruth Corrigan") and the aforementioned Leila Hyams certainly didn't hurt either. Be that as it may, although it was definitely a bit dated, I still found this film to be quite enjoyable and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

What on earth is everyone's problem with this movie? It has some awkward movement but so did most movies of this era before Hollywood developed its amazing (and often irritating) slickness. The story is kind of a goofy fantasy as are most movies from since they day they were born to the present moment. This is a really fun movie with a great cast. Anita Page and Marie Provost were great bad girls, especially Provost as the gangland superflooze. George Cooper and John Miljan were very entertaining bad boys. But Louis Walheim was the real gem of the piece, sort of a cross between Shrek and Marie Dressler dressed like a guy. As for John Gilbert , I can see how how this may have been a form of career sabotage because he wasn't able to be nearly as gallant as his public wanted to see him. But he demonstrated great range and his chemistry with the whole cast and particularly with Walheim and Page was wonderful. The dialogue was good and the much of the shooting was visually interesting. Of course it doesn't hurt to be a big fan of pre code gangster movies, Hollywood history, and Depression Era cultural history.

I certainly agree with Ron Oliver that this is a lousy movie, but the great John Gilbert has a few scenes in this mish-mash that show yet again what a terrific career he could have had in talkies if Mayer hadn't been such a vindictive pig and Thalberg a spineless wimp.

The opening sequence is good and Gilbert is in terrific voice as he sets about to prepare for his day with fiancée Leila Hyams. In a later scene with Louis Wolheim, Gilbert is terrific as he defies the fate of his life and declares his hatred of the rackets and his love for.....

Nothing much in this film works very well and it's solid proof of the crap Mayer handed Gilbert to star in as he tried to force Gilbert to break his contract. Most of Gilbert's talkies are lousy films, but he always comes off rather well, and the films DOWNSTAIRS and THE PHANTOM OF Paris are actually pretty good. Gilbert never gave in to Mayer; he finished his contract with MGM even though he knew the rotten films were finishing is career as a star actor.

Mayer is famous for his petty vengeances and his hatred ruined the careers of Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish, William Haines, and eventually Ramon Novarro. Later Mayer ruined Joan Crawford, Jeanette MacDonald, Judy Garland, and many others. As soon as someone started to slip Mayer could be counted on to drive a spike through their hearts. Others he went after with a hatred unparalleled in Hollywood history.

Gilbert gives this film his best shot. Hyams and Wolheim are OK as are Anita Page and Marie Prevost.

Most stars had the final word because their films have survived. Mayer is remembered as a hateful pig. The actors he tried to ruin have lived on long after Mayer's "fame" and power have faded to nothing.

Long live John Gilbert!

This was MGM's big hope of getting on the Warner Brothers' gangster film bandwagon. Although this turned out to be a reasonable gangster movie which does look very much like a real Warner picture, there's not much emotion to engage you.

Warner's Mervyn LeRoy was loaned to MGM to give this that gritty underworld edginess he had given to LITTLE CEASAR which he'd made a few months earlier. LeRoy certainly succeeds; again he perfectly encapsulates the shabby seedy and constantly dangerous feel of the era. He further enhances this by contrasting it with the upper class society world Jack, played by John Gilbert believed he was born into. It proves that MGM could also make a WB gangster movie but something is missing: it lacks soul.

That emotional disengagement is what would reduce this from 'great' to just 'good.' This film is however not 'good' but just 'ok' and that's because the acting is atrocious, really atrocious. Being made in 1931 is no excuse for bad acting, the style is deliberate and down to the director. Mervyn LeRoy made excellent films so it's ofd that he was so below par with this - especially considering he had a bigger budget than he was used to at Warners - maybe that was the problem? You also wonder whether Jack Warner might have said to his employee, LeRoy, that it might be a good idea if he didn't make this picture for a rival studio quite as good as he could? What is surprising is how little influence Mervyn LeRoy seems to have over how John Gilbert performs. John Gilbert, who was possibly the biggest star of the silent screen so he knew what his fans wanted...or what they wanted five years earlier. You can't teach an old dog new tricks especially when that old dog thinks what it's doing is what is needed and also when it's being paid $10,000 a week to do it. Long moody stares and even longer dramatic pauses don't cut the mustard anymore! Perhaps Mervyn LeRoy was too nervous to risk changing Gilbert's tried and trusted style?

Watching films from 1929/30 you can tell which actors will succeed in the talkies and which ones won't: John Gilbert definitely looks like one that won't. He comes across very much like an actor rather than a real believable character. He's not a bad actor, he's just not suited for this. Someone who is a bad actor is Louis Wolheim. He plays the brother and although it's sad to learn that he died just a few days after filming this, he still is the worst actor in the world. He's truly appalling - well, he is to us in the 21st century. It's interesting to get a peak into the minds of those who were alive then to see what they considered to be good acting.

Personally I'm not much of a fan of LITTLE CAESAR and I didn't actually find this particularly worse. Those are both massively inferior to PUBLIC ENEMY and the the magnificent lesser known Paramount gangster film of 1931, CITY STREETS. This is still worth watching but if you're a fan of thirties gangster films, it's absolutely essential.