Someone Come Get This Silent Film Star
On John Gilbert's brief stardom, his inability to make eye contact that is not romantically-motivated, and Greta Garbo eating grapes
I talked last time about a career that was very much a “what could have been” situation. Even before the pandemic reached the U.S., I was already wallowing in that vibe: about a year ago, I saw Flesh and the Devil (1926) and was immediately obsessed with the screen chemistry of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. Both of these stars had ridiculously short careers, but while Garbo has become mononymous, a star whose name is recognizable to people who have never even seen one of her films, Gilbert’s has been a bit lost to history. Perhaps this is because Garbo’s career lasted through the end of the 1930s (and then she retired to become an art collector for the next 50 years), and her low, brooding, instantly-iconic Swedish-accented voice was accepted by audiences as she transitioned to sound films. A lot of blame for Gilbert’s struggle to transition into sound films was placed onto his voice and how it did not correspond with his screen persona—and like, I don’t know what that’s even supposed to mean, but he had a bright, generic 1930s movie star voice. His decline more had to do with his combative relationship with MGM head and famously terrible historical figure Louis B. Mayer (this stain on classic Hollywood deliberately gave him only terrible scripts until Gilbert’s contract ran out because they hated each other—yet another reason to detest Mayer) and with Gilbert’s struggle with alcoholism, which eventually led to his death at age 38 in 1936. But prior to this very upsetting end to his life and career, he was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
In 50% of the photos of Garbo and Gilbert on the internet they have their faces smushed together and they’re lying on a chaise lounge or the ground or something. Fascinating.
His stardom lasted for about 10 years and a bunch of his films are lost (nitrate film is flammable, deteriorates easily, and needs to be properly stored, and archival was Not Great at the time—here is an article about how about 75% of silent films are lost, if you want to feel really sad about how much culture has been erased). However! The ones that still exist are some of my favorites from this era, and getting very into John Gilbert propelled me to get excited about watching silent films again. If you’re someone who has never seen a silent film or someone who has seen either:
German expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) that are interesting on a technical/historical level but that you found boring (I felt this way when I watched it in 2017 okay it’s fine to admit that something with incredible production design needs more interesting intertitles to move shit along)
Silent comedies (your Chaplins, Keatons, & Lloyds—sometimes I realize I have not heard 2/3 of these actors’ voices, bit weird innit)
Or, had a little taste of some silent shorts from the early 1900s (my favorite is “The Big Swallow” (1901), a minute-long film wherein a guy eats the film’s camera and cinematographer)
…then may I propose ushering yourself into silent Hollywood through the career of the man born John Cecil Pringle (I laugh about this daily).
It’s not all about his hair, that’s just part of it
Flesh and the Devil (1926) was one of the first silent dramas I watched, apart from some of the Important Early Films, aka Battleship Potemkin (1926) and Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu (1922), et cetera. I cannot remember why I watched it in the first place, probably either because I had heard the You Must Remember This episode about Garbo and Gilbert or because of this Letterboxd review, regardless, I loved it. Garbo and Gilbert were in a relationship in the late 1920s, and reportedly were going to get married but she left him alone at the alter (scandalous AND tragic). Apparently on the day of the wedding Gilbert got into a physical fight with Louis B. Mayer because Mayer insulted Garbo in front of Gilbert, who punched him in the face so hard that Mayer fell to the ground. Good for him. But before this incredible end to their relationship, they made three silent films together: after Flesh they made a (loose) adaptation of Anna Karenina that was titled Love (1927) as a way to apparently capitalize on their very public romance (but like, what a bland title for your movie), followed by Woman of Affairs (1928). The plot of basically all three of these movies is that Garbo and Gilbert fall in love, Gilbert leaves for some reason beyond his control, Garbo loses hope that he’ll ever return and settles for marrying a normie, Gilbert returns to everyone’s surprise, Gilbert seduces Garbo again and together they destroy her marriage and the ending is probably tragic. I watched three whole movies with essentially the same plot merely because it is so fun to watch these two people drool over each other. Their chemistry is uncontrollable—just look at this nonsense with the cigarette and the match in this scene, it is the most erotic thing ever put to film. The director of Flesh and the Devil, Clarence Brown, once said about directing Garbo and Gilbert, “It seemed like an intrusion to yell ‘cut!’ ... I used to just motion the crew over to another part of the set and let them finish what they were doing. It was embarrassing.” Unhinged.
RIP Clarence Brown having to sit right next to them during all their nonsense. I would have quit, just watching them onscreen feels like an invasion of privacy sometimes and it was like 100 years ago.
Beyond his work with Greta Garbo, it’s not hard to see why John Gilbert was such a massive star during the silent era. He’s primarily a leading man in romance films, and the way he portrays being in love through his body language is very unique. Because so much of silent film acting is about physicality, it’s easy for acting from this period to look like overdone pantomime, but there is a subtlety about Gilbert. He holds eye contact like no one else, and he’s unable to act with anyone without looking like he’s about to suddenly kiss them. Sometimes it’s wild to watch, because on occasion it’ll be John Gilbert looks way too much like he’s about to kiss the actress playing his character’s mother & can he calm down please. I have never seen anyone else who acts like this in movies and it is beyond entertaining. And to go back to the plots of the Garbo silents for a second too—his tendency to play a cad who’s always trying to seduce someone’s wife continues into a multitude of his other films. I’m pretty sure that without this specific screen persona, we would not get Cary Grant as the perpetual ex-husband trying to break up marriages throughout the 30 years after Gilbert’s death.
Apart from the fact that Mr. J. Cecil Pringle is an actor whose screen presence appeals to me specifically, it just grinds my gears that he’s been all but erased from screen history. I say “all but” because if you’ve seen Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Gene Kelly’s character is partially inspired by John Gilbert. There’s a scene where Kelly’s character is making his first sound film, this movie where he’s some kind of historical rogue with a mustache and tights, and he improvises the line, “I love you, I love you, I love you” because it’s the kind of thing he would have said in one of his silent films, and then when the film is screened for a test audience, everyone laughs at how goofy he is. John Gilbert is basically the butt of this joke. The historically inaccurate story that John Gilbert’s voice was so off-putting that his career ended is forever entombed in one of the greatest movies of all time. This joke is especially heinous because in the film, Gene Kelly’s character actually makes a successful sound film and revitalizes his career, while John Gilbert spiraled further into alcoholism and MGM did not care about revitalizing his career, and then he died before age 40.
Why must you make fun of my boy? All he ever did was make intense eye contact and ask for a kiss and shave his facial hair to be period-specific. He sparks joy. Also look at his floppy hair.
On one hand, I am offended that Kelly and Stanley Donen would slander his memory in this way, but also they didn’t actually call his character “Don Filbert” or something, so most modern viewers would not even make this connection (especially when hardly anyone talks about John Gilbert anymore). Is it worse that they didn’t even bother to name him directly? Did this even work as an in-joke in 1952? I don’t know. Nothing can ruin Singin’ in the Rain for me. I don’t know what Gene Kelly has against John Gilbert (probably nothing, actually, I just like making up a feud) but I recently watched the 1974 sanitized MGM nostalgia-fest partially hosted by Mr. Kelly That’s Entertainment, wherein John Gilbert’s face is literally onscreen during a clip from Show People (1928) and nobody even mentions him. I have not finished That’s Entertainment Part II (1976) yet, the one that features more scenes from non-musical films, but I seriously doubt anyone is going to bring him up. I am preemptively angry about it. He wasn’t even in the credits. There’s a part where Gene Kelly is like, “Can you believe Greta Garbo danced in a film?” and I wanted to scream, “WHAT ABOUT ALL THE TIMES SHE DANCED WITH JOHN GILBERT?”
Wow, so weird, Greta Garbo dancing? She NEVER danced, dude, that would be crazy.
An organized list to bring us home
I’m going to close out this lamentation of the career of an unjustly forgotten and lampooned figure by highlighting some of his films, providing both hyper-specific recommendations and also including some clips. I cannot stress how important it is to watch clips of this man and not just read about him—you will not get his appeal otherwise. Okay time to pretend I’m a streaming algorithm.
FOR VIEWERS WHO HATE MUSTACHES, CANNOT BE COMPELLED TO WATCH A WAR EPIC WITHOUT THE PROMISE OF HOT PEOPLE, OR ONLY LIKE WATCHING SILENT MOVIES MADE BY IMPORTANT DIRECTORS:
THE BIG PARADE (1925)
John Gilbert in his natural state: slouching up against something. Also struggling to speak French.
I was very much not excited about this film because it’s like two and a half hours long and it’s a movie about World War I. However! When I watched this last March I remember the time flew by. It’s a charming and beautifully-shot film, and it is more concerned with interpersonal drama than battle action. Also if you care about film history at all, it’s the highest-grossing silent film of all time, and it was directed by King Vidor, the director of the Barbara Stanwyck film Stella Dallas (1937) as well as another famous silent film, The Crowd (1928) (I have not seen it yet but I’ve heard it’s great). Also if you’re anti-mustache, John Gilbert does not have a mustache in this one (idk guys I think the very 1920s mustache is part of his charm), and if you don’t like romance films for some reason, the romance is more of a secondary plot in this one. Even when the romance is not central, my guy is still looks like he’s seconds away from kissing everyone, like according to my own Letterboxd review he kisses the actress playing his mother on the neck. STOP THAT.
FOR FANS OF THE CIRCUS AND “SWAGGERING BALLYHOO MEN” AND STRIPES:
THE SHOW (1927)
John Gilbert acting out a scene from Salomé (he is the one in the comically long beard and wig getting decapitated).
This is not the only circus movie that John Gilbert made—he had a supporting role opposite Norma Shearer and Lon Chaney in the Victor Sjöström film He Who Gets Slapped (1924), one of his breakout roles, but to me it’s not a key representation of what he could do in films (Lon Chaney is the one trying to break up a marriage, not Gilbert—that’s off-brand). If you’ve seen or heard of Freaks (1932), which has become a cult film in recent years, The Show is directed by the same director, Tod Browning. I barely remember anything about the plot of this film, other than the fact that it was quite wacky and that everyone was trying to murder each other. The description of this film on Letterboxd calls Gilbert’s character a “swaggering ballyhoo man”—is that his job description?—and it’s set in Hungary, which is fun, and I remember that Gilbert’s character wears striped shirts and is named [exaggerated pause for emphasis] Cock Robin. Huh?
FOR FANS OF GRETA GARBO, HEATHENS WHO HATE SILENT FILMS, OR PEOPLE WHO ENJOY OLD MOVIES WITH QUEER SUBTEXT:
QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933)
This scene seems to only exist on the internet in this terrible quality, but maybe that’ll just make you want to watch the whole movie even more? So you can watch Greta Garbo eat grapes in 1080p and without the sound of the person filming their own laptop clearing their throat in the background? Anyway that’s what John Gilbert’s voice sounds like.
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this film as an introduction to the Garbo/Gilbert dynamic (I’d recommend Flesh and the Devil because that’s how I got into them and I’m biased, also because that movie is burned into my brain forever), however, if you’re hesitant to watch a silent film for whatever reason, then Queen Christina is the way to go. This film mainly makes me sad because it’s the final collaboration between this pair, as well as Gilbert’s penultimate film (and his last financially and critically successful one—but it’s also nice to think about how Garbo insisted that Gilbert be her costar in this film despite the fact that his career was basically over at this point). It’s also an unusual film for Greta Garbo, because she’s mainly known for playing dramatic, tragic figures, but here, she brings charm and wit and energy, even while playing a royal. She brings overt queerness and sexuality into the film—her character dresses as a man, and John Gilbert spends a portion of the film confused about why he’s attracted to this man, there’s a bit where men at a bar are debating how many men the queen has slept with and Garbo is the one who settles this argument herself, and because it’s a pre-code film there’s also the romance trope of “oops these two people have to share a room together! I wonder what will happen!” Also there’s a scene where Greta Garbo eats a bunch of grapes then gets up to rub her face and hands all over every object in the bedroom while John Gilbert watches her, and this goes on for three whole minutes before Gilbert asks her what she’s doing (see clip above) and she responds that she’s “memorizing this room.” It’s silent film nonsense transposed into sound films!
When I watched Queen Christina, it was the first time I ever heard John Gilbert talk. Somehow I had watched eleven of his films without hearing his voice once, and I spent half of that film distracted by the fact that words were coming out of this man’s face. 1927 saw the release of the first sound films, and much of the marketing was just related to the fact that the stars could talk. Garbo’s first sound film Anna Christie (1930) was marketed with the tagline, “GARBO SPEAKS!” If you’ve only seen sound films, or have mostly seen sound films, it’s hard to understand how the mere promise of hearing an actor’s voice could be so revolutionary. I experienced this phenomenon on a micro-level because of John Gilbert, and it’s one of the weirdest things I have ever endured. It’s like when a celebrity like app fiend Jeremy Renner or actor Vin Diesel releases music (click those links at your own risk). It’s unexpectedly uncanny. However! John Cecil Pringle’s voice is normal, it didn’t destroy his career, Louis B. Mayer is a bag of steaming garbage, and Singin’ in the Rain’s one sin is historical inaccuracy.
Thanks for reading! Unfortunately there was not an opportunity to randomly divert into a discussion of a lady behind the camera this time, but I did get to ramble about Greta Garbo for a bit which I think makes up for it.
This issue is sponsored by Tim Curry escaping to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism, this TikTok, and making a gif for your bestie.
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A mix of very proofread long essays in all lowercase or shouting with lots of punctuation about movies can be found on my Letterboxd.
this is very pedantic but it is actually norma shearer in he who gets slapped, joan crawford is in The Unknown the OTHER lon chaney circus movie where he is trying to break up a couple
no matter what tho i now need to watch the flesh and the devil asap