Der schöne Karl

'Downstairs' is a curio; rarely seen, bombing at the time - possibly because of the change of image of John Gilbert, known as one of the silent screen's great romantic heroes and desperately trying to make good after the disaster of the previous year's 'His Glorious Night'. Here, Karl is an amoral and coarse creation, unfeeling and a louse - and Gilbert plays him brilliantly. A pity then that this film is all but forgotten.

Alongside him in the cast are Paul Lukas (slightly wooden as Albert the butler) and Gilbert's future wife, Virginia Bruce (an excellent performance as Albert's young bride, Anna, who lets her guard down and find she likes it), along with Reginald Owen (still going strong and as effective years later, and pretty good here) and Olga Baclanova (nicely judged as the guilty mistress of the house; this was her first movie after the controversial 'Freaks'), Hedda Hopper (a brief but entertaining appearance as Karl's previous employer), and Bodil Rosing (memorable as the daft ageing cook, Sophie).

'Downstairs', developed into a film from John Gilbert's original story, is a fairly run-of-the-mill story of masters and servants for the most part, but the scenes between Karl and Anna have a raw power that makes the film stand out from others of the period. There's no romance in this servants' hall; everyone is really out for what they can get.

Downstairs, written by star John Gilbert, finds him cast way against type as a George Sanders like cad who is hired by as a chauffeur by Paul Lukas the butler and major domo on Reginald Owen's estate. Gilbert works his considerable charm on all of the women in the estate including Lukas's new bride Virginia Bruce, cook Bodil Rosing, and the mistress of the house herself, Olga Baclanova.

There are many reasons given why John Gilbert's career tanked when sound came in, but on the silent screen he was a hero and great lover. Like Tyrone Power in the next generation who gave a great performance in Nightmare Alley that the public stayed away in droves from, the public wouldn't accept Gilbert as a total amoral louse. I'm also guessing the Austrian setting of the story didn't encourage anyone in Depression America to plunk down their nickel to see Downstairs.

That's a pity because Gilbert gives a powerful performance as the chauffeur. During the film he and Virginia Bruce married and were husband and wife when it was released.

By that time MGM and its head Louis B. Mayer were busy developing the new stars of sound like Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery. There was no place for Gilbert any more there. It would take Greta Garbo's intervention to get him cast the following year in Queen Christina.

The rest of the cast admirably supports Gilbert. The climax is definitely one where Gilbert's hero image is shattered by Paul Lukas. Too bad the public wouldn't buy it.

"Downstairs" opens with the wedding of servants Albert (Paul Lukas) and his new wife Anna (Virginia Bruce). The story was written by, and stars, John Gilbert as Karl Schneider, the chauffeur who never stays at one place too long. We learn at the wedding that he had been previously employed by "the Countess" (Hedda Hopper, in a small part). Throw in Reginald Owen as "the Baron" and you've got a story about the class differences, love, deceit, and intrigue, similar to the British series "Upstairs, Downstairs". Karl, the chauffeur, starts out as a suave, charming guy, but we quickly learn he isn't such a nice guy. There's also an interesting mix of accents here. Paul Lukas and "the Baroness" (Olga Baclanova) both have strong Hungarian accents. Reginald Owen is quite British, and both Gilbert and Bruce have pretty plain, flat American accents. Good story, good acting. Funny scene with Francoise, the drunk servant. Too bad Gilbert died so young - it all seemed to go downhill when he was dumped by Greta Garbo.

Based on a story by none other than its lead actor, John Gilbert himself, and coupled with his distinctive performance, "Downstairs" shows what a fertile creative mind Gilbert had and what a loss it was that he self-destructed before he got a chance to get a second wind going after a career slump. Coulda happened to anyone. In any event, this wickedly decadent tale set in an Austrian country estate examines the interactions between upstairs (Reginald Owen as a baron and Olga Baclanova as his philandering wife), and downstairs, kicking off with the wedding of the head butler (Paul Lukas) to innocent young maid (Virginia Bruce) with Gilbert as the newly hired chauffeur who shows up at the reception. Right off the bat he is revealed as a slick weasel. When a countess at the reception (Hedda Hopper) recognizes him she loses her cool in such a way that we know there was some hanky-panky in their history; when guests line up to kiss the bride Gilbert delivers a seriously inappropriate lip lock and later arrives uninvited to the newlyweds' bedroom to continue the dalliance while the husband is momentarily absent. And that's just for starters. In fact, the unmitigated rottenness of Gilbert's character borders on camp but is somewhat justified artistically the way the whole thing wraps up (something I won't reveal here).

For Gilbert to have written this character and then played him must have taken guts. Long after his loathsomeness has been established, we are treated to an extended scene in which he clips his nose hairs and picks at his ears and fingernails. He has the chiseled sexy good looks, cultivated speech and dapper sartorial sense of a worldly gentleman but the physical manners of a vulgar lout: he has a habit of lolling on table tops and indiscriminately gulping liquids and wolfing down food wherever he finds them. These two sides of his nature fuel the volatility of his relationship with Bruce who resents his aggression but succumbs to his skillful lovemaking. She has a very effective angry monologue about this matter during a climactic confrontation with Lukas whose devoted, martinet-ish butler is the straight-arrow opposite of Gilbert. Lukas is at his best when he too is consumed with rage.

The downstairs Gilbert turns the tables on the upstairs crowd, playing by their own rules in his own way.

Downstairs (1932)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Brutally honest and at times shocking Pre-Code about a chauffeur (John Gilbert) who gets one job after another only to blackmail both the rich as well as the poor servants. His latest job has him falling for a married woman (Virginia Bruce) who just happens to be married to the main servant (Paul Lukas). The con man begins to dig up dirt on the rich folks in the house so that he can swindle them and take off with the beautiful wife. Soon everyone in the house is being held hostage by the gossip and rumors started by the man. It's well known that Gilbert wrote the story to this thing and sold it to MGM for a single dollar so that they'd agree to make it. I've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of movies from this era and I must say that this here is without question one of the most unique, strange and downright bizarre of them all. While watching the movie it keeps you off guard as you never really know where it's going to go next but there's no question that it has one surprise after another and the story itself is brave enough to go in many directions no matter what the outcome. One example of this is an elderly cook who has pretty much given her life as a servant and managed to save up a lot of money, which of course Gilbert goes after. The Pre-Code material goes as far as having Gilbert seduce her and then verbally abuse her in such a way that you can't help but feel incredibly bad but at the same time shocked. What's even more shocking is that Gilbert allows his character to be even darker and meaner. There's no question that Gilbert's "power" was on its way down but it still took quite a bit of guts for someone of his stature to play a role like this. His performance here is incredibly good because he's so cold during the bad parts yet he's also so charming and warm during the scenes where he's taking advantage of people. One can't help but think this is exactly how this type of person would be and Gilbert nails it without any troubles. The performance is certainly the best I've seen from him and I'd say it's one of the most memorable villains from this era of Hollywood. Gilbert's then wife Bruce is terrific here as well as her abused character is so full and rich in detail that you can't help but feel as if you know her and feel the pain she's going through as she has to fight off the abuse from Gilbert but also the abuse she feels from her husband. Lukas is magnificent as the husband who has a strange loyalty to his employers who he feels more for than his actual wife. Bodil Rosing is terrific as the elderly woman who gets taken advantage of. I think a lot of people, even those familiar with Pre-Codes, will be shocked at how raw this movie is. The final fifteen-minutes contain some intense drama and an outrageous scenario but it works so incredibly well that you can't help but really respect the film. The movie is very adult in nature and the marvelous performances makes this a must-see for any film fan.