La morsure

JOHN GILBERT was toward the end of his career as a romantic leading man at the age of 27 in THE SHOW, co-starring once again with his leading lady from THE BIG PARADE, RENEE ADOREE.

*****POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD*****

The story has moments of interest when it deals with Gilbert's role as a circus barker for side shows that attract curious crowds with their freakish overtones. He himself is involved in an act that involves the deft use of trickery when Salome (danced by Adoree) requests his head on a silver platter. The act requires a fake sword to be substituted for the real thing and a trap door that lets him escape the executioner's ax. Meanwhile, Gilbert has arranged to take care of the money entrusted to him by a love-struck girl whose father has been murdered by scheming LIONEL BARRYMORE. For bad guy Gilbert, guarding the money is like taking candy from a baby and doesn't fool his sweetheart, RENEE ADOREE who questions his motives.

LIONEL BARRYMORE is the stage colleague intent on stealing the money for his own selfish goals. His scheme eventually backfires and, for the love of an honest woman, Gilbert returns the stolen money to the police in time for a happy ending.

It's all done in the usual melodramatic style associated with silent films of this period, but the story maintains interest throughout and builds to a satisfying conclusion with Gilbert and Adoree in a final clinch.

Summing up: Not quite as bold and startling in nature as some of Browning's other works, but very watchable. Gilbert is intense as the morally bankrupt anti-hero who is reformed by the love of a good woman. It's not his usual romantic role and he was reportedly not too happy with the assignment. At this point in his career, he and MGM head Louis B. Mayer were not on good terms personally.

Trivia note: Interesting to see an ambulatory Barrymore before arthritis crippled him. The story is not quite strong enough if it's shock appeal you're looking for.

Show, The (1927)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Rare and nearly forgotten film from Tod Browning that would play a major influence on his film Freaks. Set inside a Budapest carnival, a love triangle develops between a handsome actor (John Gilbert), a crazy Greek (Lionel Barrymore) and the woman (Renee Adoree) they both love. Browning's direction is top notch here and I might go as far to say this is the best directing I've seen from him. As usual with his silent pictures, the mood and atmosphere is very rich and thick. The meanness and weirdness of the characters and story leaps right off the screen with some very memorable scenes including a decapitation. There's a scene on the stage where Barrymore plots to kill Gilbert that is highly intense and perfectly staged. The three leads are all terrific and the inside jokes about Gilbert's good looks are funny as well. "Freaks" like the Human Spider, the Half Woman and a mermaid also make an appearance.

The film is about several thieves and murderers who travel with carnivals and prey on decent people--in this case, a man who brought his sheep to town to sell them and his overweight daughter. The man is shot and killed (by Lionel Barrymore) to get his money, though when it turns out his daughter has the money, another of these low-lives (John Gilber) tries to film-flam the money from her. While all a bit silly when you think about it, some of the tricks they tried to use to get the money were really cool. My favorite was when they re-staged the execution of John the Bapist (who, for some odd reason, they referred to him by some name I have never heard of before--NOT John). The fake chopping off the head and sticking it on a silver platter bit was really exciting to watch--BOTH times they staged it.

Back in 1927, I am sure this film was considered better than people today would assess it. Now I am not saying it's a bad film--it's pretty good. But, the melodramatic style of the film seems dated and the idea of evil "carnies" stealing and murdering was an accepted theme back in the 20s--but today it just seems kind of silly. But despite this and a very, very, very simplistic and moralistic plot, it is pretty good and a good film for silent movie buffs. But, overall, it's not one of John Gilbert's best films nor is it one that has especially lasting appeal.

Tod Browning, who directed many of the most bizarre films of the silent era, comes through again with this look at carnival performers. Cock Robin (John Gilbert) is the handsome barker and showman at a minor Budapest sideshow carnival. He's caught the eye of Salome (Renee Adoree), the dancing girl whose "dance of the seven veils" serves as the show highlight. The show magician, known as the Greek (Lionel Barrymore) is jealous and longs for Salome's affections, so he plots Robin's demise. Meanwhile, Salome cares for a blind old man (Edward Connelly) who longs for word from his missing soldier son. Also featuring Edna Tichenor as Arachnida the Human-Spider.

This presages Browning's 1932 masterpiece Freaks, but it lacks the real-life physical "oddities" of that film. In fact, this sideshow is all fake-outs, with sleight-of-hand and tricks of perspective standing in for deformities. Gilbert is different here than in the last few movies that I've seen him in, more unpredictable and even sadistic. The love triangle is full of perverse undertones, while the other lovely ladies of the sideshow are a highlight. The newly commissioned music used in the version I saw sounded like a Danny Elfman/Tim Burton score, which would please all involved, I think.

This one, directed by Tod Browning, is a perfect Gilbert silent. It takes place in the sort of sordid and atmospheric world Browning loved -- in this case in Budapest, surrounding a "Palace of Illusions" (an urban sideshow).

Gilbert is re-teamed with Renee Adoree, and once again they work extremely well together. He's the barker and all-round utility performer (he has to be John the Baptist and take part in the beheading trick that's part of their little Salome play). It's part of the fable-quality of the story that he's simply given the name Cock Robin, from the nursery rhyme:

Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the sparrow, With my little bow and arrow ....

Adoree is the cooch dancer who plays Salome, and that's what she's called too. Lionel Barrymore is "The Greek," a brutal thief and murderer, who has taken on the role of her boyfriend. It isn't very clear how far this has gone, but it seems to be something new. He is basically forcing himself on her. She used to be involved with Gilbert, and still carries a torch for him. The jealous and dangerous Greek has a watchful eye out for any signs of rekindling, and a knife at the ready (Gilbert has a knife too; I said it was sordid).

Gilbert is a womanizer with no respect whatsoever for the female sex: he's perfectly willing to marry a stupid country girl who has just been orphaned, to get hold of her father's "whole hillsides of sheep." He's catnip to the female sex, and every woman in the movie desires him (this was the height of Gilbert's career and MGM was still handling him just right).

The story is compelling and very well plotted. You only have to accept a conveniently timed melodrama natural death and (this is only a problem now, with nature docs on TV) that a perfectly ordinary iguana is actually an extremely poisonous lizard from Madagascar. Everything else is pretty convincing. You think for a considerable time that you're in an early Von Stroheim film, a colorful movie in a convincing European setting, without a heart. You begin to think there's not a speck of redeemable stuff in Gilbert.

But the movie has something up its sleeve, and in the second half you may find yourself sobbing.

Nobody in silent films ever looked at a woman the way Gilbert did. The cynical look where he's on to the dame and her games, undresses her with his eyes, and sees all the bad in her .... that Valentino could do. But the other look, where he comprehends a woman in all her power and goodness, or absorbs all her allure like a blow, is Gilbert's alone.

To know something of his history is to know that his mother was a popular actress who abandoned him to relatives and strangers while she went on seedy tours with a repertory company. He never had a loving mother or, it would seem, a loving substitute. His first girlfriend, another actress, died horribly at Ince studios when a balcony set collapsed.

Gilbert was a ladies' man, and there were a lot of women in his life, but he seems to have genuinely adored them and always relied on their kindness and warmth to him. Women dug him right back, in life and on the screen. He's able to put all his emotional need into one intense look from those dark and brooding eyes.

Adoree isn't our present idea of a beauty. She has -- as we see in her Salome dance in a two piece Harem outfit -- no waist. But it doesn't matter a speck here, as it adds to the ordinariness and seediness of this claustrophobic world of the urban poor. And her acting is highly effective. Actually, so is all the acting. There's an ensemble of very able players in a lot of colorful and distinctive parts.

The print TCM showed is terrific, and it has an unusually effective new orchestral score by Darrell Raby. This one was well worth copying and will be well worth keeping.