I just watched this film and it is fantastic! Because Vidor and Gilbert took the ironic tongue in cheek route it comes across as modern. The visuals are fantastic. The action is great too. Gilbert radiates sexy appeal in the first part and he was certainly a star which is why no one sees beyond that. But I would like to point out a later scene...
Gilbert and the girl see a garden shrine and kneel and she promises eternal love and then turns to him as if to say 'your turn buddy!'. He grins (bet won) and starts to swear out a phony line only to realize he can't lie now. Suddenly he realizes he is a cad, a total lying cad. A fake. A terrible man instead of the 'Magnificent' image he always saw himself as being.
Gilbert turns his head away and kneels in total silence and stillness as shame takes over. She goes balistic. He kneels in still and withdrawn shame and the realization what sort of man he really is. She storms away. He still kneels in quiet and now shattering shame, not moving, very quiet. This is good acting.
Gilbert was not just a pretty face of a stupid guy. Gilbert was a film actor who took his job seriously and loved films and believed in films at a time few did. He played characters rather than played his 'star lover persona' and he played cads, bad guys, funny guys, good guys, weak guys, and even implied bisexuals. He did the role. He did not do 'movie star'.
I wish people would rediscover his real talents and see all his films in context to see he did few 'lover boy' films (and this clearly makes the title great lover a inside joke!). Instead Gilbert tried to act in many roles and expand his roles to be taken seriously. Alas he is today remembered as a joke when he was tragically, anything but.
I am glad this film was discovered and restored and put on DVD and I wish his other films would also be put on DVD so the world can rediscover Jack Gilbert. I also recommend the bio Dark Star by his daughter which shows the real man behind the cheap jokes.
J E F
Gilbert and the girl see a garden shrine and kneel and she promises eternal love and then turns to him as if to say 'your turn buddy!'. He grins (bet won) and starts to swear out a phony line only to realize he can't lie now. Suddenly he realizes he is a cad, a total lying cad. A fake. A terrible man instead of the 'Magnificent' image he always saw himself as being.
Gilbert turns his head away and kneels in total silence and stillness as shame takes over. She goes balistic. He kneels in still and withdrawn shame and the realization what sort of man he really is. She storms away. He still kneels in quiet and now shattering shame, not moving, very quiet. This is good acting.
Gilbert was not just a pretty face of a stupid guy. Gilbert was a film actor who took his job seriously and loved films and believed in films at a time few did. He played characters rather than played his 'star lover persona' and he played cads, bad guys, funny guys, good guys, weak guys, and even implied bisexuals. He did the role. He did not do 'movie star'.
I wish people would rediscover his real talents and see all his films in context to see he did few 'lover boy' films (and this clearly makes the title great lover a inside joke!). Instead Gilbert tried to act in many roles and expand his roles to be taken seriously. Alas he is today remembered as a joke when he was tragically, anything but.
I am glad this film was discovered and restored and put on DVD and I wish his other films would also be put on DVD so the world can rediscover Jack Gilbert. I also recommend the bio Dark Star by his daughter which shows the real man behind the cheap jokes.
J E F