The Great Gabbo
Price: | $6.90 |
List Price: |
|
You Save: | $2.08 (23% Off) |
Made-on-Demand
|
DVD-R Details
- Rated: Not Rated
- Run Time: 1 hours, 34 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: May 31, 2005
- Originally Released: 1929
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Starring | Erich von Stroheim & Betty Compson | |
Performer: | Don Douglas & Margie Kane | |
Directed by | James Cruze | |
Screenplay by | Hugh Herbert | |
Original story by | Ben Hecht | |
Produced by | James Cruze | |
Director of Photography: | Ira Morgan |
Entertainment Reviews:
Description by OLDIES.com:
Directed by James Cruze, famous for 1929's epic western The Covered Wagon, the film alternates the melodrama with musical numbers of the late Vaudeville era. Erich Von Stroheim's intense performance as Gabbo is the highlight of the picture, his first talkie. Born in Austria and coming to the United States in 1909, he began as a bit player working for D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, but his real interest was directing. As a director, his debut film Blind Husbands (1919) met with acclaim, but his film Queen Kelly (1928) starring Gloria Swanson, was shut down in mid-production for going over budget. He was brought into the production of The Great Gabbo for his marquee value. Von Stroheim continued to act for the rest of his life, forever typecast as a monocled, arrogant villain. In a strange twist paralleling his life, Von Stroheim's last performance was as Max Von Mayerling, the failed Hollywood director, to Swanson's Norma Desmond, in Sunset Boulevard (1950), bringing him his only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Product Description:
Keywords:
Movie Lovers' Ratings & Reviews:
Based on 1493 ratings.
Erich von Stroheim in a musical? Well, not exactly. He plays The Great Gabbo, a ventriloquist of almost magical talent and the story is told while he performs in a Broadway show. The show is filled with elaborate (and sometimes silly) pre Busby Berkeley type musical extravagances. Oddly, the film held my interest (despite the song and dance routine in a spider web and audience scenes that reminded me of stock-footage of th Monty Python Show) primarily because of von Stroheim's performance. The final few minutes of the film, as Gabbo unravels and Otto, his dummy, is carried around like a broken doll, is a pleasure to watch. I had originally rated this film at 2 1/2 stars but on reflecting, I increaed it to 3 1/2.
Similar Products
Product Info
- Sales Rank: 28,534
- UPC: 089218476791
- Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
- International Shipping: 1 item