Could This One Have Brought Jack Back?


Gilbert Evokes Chaney in The Phantom Of Paris (1931)

Plenty of star dust clung to John Gilbert as he ventured into talkies, evidenced by dual-role-ing here, Jack as escape artist who beats a murder sentence to pose as the killed man and place guilt where it belongs. The opener reel grabs: Gilbert wriggling way from a water trap like one that had doomed real-life Houdini, then besting gendarme Lewis Stone at handcuffs. You'd like to think The Phantom Of Paris would bring Jack back, hopeful trade ads having pointed to each of his and said this one's the charm, but no, all of Gilberts after His Glorious Night lost money except Queen Christina, which was, of course, more a "Garbo" than a "Gilbert." JG does tricks with his voice to effect assumed identity, a conceit admittedly hard to accept as the face is identical but for raffish goatee. Anyway, it scuttled (or should have) doubts of Jack's ability to talk with variety and conviction. If Chaney could make sound success of The Unholy Three, why not The Phantom Of Paris for Gilbert?


Oh well, I'd have suspended disbelief in 1931 just as I did in 2016. There's still no talking me into notion that MGM was sabotaging Gilbert with pictures deliberately bad. If you look at what Leo handed Ramon Novarro, William Haines, and Buster Keaton in a same year, The Phantom Of Paris looks Citizen Kane-ish. No use trying to figure why Gilbert sunk so utterly; we'd have to know a public's mood circa early-30's better than is possible at 85 year distance. A question occurs to me, then: How many John Gilbert fans stayed loyal after slippage began? Has anyone seen vintage scrapbooks representing his talkie period? There were/are always ones to champion an underdog. I'd like knowing how much fan mail Jack received around Phantom's time. Did he ever read letters for reassurance, or present them to execs as evidence that some still cared? Whatever --- the numbers spoke loudest, and they were writ in red. No matter how much we enjoy The Phantom Of Paris, Downstairs, and even saucy pre-code Fast Workers, there was just no surviving such relentless rentals loss.

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