His voice was alright: audiences of that day were dissatisfied that his voice didn’t match the imaginary voice they had created for themselves while watching his silent films.

There wasn't anything wrong with his voice. I have seen about 3 of his sound films, and he sounded just fine to me.

I recently purchased a DVD of Midnight In Paris and found John Gilbert as charming, commanding, and as good in his acting and voice as any number of actors of the period. Ronald Coleman and Robert Donat come to mind. It was a very enjoyable film, if not particularly unusual, but good. He definitely had what it takes as a leading man. Our loss.

Nice to hear a narrator who can speak clearly and concisely without the aid of electronic devices.

I've been studying and following his work of Gilbert thanks to TCM for showing his body of work. I highly recommend reading Dark Star by his daughter Leatrice Joy Gilbert Fountain. It is written with much love and respect for her late father. While he was primarily absent, he didn't forget about her. Unfortunately, his second daughter knew nothing of him thanks to her mother hiding the identity of her father. Mayer was frugal. I think Gilbert's high paycheck, contract, and stock market crash of 1929 made Mayer rethink the value of Gilbert to MGM. The rumors swirling about the double wedding and fight with Mayer have never been substantiated. I wouldn't put it past Mayer to change the sound settings but the dialogue is awful in His Glorious Night. Downstairs is one of my favorites of his which is something missing in the information provided. Gilbert longed to write, not be in front of the camera. He sold the script of Downstairs for $1 to prove himself as a writer to make the move to writing and leave acting. It's a great movie, a good storyline. Sadly, I think Gilbert burned too many bridges with his alcoholism at this point for anyone to take his writing seriously. I will one day pay my respects to his gravesite and visit the area where his home once stood in California.

John Gilbert made me think of Gilbert Roland with that little moustache.

I remember Gilbert having a decent voice, a fairly deep baritone. But with Mayer as his deadly enemy, career over, buddy. Clara Bow went through a similar thing at Paramount.

I've seen a couple of his sound films from the early 1930s. Voice, delivery and acting were excellent. Why didn't he just move on to another studio?? We'll never know.

I am assuming Brad Pitt role was based on Gilbert in Babylon.

This profile of Gilbert's life and work is, I think, quite fair, factual and intelligent -- something exgtremely hard to find these days. IT neither white washes nor demonizes. Gilbert was not an angel, but nor was he the devil personified. Just human. Basically, he didn't do anything JFK didn't do and nobody seems to ever cry or complain about that -- unfortunately. Gilbert, in life had a fine, melodic voice, in fact. There are recordings to verify this. All indications point rather to his perhaps not taking enough interest in training that voice for dramatic use i the new medium and to use his voice as a dramatic instrument in storytelling. Not easy. Take Hepburn, for instance. A metallic voice, overlayed with a thick scissor-like Bryn Mawr elocution style of diction. Very "un-Hollywood". And yet, the melody of the way she delivers lines is marvellous, dramatic, calculated, musical, cadenced -- likely the benefit of her training with voice coach Francis Robinson Duff. Ella Fitzgerald, as another example, was born with a high, hollering girly voice, and yet, trained it into a lush, precise, crooning bel canto instrument. An amazing transformation. But not everyone is up to such a transformation. It takes work, deliberate work, which unfortunately Gilbert, occupied with "other things" didn't get around to do. LIke Joan Crawford, it is easy to forget that Gilbert had a pretty rough start in life. Nonetheless, a brilliant star, arguably the handsomest man on the screen and easily the most dashing profile in Hollywood history. Nice documentary. Thank you.

Jesus, I didn't know Gilbert had actually assaulted Mayer. A woman actor of the time only had to say, "can I think about it?" to have her contract terminated by a studio head. So, in Gilbert's case, his fate was hardly surprising.

"I took the croupier to A picture show I took the croupier to A picture show And though I snuggled close when The lights were low The croupier impressed me As rather slow I said, "I like John Gilbert A lot, don't you?" I said, "I like John Gilbert A lot, don't you?" He didn't answer, but when The show was through I realized that he liked John Gilbert, too" - Cole Porter - "I'm Unlucky At Gambling" " Fifty Million Frenchmen"-1929

The arrival of talking films was a crisis that studio heads did not allow to go to waste. I think you'll find that many a "problem" employee was shown the door with the excuse that they could not fit into the new era. Some of this jettisoning was justified and many were not.

John Gilbert lead a hard life as a child and young man . He was a very handsome man , but he was needy . He wanted what couldn't be his . Always reaching for his mother's love . The alchohol played a huge part in his demise . But Louis B. Mayer was such a child about a punch thrown by a drunk man . It's a shame that Mr. Gilbett died so young , too young . RIP John Gilbert .

00:31 - _..."Beautiful bombshells, bad bosses, and booze"_ (could have been _bountiful booze_ ) is a delightful bit of onomatopoeia.

An early Technicolor MGM short subject shows Gilbert being sabotaged by Mayer. Turner Classic Movies has run this on cable. Gilbert later did some talkies, including an impressive double role as the hero and his memesis. Alcoholism took him in the end, I think.

" The Big Parade" is one of my very favorite films, and it was my intro to John Gilbert. I've seen a few other films of his and he was great, but Big Parade remains on of my top films. I knew virtually nothing about the actor though, it's a shame his life took the turn it did, alcohol is a mean drug for a lot of people, it brings out the worst in them.

🤫🤔If Hollywood every destroyed any actor, it was sadly John Gilbert. The poor man 👨 was truly broken when he died ,so young. My personal favorite Gilbert movie 🎥, Queen 👸 Christina 1933. He and Garbo are both wonderful in it.......

I am surprised there hasn’t been a movie of his life story recently.

Many stars of the silents were victims of nascent sound technology. It took a good two years before they had somewhat ironed out the kinks with sound editing. By then, 60% of the stars had already been sabotaged. I think it was deliberate.

John Gilbert Ramon Novarro William Haines Conrad Nagel and Richard Barthelmess and Charles Farrell I think there careers were pretty much over which was unfair because they were the guys who started the movie business they opened the doors for Gary Cooper Clark Gable Douglas Fairbanks Jr Cary Grant Robert Montgomery Errol Flynn Robert Taylor and Tyrone Power Jr

Not an actor I was familiar with but always find them interesting to see how they navigated their craft back then. Thanks again Brenton 🇦🇺 🇦🇺🇦🇺

Based on the John Gilbert talks I've actually seen (thank you, Turner Classic Movies), I'd say that the reason he never made the transition from silent to sound films was that, while there was nothing wrong with his voice per se, he never learned how to act with his voice, how to vary his inflections to convey emotions. A contemporary reviewer of "His Glorious Night" said that Gilbert's voice had all the passion of one assistant director asking another to lunch. I've read elsewhere that Gilbert's' mother was a stage actress named Ada Adaire, who was so free with her affections he had no idea who his biological father was - much like Marilyn Monroe, who also grew up not knowing who her dad was and who became troubled by substance abuse and died young. And I don't believe that Louis B. Mayer deliberately sabotaged Gilbert's career by ordering technicians to record his voice badly; the technology to do that simply didn't exist in 1929. In his book on the silent-to-sound transition, "The Shattered Silents: How the Movies Learned to Talk," Alexander Walker argued that the reason Ronald Colman managed the transition just fine while Gilbert didn't was that Colman was under contract to a boutique producer, Sam Goldwyn, who carefully stage-managed his caree. Goldwyn realized the heavy-breathing romance that had made Colman a silent star wasn't going to work in sound films and gave him a comedy-mystery, "Bulldog Drummond," as his first talkie, while Mayer thrust Gilbert into old-fashioned scripts like "His Glorious Night" and a Tolstoy adaptation called "Redemption" as his first sound films.

No-one destroyed Gilberts career but Gilbert.

Years ago I wondered what all the brouhaha was about Gilbert's voice being unsuited for sound. When I heard him in his "talkies" I heard nothing out of the ordinary. Didn't hear anything tinny or high-pitched. I know his diction was spot-on. At times he pronounced words just like they're spelled; like cruel. He spoke it: *_Cru-EL_* which I thought was a bit over-the-top, but funny? Naa. He sounded fine to me.

He doesn't sound like a very nice person. Did he ever bother getting divorced from his earlier wives, or did he continue being a bigamist?

John Gilbert went down hill after hitting a man who made a comment about his woman, Will smith be were.

Gilbert was a charming emotional narcissist who longed for what he could never have.

Gilbert worked with Lon Chaney SR., not Jr. And "He Who Gets Slapped" is a Chaney film. Shearer only has a supporting role. It's a great film, well worth watching.

I have visited Gilbert's resting place. A very kind young man at Forest Lawn gave me precise directions or I wouldn't have found it. I knew about Gilbert's drinking, but not about his abandonment of his first wife and child. I also didn't know that The Artist was inspired by him. I love that movie! But I saw it before I got into historical silent films. Has anyone noticed how Gilbert Roland is often misidentified as JG?

I never did dig John Gilbert, but you would have to be made of stone not to be affected by his tragedy. The misery in his eyes after 1929 is awful.

Gilbert actually continued to make films for MGM through 1933. His last filmed appearance was for Columbia in 1934 for "The Captain Hates The Sea". Even without the bad talkie debut, Gilbert's fate would most likely have been the same because his voice did not match what audiences expected, plus they just wanted new faces after sound came in. Lots of stars lasted from the transition to sound and into the talkie era for a few years, only to have their careers die out. A lucky few who had great voices, like William Powell, actually had their stars rise and go from supporting player to leading actors.

Would be nice if you included his voice in this video

Two dollars a day in the early days was a big deal in itself...!

Louis B Mayer : You're finished Gilbert I'll destroy you if it costs me a million dollar

For what it's worth, I just read a 2015 list of 100 top silents, and three of Gilbert's films were included: He Who Gets Slapped, The Big Parade, and Flesh and The Devil. He appeared in a fourth listed, Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ, but he was an uncredited extra in that.

The city is pronounced Spoke-can.

What you have to understand, is the public listened with great anticipation when both the Hollywood Review of 1929 and His Glorious Night-1929 came out. In both pictures Gilbert's highly affected overly dramatic delivery made audiences laugh. (Listen to them yourself) Gilbert quickly adjusted his acting style but the damage was already done. There was also a major falling out between Gilbert and Louis B. Mayer, the head of the studio. Mayer dramatically cut the number of pictures Gilbert made so it became even more difficult for Gilbert to redeem himself with his public, forcing Gilbert to put out a notice in the Hollywood trade papers stating the MGM will neither release him from his contract or give him any films to play in. Sadly Gilbert died of a heart attack just a couple years later a completely broken man.

Gilbert delivered the best "male lead"-type of role in the history of the Silents with "The Big Parade". I wouldn't dismiss out of hand the story of Mayer sabotaging Gilbert's audio. A decade earlier, director Alan Dwan was settling disputes with Edison's thugs with pistol-shooting contests down on the Mexican border. Southern California was still the Wild West in the early decades of the 20th century. Anything went and often did. Iirc, Gilbert's mother was practically turning tricks to stay off the street - a grim life for a child. He ran away. Got work at a film studio as a teenager. Died at the absurd age of 38 from disappointment, who knows how many cigarettes, and rivers of hard booze. He died in his mansion at Bel Air, surrounded by gold-digging lady ghouls. For those asking, he apparently left his daughter some money.

Here today, gone Tomarrow. Its tragic but true, when it came to some young actors. Rudy Valentino was only in his late 20's, when he died, and the women went crazy, mourning for him. In John's case, I think too much, wine, women, and song, was a big part of his life, and it eventually did him in. Thanks for this vid!!

Terrific Profile of a barely known actor these days.

On edit. I made this post before I finished watching the video. Apparently you agree with most of my conclusions. and I might add that if Valentino had lived, he would have suffered the same fate. (end of edit) I am a big fan of Gilbert's silents. From my point of view, there are three things that shuttered his stardom. 1. His voice didn't match his persona. 2. His level of acting in talkies paled compared to his extraordinary silent abilities where he was able to convey emotions without words. 3. The style of male leads had changed to younger and brawnier actors such as Gary Cooper, Joel McCrae and Clark Gable. While Frederick March wasn't necessarily brawny, his acting chops were superb. In other words, his style had become passe.

John Gilbert's eyelashes were gorgeous.

The problem was not with John Gilberts voice in his first Talkie-----The problem was with the times he lived in-----they expected the ultimate manly image of a voice the public would expect.!

Imagine the top actor in Hollywood starting a fight because he didn’t like something somebody said and ruining his whole career. Good thing that today’s stars are much smarter!

The video was well done, well spoken but one thing prevents me from subscribing ... the hard sell every few minutes with that red subscribe button slap bang in the middle of the screen and constant reminders. If your work is good, we will subscribe anyway ... the hard sell though is simply offputting.

I would like more information as to what became of his first wife and child.

John Gilbert had a fine speaking voice and I don't agree that he did not adapt to the technology of sound movies. "Downstairs" from 1932 is an excellent movie and Gilbert's performance is simply great! John Gilbert's career failed primarily from bad movies, alcoholism and Gilbert's person demons.

I didn't like the last part of this summary because I don't think there is a more romantic scene ever played out than with Garbo and Gilbert in "Queen Christina". There's a story that as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. made love to Dietrich he had to look at the photo of Gilbert on her night stand.

he was a dishonorable cad who set himself up for failure - he would fit right into today's world.

The booze.... a friend just got bladder cancer. No kid, but the after dinner two glasses of wine 5 days a week talked back.

Dear precious one, please repeat after me with your whole heart, "Father God, I'm a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe in the Good News that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and that You resurrected Him from the dead in order to restore my relationship with You. Through my belief and faith in Jesus death, burial and resurrection, I am saved. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord from this day forward. Please guide my life and help me do Your will, Your way through the Holy Spirit. This I pray in the powerful, loving and glorious name of Your Son, Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. Amen!" 🙏 Dear friend, may Father God our Creator, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and The Holy Spirit bless you, lead you, guide you and keep you in His abundantly loving care now and for all eternity! Amen!!! ❤️🙏

It sounds like he brought about his own destruction with drinking too heavily. I was shocked to learn he was a bigamist.

Very interesting and well done. I knew the name but didn't know very much about him, except that he was linked to Greta Garbo. I still wonder, though: whatever happened to the first wife? Did she just conveniently stay out of his life, even after he became famous and wealthy? Surely he must have had to settle with her somehow and unentangle legally.

destroying actors for their voice was the first attempt at cancellation, i dont see why they cancelled Clara Bow who was charming and kept Greta Garbo who has no expression

----It would have after all this bull shit , they put a sample of his voice in this video! .what a colossal waste of time this was. Never again. I know now to avoid chit like this .

Many actors male and female lost there careers to sound movies

It's never a good idea to get drunk at a party when the boss is present. 10 CC song called Anonymous Alcoholic about that very subject. Dominick Scialo is another great example. He publicly disrespected Carlo Gambino one night when he was drunk. He was dusmissed Mob style, by being tortured and then murdered. And then they killed a couple of his buddies just to emphasize what happens to employees who exhibit lack of decorum in front of the boss.

Nice and interesting but I'm disappointed that you didn't have a clip of his voice.

Google him, his voice sounds fine.

He back sassed the studio moguls, and drank himself to death. There is a problem with his psychology, not his voice.

Gilbert is absolute proof that actors lied as much about their age as actresses did. In the mid-20s, he was supposedly only 25-30, yet he looked easily 10 to 15 years older than that. And "handsome" is a huge stretch, his face and body were merely mediocre - take a look at Gary Cooper in the same era, and Gilbert couldn't even come close to Cooper's beauty.

"He seemed to age rapidly"

So sad! 😢😢😢😢

Popular today. Being escorted off the studio property tomorrow. That's the Hollywood studio star system of yesteryear. What he should have done(after his initial disastrous cross over in 1929-1930)was to have his contract renegotiated with a smaller but financially justifiable salary per movie. Also moving into somewhat smaller character roles would most certainly have helped to keep his career on the right track too. 10-23-2022

Reginald Owen knew LB Mayer and John Gilbert. Reggie wrote that from the earliest sound features and could control the voice pitch and Mayer sabotaged Gilbert. I knew Reggie and have his memoirs. He says Mayer treated him (Reggie) well but not Gilbert or Von Stroheim.

I believe he was born in 1897 not 1997.

The book Unheard Melodies (Claudia Gorbman) makes the case that love scenes no longer being silent now required appropriate music. She quotes a Variety review of Autumn 1929: “Studios have found that the hooey going over in titles won’t go over in talkers. Someone in the audience titters and it’s all off. Hereafter the love passages will be suggested with the romantic note conveyed by properly pitched music. Metro, the first to learn by experience, is heading that way: others will follow for their own protection.”

At least he had a great career at one time. Had a great look!😎❤

Do you know the difference between Lillian Gish, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford ? With so many phots available, the sound and pictures could be co- ordinated !!

What do I think about the life and legacy of John Gilbert? Straight, white, paid an amazing amount of money. A mean drunk. 1) He did not have access to good indigo. 2) He had a crappy education. 3) He was impetuous but controlling. A bad combination. Decision. I like the discussion about silent vs talkie movie technique. I like the intelligent use of photos in the video. I wish I could hear him in that first talkie. A good place for you to start. Thanks. I’m on your A list. 🍷🌴🐚

John Gilbert had a great speaking voice, there’s no doubt about it. Better than most. I did hear the rumour that all MGM theatres were ordered by Louis B Mayor to sabotage him by running the movie at 1 and 1/3 speed to make his voice sound funny to audiences, to essentially kill his career as they had a bitter fued, since Gilbert’s aborted wedding to Garbo, where Mayor had punched him.

It's not a great commentary. You researched him, but not in detail. A photo of his gravestone and age of death would end it better.

Brilliantly worded title!!😁

2:53,thats IAN KEITH not john gilbert,both were in QUEEN CHRISTINA 1933

I wanted to hear Gilbert speak🙁

2:53,thats second lead IAN KEITH not gilbert in a scene from QUEEN CHRISTINA 1933

Love learning more about silent stars. An era alien to me, but no different from eternal human dramas. Gilbert had 'IT', see the move 'The Big Parade' for proof. But as this mini documentary reveals, he had a lonely, damaging childhood. So what does he do? He passes on a lonely, damaging childhood to his daughter, not to mention to the women in his life, except Garbo, only because she remained out of his reach. Then when a big studio boss retailiates against him, he wilts! These eternal human dramas proove that life is so much more than succeeding and impressing. It's about living honestly. Better to live on minimum wage and stay steady than to hit the jackpot and wreck your life and the lives of others. You ALWAYS pay for wrecking others' lives and for having shallow values - a lesson that is repeated at every turn of the wheel of life.

Was anyone else thinking of Lena Lamont in "Singing in the Rain?"

im sorry, i just don't see the handsome part. what are they talking about?

Correction : Gilbert Played With Lon Chaney SR. ………………NOT JUNIOR !

"Devastatingly handsome"

Why does everybody seem to have a British accent like this

I always thought leo b mayer fixed it

He was, more or less, Garbo's "fiance" but He was much much better into silent movies... Thanks God, it wasn't the same with The Divine Garbo.Her voice in Anna Christie took Hollywood by surprise // Indeed, every time I ask for a Whisky I try to imitate her cavernous and manly tone... Without any success so far!! 🥃🥃🥃

Спасибо! И за титры тоже!

Or by Louis B Mayer, depending on whose story you believe....

Just how was he "destroyed" exactly? He was still a star and his films still did well. His voice was fine.

His voice sounded like Porky the Pig.

He was only 36 years old. He looked 46.

Just like Buster Keaton, if u didnt play by MGM rules, or they had a grudge they killed ur career.

Thats NOT entirely true about his daughter!

I thought he was a good actor.

Born in 1997???!! :-)

Next brad Pitt role about this actor

You don't know what you are talking about

Makes for a good movie

He was destroyed by Louis b meyer

"WEEEll, of COOURSHE we KEEIN TAWK, KEEANT everybody?" - Lena Lamont, from Singin' in the Rain.

Molto bellisimo❤