Had Jack's introduction to sound been better handled, I'm sure he would have been successful for many years to come and could have been one of those remembered more today. It seems obvious to me that the way in which a star was presented in their first sound film, was enormously important. This handling is evident in the way in which Garbo's introduction was prepared.

Since the decision of her first film would be pivotol in Garbo's future success, the studio waited as long as possible before casting her in a sound production. Perhaps her debut was given more attention because, unlike Gilbert, she had potentially a greater liability - her untested, heavy Swedish accent. Many other silent stars had already struggled to make the transition to the sound era, such as Nita Naldi and Vilma Banky, for this reason. This time MGM made a good decision in their choice of Anna Christie, by Eugene O'Neill. Here Garbo was able to play the part of Anna beautifully since the character well suited her heavy accent. The studio ran a fabulous ad campaign with the title, "Garbo Talks!" which proved to be a huge success. Sadly, no such care was given to Jack's debut.

His introduction to sound, as we all now know, didn't go well. He made two films very close together, Redemption and His Glorius Night, both in 1929 and directed by Lionel Barrymore who was suffering from arthritis and known to be taking morphine heavily at the time. Why they chose Barrymore is beyond me since he is not known to be a great director like Clarence Brown who directed Garbo's first sound film. Redemption was filmed first. Once completed, it was considered to be so bad, that it was shelved for the time being.

In between the two features, Jack made an MGM short in which he performed a spoof of Romeo and Juliet with Norma Shearer in Hollywood Review of 1929. After its release, there were no complaints about his voice so, MGM rushed him into his next talkie, His Glorius Night. Again, Lionel Barrymore was the director and the film was finished in only thirteen days.

Once His Glorius Night was completed, Jack left for Europe with Ina Claire, for their honeymoon. While away the film was released and when they returned to New York, Jack found out what a failure the film had been. The comments about it were disastrous, but mostly about the bad photography, editing and poor sound recording. Evidently, although Jack's performance was not considered that bad by critics, many, and especially the audiences in the theaters, felt his voice didn't match his great lover image.

There was one particular scene which proved to be especially painful to watch. It's the scene when he is romancing his leading lady and spoke the famous line, "Oh, beauteous maiden, my arms are waiting to enfold you. I love you, I love you, I love you". In my opinion, the writer of this dialogue should have been the one to be punished, not Jack. This scene became so famous that it was parodied in the 1952 film, Singin' in the Rain.

Click here to see the parodied scene from Singing in the Rain.

There are those who think it was L. B. Mayer, known to despise Jack, who deliberately asked the sound people to turn down the base so that all you heard was the treble making Jack's voice seem high pitched and thin. 'Mayer's daughter, Irene, claimed that her father had come home with the reviews saying, "That should take care of Mr. Gilbert". ' , The Leading Men of MGM, Jayne Ellen Wayne.

Then, Redemption was released and was panned, as expected, by the critics. Now, stories began to be printed about Jack's demise in the industry and he, in turn, began to drink heavily.

He was next given the film Way for a Sailor, where he didn't even get top billing, in violation of his contract. Also at the time, he was promised by Irving Thalberg leading roles in Red Dust and Susan Lenox, with Garbo. Alas, Clark Gable got both parts.

Continue with Gilbert's bio... or go back to bio index.