Book review - "John Gilbert The Last of the Silent Film Stars" by Eve Golden

 Engaging bio of Gilbert, who is well known among buffs for the career implosion that followed the coming of sound. By all accounts he was a charming, nice person - though not the most stable romantic partner. Golden suggests he was manic depressive, which seems to fit. He would fall in love with all his co stars which I'm sure is fine if they were into it but he would've been a sex pest had they not been.

Gilbert's rise was relatively rapid though no doubt it didn't feel that way at the time. He was a show biz baby, travelling circuit... wound up in Hollywood, plugged away for a few years. Then was championed by Irvin Thalberg at MGM who put him in a series of movies, some very well remembered (especially the Garbo vehicles), all successful.

Then came sound... and the best bit of this book (the rest is good, incidentally, just drama wise this is where the meat is). While some stars easily segued, Gilbert struggled. His voice was fine but his films were bad - flowery dialogue, clunk direction. These things happen, and Gilbert was better positioned than most to bounce back - he wasn't a foreigner, had some stage training, also could have gone into action movies. But his salary was huge so MGM couldn't afford to co star him with anyone, he didn't get along with Louis B Mayer so it's unlikely Mayer would've wanted to do him any favours.

To say "it was a conspiracy" is to let Gilbert off the hook. He was a grown man. He should've known he needed co stars, better properties, better directors. People attack Mayer because Mayer thrived while Gilbert went under.

He still could've come back - he did with Queen Christina but couldn't exploit that (re-signed with MGM when he shouldn't), then got another chance a role in Desire with his (and everyone's) girlfriend Marlene Dietric but had a heart attack (a follow up one would kill him)... because he was a big boozer. It's still moving but it was his own fault. A lousy husband and dad, seems like a lot of fun, a good actor, a great story well told in this book.