Mae Murray shows her legs in The Merry Widow
At The Bioscope: Pordenone Film Festival Day I
"The main event, though, is the Erich Von Stroheim version of The Merry Widow (USA 1925), introduced by Leatrice Joy Fountain and featuring a new orchestral score by Maud Nelissen. The film itself is almost a checklist of Von’s obsessions; militaria, aristocrats at play, wedding processions, grotesques, fetishes and matters of honour; how close it all is to the source material I’m not qualified to say, but it’s a superior piece of froth; the score, using Lehar lightly but effectively matched it to perfection. And every new film I see John Gilbert in, my perception of him changes; not just the star of legend, I’m realising what a really fine actor he was too, and what a waste his loss was to cinema."
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Leatrice Joy Fountain is the daughter of John Gilbert and Leatrice Joy, both of whom were big names in the 1920s. Gilbert, in particular, became an MGM superstar in the second half of the decade, thanks in large part to the enormous success of both The Merry Widow and The Big Parade (right). His silent films with Greta Garbo — Flesh and the Devil, Love, A Woman of Affairs — didn't hurt, either.
Gilbert's career dwindled away with the coming of sound. (Gene Kelly spoofs him in the "I love you! I love you! I love you!" scene in Singin' in the Rain.) His astronomical salary (which fattened his films' budgets), difficult temper, and ugly rift with MGM head Louis B. Mayer didn't help matters any. John Gilbert died in 1936.
The 2009 Pordenone Film Festival — Le Giornate del Cinema Muto ("The Journey of Silent Cinema") — ran Oct. 3-10.