''The Great Gabbo'' is a 1929 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

early

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

James Cruze James Cruze (born Jens Cruz Bosen;Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Films'. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 53. . See also: * Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (1974). Film Directors: A Guide to Their American Fi ...

, based on

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...

's 1928

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

"The Rival Dummy", and starring

Erich von Stroheim Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim, ; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, screenwriter, actor, and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of ...

and

Betty Compson Betty Compson (born Eleanor Luicime Compson; March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in ''The Docks of New York'' and '' ...

. The film features songs by Lynn Cowan, Paul Titsworth, Donald McNamee and King Zany. Originally released by Sono Art-World Wide Pictures, certain sequences were presented in

Multicolor Multicolor is a Subtractive color, subtractive two-color Color motion picture film, motion picture process. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma, Prizma Color process, and was the forer ...

. However, current prints, restored by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

and released by

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. T ...

on DVD, exist only in black-and-white.

Plot

Brilliant

ventriloquist Ventriloquism or ventriloquy is an act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) speaks in such a way that it seems like their voice is coming from a different location, usually through a puppet known as a "dummy". The act of ventrilo ...

Gabbo increasingly uses his dummy "Otto" as his only means of self-expression—an artist driven insane by his work. Gabbo's gimmick is his astonishing ability to make Otto talk—and even sing—while Gabbo himself smokes, drinks and eats. Gabbo's girlfriend and assistant Mary loves him, but is driven to leave him by his

megalomania Megalomania is an obsession with power, wealth, fame, and a passion for grand schemes. Megalomania or megalomaniac may also refer to: Psychology * Grandiose delusions * Narcissistic personality disorder * Omnipotence (psychoanalysis), a stage ...

, superstitions, irritability, and inability to express any human emotion without using Otto as an intermediary. In Otto's voice, Gabbo accepts the blame for Mary's leaving and recounts all the things she did for him, but as Gabbo he denies his feelings and tells the dummy to shut up. Two years later, Gabbo has become a nationally renowned ventriloquist. He is revered for his talent, even as he is ridiculed for his eccentricity: he takes Otto with him everywhere he goes, even dining out with him, providing much entertainment to the restaurant patrons. Despite his success he continues to pine for Mary, who is now romantically involved with another singer/dancer, Frank. With both Mary and Frank performing in a show in which Gabbo is the headliner, he attempts to win her back. Mary is charmed by Gabbo's new romantic behavior, driving Frank to angry fits of jealousy. As his courtship meets with continued success, Gabbo increasingly expresses his emotions to Mary directly, without using Otto. One day Gabbo finds that in his absence, Mary has straightened up his dressing room the way that she always used to. Convinced that she wants to come back to him, he confronts her with his feelings, admitting his loneliness without her and in the process revealing that he has grown past many of his old failings, such as his superstitions and obsession with his personal success. However, Mary tells him that she loves Frank, and has been married to him since before Gabbo came back into her life. She says that she missed Otto but not Gabbo, and in a last farewell she says, "I love you" to Otto. In profound frustration at this, after Mary is gone, Gabbo punches Otto in the face, but immediately apologizes and embraces the dummy, weeping. He then storms onto the stage during the finale and loudly rants at the performers. He is forced off the stage and fired from the show. Mary tries to confront Gabbo afterwards, but he only looks at her sadly and walks away. Workers take down the letters advertising "The Great Gabbo" from the marquee as Gabbo looks on.

Cast

as The Great Gabbo *

as Mary * Donald Douglas as Frank * Marjorie Kane as Babe *

John F. Hamilton John F. Hamilton (November 7, 1893 – July 11, 1967) was an American-born actor who worked for many years in the theater but only occasionally on film. He is probably best-remembered as Pops, father of Eva Marie Saint's character, in Elia Kaz ...

as Neighbour (uncredited)

Production

Touted in advertising as an "all-dialog singing, dancing and dramatic spectacle", this early

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

oddly interweaves stark drama with gratuitous full-length, large-scale, on-stage musical production numbers such as "Every Now and Then", "I'm in Love with You", "The New Step", "The Web of Love", and the now-missing "The Ga Ga Bird", which was filmed in color. The "Web of Love" number, in which the performers wear stylized spider and fly costumes, is occasionally shown on

Classic Arts Showcase Classic Arts Showcase (CAS) is a television channel in the United States promoting the fine arts. The television program content includes prepared media and recorded live performances. It is a 24-hour non-commercial satellite channel broadcastin ...

. Footage from the dance sequences was re-used with different music in ''

The Girl from Calgary ''The Girl from Calgary'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Phil Whitman, and starring Fifi D'Orsay and Paul Kelly (actor), Paul Kelly. Plot summary A French-Canadian girl is a champion bronc rider ...

'' (1932). The

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

version available on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

runs 68 minutes, while the original film ran 96 minutes, including the exit music. The

opening credits In a motion picture, television program or video game, the opening credits or opening titles are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank scree ...

mention "Color sequences by Multicolor", but those sequences are now either lost or have survived only in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

form. Multicolor, based on the earlier

Prizma The Prizma Color system was a color motion picture process, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color system, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor. However, Kelley eventua ...

color process, went out of business in 1932; its assets were bought by

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel an ...

. The quality and clarity of the film sound is notable. A 94-minute public domain version is now available.

Response

''The Great Gabbo'' opened to lukewarm reviews. Stroheim received good notices, but the film did nothing to further his career. ''

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film fan magazines, its title another word for screenplay. It was founded in Chicago in 1911. Under early editors Julian Johnson and James R. Quirk, in style and reach it became a pacesetter for fan m ...

'' called the film "a bitter disappointment... Cruze seems to have lost his sense of humor, and the lighting and scenario are terrible." The ''New York Times'' review commented unfavorably on the technical quality of the color sequences. Historian Arthur Lennig wrote that ''The Great Gabbo'' "betrays little inventiveness and shows few of its actors to advantage." He notes that, due to obvious budget constraints, several line-flubs by cast members made it into the final cut.Lennig, p 292.

Soundtrack

*"Every Now and Then" **Sung by Marjorie Kane and Donald Douglas *"I'm In Love With You" **Sung by

and Donald Douglas **Written by Lynn Cowan and Paul Titsworth *"The New Step" **Sung by Marjorie Kane and chorus **Written by Lynn Cowan and Paul Titsworth *"I'm Laughing" **Sung by Otto the dummy, with

**Written by King Zany and Donald McNamee *"Icky" (the lollipop song) **Sung by Otto the dummy, with

**Written by King Zany and Donald McNamee *"The Web Of Love" **Sung by

and Donald Douglas **Written by Lynn Cowan and Paul Titsworth *"The Ga Ga Bird" **(missing from known prints but major production number glimpsed among Gabbo's hallucinations)

Legacy

Footage was used on '' Fractured Flickers'' in the segment "Hymie und Me" (Episode 14), in which the dummy is presented as a living, sentient comedian with von Stroheim as his

straight man The straight man (or straight woman in the case of female characters), also known as a "comedic foil", is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically ...

. ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' used the ventriloquist-dummy idea represented here for the episode " Krusty Gets Kancelled", where Gabbo is the name of a walking, talking, singing (and not very kind or nice) dummy who works with a man named Arthur Crandall; later episodes would show that Gabbo had been ruined by scandal and left to do performances at casinos and other low-rent locales.

References

External links

* *
Still
at moma.org * {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Gabbo, The 1929 films 1920s musical drama films 1920s color films American musical drama films German-language films American black-and-white films Ventriloquism Films directed by James Cruze 1929 drama films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films Films scored by Howard Jackson (composer) English-language musical drama films 1929 musical films