Now back to your regularly scheduled programming! I've decided to make a silents talk list, which you can view by clicking here.
Douglas Fairbanks was so wonderful. I've nearly reviewed every Mary Pickford talkie (Coquette is coming soon yay!) and I was quite upset that I was unable to rip clips from "Taming of the Shrew" when I wrote about it. It really is a wonderful movie, and you kind of need to purchase it right now.
Along with Charlie Chaplin and his then wife Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks is the perfect example that the talkie myth was just that: a myth. His voice fit his persona perfectly, and despite his concerns his personality shines through just as well as it did in silents (perhaps even dare I say...better?)
"Taming of the Shrew" would be Doug's first talkie and you can read all about it here. Technically one could count the short prologues quickly added to "The Iron Mask" as a talkie but just barely. A lot of people seem to believe Mary's talkies were terrible, including Shrew. But that's just not the case (okay...Kiki is.) More than anything Taming of the Shrew was Doug's show. Mary's in it, and despite already having made a critically acclaimed talkie, she barely speaks at all. Doug's the carefree, always laughing Petruchio...stealing each and every scene he's in (not to say Mary's no good; her bits are quite funny too.)
Forgive the quality (the DVD has much MUCH better quality) but below is a clip of one of my favorite scenes. Petruchio has decided to marry Katherine (mostly for money) despite her scary Shrew reputation (literally this woman whips the piss out of men!) After telling her father he meets Katherine who he dubs 'Kate' (angering her greatly) and well...you see how well this works out:
Doug is truly a wonderful actor, despite what many people like to say. He's fun to watch, and quite entertaining. Unfortunately Taming of the Shrew would not be a hit, what with being released right after the stock market crash and all. Doug already had apprehensions about talkies (he felt it took the romance out of filmmaking) and it seems the medicore reception did not help.
With his marriage firmly on the rocks he made "Reaching for the Moon" in 1930. This movie is said to be so terrible (I need to order it) that its his own 'Kiki' (deep thoughts: Joseph Schenck convinced both Mary and Doug to make their worst films, back to back at that. Evil? Or just bad timing?) Well in fairness maybe it wasn't so bad to begin with: the film was originally meant to be a musical as was the fad when it was in production. However UA felt musicals would bomb by the time it was released...so the logical conclusion? Cut out almost all musical numbers and leave it be...resulting in a very very bad film. Needless to say it didn't do well.
Doug's marriage continued crumbling, and trying to find an escape from Mary and talkies he began to travel almost incessantly. Using this premise as an excuse he filmed a travelogue in 1931, "Around the World in 80 Minutes". It too did not do well. Doug made 2 last goes at real films, and neither did much at the box office. However it is said his final film "The Private Life of Don Juan" is quite good, and at the least (much like Mary's "Secrets") a proper goodbye for one of the greatest actors/producers of all time.
Doug didn't take the end of his marriage, fame, and career very well at all. He decided to capitalize on his son's ever rising star, with the idea to make films together. This never panned out and before Doug could really make up his mind about what to do he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1939. His death was quite sudden (he was only 56) and quite sad.
Doug's Talkie Career
*The Iron Mask (2 prologues) (1928)
*The Taming of the Shrew (1929)
*Reaching for the Moon (1930)
*Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932)
*The Private Life of Don Juan (VHS only) (1934)
Only one of these films (The Iron Mask) has seen an official release. The rest are bootlegs. Click titles to purchase.
'Reality TV' Work
*Around the World in 80 Minutes with Douglas Fairbanks (1931)
Doug, once again being way ahead of his time, decided that he would film his beloved travels and make it into a film. The film is said to be a cross between your average TV show and a touch of reality TV, neither of which really existed at the time. Doug enjoyed this project so much he began work on another one, only to scrap it after finding the public wasn't too enthusiastic. The film still exists (not sure the scrapped one does) and is said to be terribly un PC. I don't believe its been released.
Verdict: Silent or Talkies?
The fact that history has forgotten Mary Pickford or Gloria Swanson is quite a shame, but the fact few remember Douglas Fairbanks today is a sin of epic proportions. His silent characterizations of Zorro, Robin Hood, and the Thief of Bagdad influence those stories to this very day. With Doug so forgotten no one has ever really had time to comment on his voice. The fact that none of his talkies were really a success doesn't help...even contemporary audiences probably wouldn't have remembered them.
When he passed, Doug was at an age where he could have become a behind the scenes type or more a cameo/character player (he probably would have hated that though...Doug was in strong denial about reaching old age). His voice matched his persona so well there is absolutely no excuse for his failure at the box office in talkies. Much like Mary it seems he just lost the will to fight, letting personal issues (and old age) overcome his will to try. I think he could have been a Sean Connery type had he wanted to.
I just adore Doug's voice! Everything about the man was so wonderful. Frankly though he was wonderful (and defined) in silents, I'm blown away by his performance in Taming of the Shrew. So...I think he was best in talkies. Which is odd because I don't think Doug would have agreed...
3 comments:
Reaching for the Moon is bad- enjoyable but bad. Fairbanks was still in good shape but age was creeping up on him. Without the silent camera to speed things up slightly his acrobatics (thankfully few) are rather more earthbound than usual, plus you can hear audible thuds as he leaps into the air and lands. Bebe Daniels is fine- she'd been fairly successful in silents but really became a stratospheric star in early talkies. The best thing in the picture is Edward Everett Horton as Fairbanks' valet. Horton mixes him a tonic to pep him up to conquest Daniels and Fairbanks insists he try it first. Horton drinks, his face contorts, then he stalks for the door stating stiffly : "There's a Swedish Au Pair on B deck. I'll be gone a good 40 minutes. I may not be back at all- who can tell!"
I'm totally ordering it...much like Kiki I just...HAVE to see it!
I have a soft spot for this film. It's one of the first early talking films that I every saw: taped off a PBS station when I was eleven. I've since been able to view the most complete extant version, which runs at about 72 to 74 minutes, and I'm still enchanted by the film. As a star vehicle, I think it's equal to anything else made in mid to late 1930. I do wish that the extra twenty minutes of footage, even if it was merely musical numbers, could be found, and the film restored to its preview version. The song "Reaching For The Moon," hear during the opening credits as well as throughout the film, is haunting in its melody and lyrics, and coveys a new level of depth to the characterizarion, had it been used more extensively.
I could see why Mr. Fairbanks, at 47, and having reigned as "King" in Hollywood for a decade previously, was somewhat loath to actively pursue a talkie career. After all, what more could he achieve, especially given the growing pains of the new medium? I actually liked the fact that he did some acrobatics as it transfers his screen persona outside the dream-realm of the silents into real life, even if it as was so nicely pointed out before, made them more "earthbound" in a way.
His age, changing tastes, the Depression, and personal issues all contributed, unfortunately at the same time, to a gradual withdrawal of Mr. Fairbanks from the screen. I so wish that, as he returned in this film to a social comedy, that he had likewise, perhaps in 1931, made a western film, as he had excelled in those in the 1916-1918 period. He certainly, with his fertile imagination, could have culled forth some type of ingenious plot that would, coupled with his abilities, have proved to be a refreshing antedote to the rather formulaic (even if enjoyable) B westerns that were being churned out in 1931. It would have been nice if he tried! As it is, we have the four talking films that he made, and the travelogue, but this film is really his last major US studio picture, and, it's a shame that it's not better known or appreciated. Fairbanks shows a vulnerability that age and the Depression dovetail appropriately with. Even if not a "ten best" on anyone's list, it certainly nothing to be ashamed of, and shows that Fairbanks still fits in that niche world that his films were able to portray. Where is that missing footage? *sigh*
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