The Great Gabbo is one of the earliest appearances of the trope of the ventriloquist's dummy who becomes autonomous. But, despite a menacing turn by Erich Von Stroheim, any tension or creepiness fizzles out with a talky script and interminable padding from song and dance numbers.
"The Great Gabbo" (Stroheim), is a famous ventriloquist in a double act with his dummy "Otto", who can talk and sing while Gabbo himself smokes, drinks, eats and pulls flags from his mouth. Off stage, he is less popular, driving away his girlfriend and assistant Mary (Betty Compson) with a mix of megalomania, eccentric superstitions, and the inability to express any form of feeling or emotion without using Otto. This is not going to end well.
Stroheim has plenty of on-screen presence and it doesn't feel like playing an egoist with brutal streak is much of a stretch. The tone is that of humourless melodrama, although there is one hilarious scene in a restaurant with Otto the dummy entertaining the crowd while Gabbo eats dinner.
The film feels as though it had an ultra-low budget, particularly in any scenes of Gabbo's act, with shots of him intercut with stock shots of an audience, but never the two in the same frame.
Beyond that though, The Great Gabbo constantly grinds to a halt with endless song and dance numbers killing any creepy mood or tension. The film was made only two years after The Jazz Singer first introduced sound to the movies, so perhaps producers still thought that was enough of a novelty to keep people entertained.
No comments:
Post a Comment