As we recently explored in our recent appraisal of Thunderbolt, the introduction of sound into features was a massive change that brought along its fair share of growing pains. While that particular feature mostly kept the various sonic elements down to a manageable balance, the 1929 drama The Great Gabbo from director James Cruze (The Covered Wagon) decided to double down on the innovation of sound and present a full-blown musical for its story. While not the absolute first feature to try this, it nonetheless serves as a standout effort amongst early sound recordings thanks to the presence of the great Erich von Stroheim (Sunset Boulevard, Greed), himself coming off a commercial failure in the form of The Wedding March – a future classic in the eyes of cinephiles. Being on the frontlines of anything groundbreaking brings along some missteps, but The Great Gabbo remains an interesting attempt at a lavish musical.
Erich von Stroheim plays the titular Gabbo, an immensely talented ventriloquist who uses his dummy “Otto” to achieve minor success. He works alongside his partner girlfriend and assistant Mary (Betty Compson, Mr. & Mrs. Smith), a woman he often belittles and generally treats quite poorly. The only reason Mary has stuck around is due to the words of affection she hears from Gabbo when he is speaking through Otto. Gabbo can pull off some miraculous feats such as smoking and drinking water while operating Otto, but when he is not working with his dummy he is simply a man consumed by his megalomania. von Stroheim is quite loathsome in the lead role, which makes you cheer all the more when Mary leaves near the beginning of our story. Everyone believes Gabbo to be unwell as he talks to Otto like a real person even when others are nowhere to found. It is only a few short years later that Gabbo has achieved national attention for his act, but his happiness is hampered by his longing to be reunited with Mary, who happens to be romantically linked to singer/dancer, Frank (Donald Douglas, Murder, My Sweet).
The arc of a larger-than-life personality who realizes too late that he should have been nicer to the woman he loves is nothing groundbreaking even at this point in early cinema. There are not any noteworthy twists and turns, but von Stroheim brings a little extra gravitas to this role of a man slowly going more mad as he is left with the impression that it is too late to have the love he wants. And we do mean quite slowly. Director Cruze unveils the plot in a very deliberate manner that makes the just-over 90 minute runtime seem much longer than it is. What saves the feature for the most part is the weird and elaborate musical numbers that make up the lion’s share of the second half of the film. Like the Ziegfeld Follies through a Tim Burton lens, the sets featured here wow with odd choices like a giant spider web complete with a trapped fly. The musical numbers themselves are not earworms, but they are catchy enough to delight in the moment.
The most impregnable aspect of The Great Gabbo is trying to figure out what tone it is trying to strike. There are moments with Otto that give the film a light comedic feel, but the movie shifts quickly to tragedy or even a bit of thriller when Gabbo gets caught up with his own fame. That is not even taking into account the lush musical numbers, macabre as they may be at points. This feature is like the product of the creative team throwing everything at a wall and including everything that sticks. From scene to scene you feel like it is trying to service different audience members which does not allow it to be a completely satisfying vision. Despite this, there are many impressive elements to this film, especially when it comes to the performances. As an early entry into the musical genre, it holds up well as a curiosity if not a classic.
Video Quality
The Great Gabbo makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to Kino Classics with a pleasing transfer from a 2K restoration from the 35mm material by the Library of Congress. For a film that is over 90 years old, this is a strong presentation that showcases the production quite well. The lovely black-and-white photography shines in high definition with natural grain intact. The new transfer shows off a great amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s various production numbers. There is a fair amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the set dressing. Black levels present with some depth with no unbearable occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The contrast is mostly well defined, but the transfer experiences a noticeable amount of flicker and specks of damage to the print. There is also a sizable black splotch that appears in the dead center of the frame for what amounts to only a few intermittent seconds near a scene change at the beginning of the film. It is quite brief but there were no other major issues such as this for the remainder of the runtime. Kino Classics has done their best given the quality of the source material. It feels like a major win that this film is available in HD at all.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a pretty enjoyable LPCM 2.0 track that serves this movie as well as can be considering its place as a musical in the early days of sound recording. Dialogue and background noises are mostly represented in pleasing harmony, but there are a few instances where the music overtakes the dialogue. There is a moment near the end where Gabbo is imagining what might be happening on stage that features overlapping dialogue that becomes a bit unclear. This track presents with a consistent amount of age related wear and tear including hissing and crackles that likely date back to the source elements. The music presents as a bit hollow sounding instead of full-bodied and powerful. There are optional English SDH subtitles included for the feature film. The good folks at Kino Classics have done an admirable job with providing the most stable track possible for this one.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Author Richard Barrios provides a very informative and entertaining commentary track in which he discusses the place of this film in the careers of the key figures, the transition from silent film to talkies, the critical reception, the themes of the film and much more. Barrios rarely lets up for a second which gives the viewer a lot to comb through.
Final Thoughts
The Great Gabbo is a bit of an oddball motion picture as it tries to be everything all at once. The performance from Erich von Stroheim is memorable and tragic, while the lovely Betty Compson delivers a nimble and endearing performance as a woman of conflicting feelings. The actual music in the film is peculiar to say the least, but the complementing set pieces are a visual delight. Kino Classics has rescued this feature with a Blu-Ray featuring an enjoyable A/V presentation and a commentary track that gives the audience further insight into the narrative. If you want to see what musicals looked like on film before they had a lot to compare to, this one is worth checking out if only for curiosity’s sake. Recommended
The Great Gabbo will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray on July 13, 2021.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
