The Phantom of Paris

Cheri-Bibi is the most celebrated magician & escape artist in France. Young & debonair, he enjoys the attentions of society & the love of one young woman in particular. But when her wealthy father is found murdered & all evidence points to Bibi, he must put all his considerable talents into evading the law long enough to clear his name - while being forced into living a life in the twilight & shadows as THE PHANTOM OF Paris.

According to cinematic legend, all the talkie MGM films starring John Gilbert were dreadful - the result of a bitter hatred between Gilbert (the highest paid star in Hollywood, with a $1.5 million contract) & studio boss Louis B. Mayer. A determination on Gilbert's part to fulfill the contract, and a campaign instituted by Mayer to destroy Gilbert's career - including spreading the rumor that Gilbert's voice was 'high & feminine', culminated in several unwatchable movies.

Not entirely true. The Studio had a huge financial investment in Jack Gilbert and was not going to completely cut its own throat by showcasing him in nothing but dreck. Of the 8 talkies in which he appeared as solo star (1929 - HIS GLORIOUS NIGHT; 1930 - REDEMPTION; WAY FOR A SAILOR; 1931 - GENTLEMAN'S FATE; THE PHANTOM OF Paris; WEST OF Broadway; 1932 - DOWNSTAIRS; 1933 - FAST WORKERS) most were certainly rather ghastly. THE PHANTOM OF Paris, however, was quite decent, and, indeed, fully representative of the material the studio was producing in 1931.

Gilbert does a fine job through much of the film and has one standout scene - hiding in a cellar - which is excellent and shows what he was really capable of. MGM gives him 3 top drawer co-stars (Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt & marvelous old Sir C. Aubrey Smith) with which to work. The other featured players (Leila Hyams, Ian Keith & Natalie Moorhead) do creditable work. Movie mavens will spot Fletcher Norton in an unbilled role as a society twit.

Ian Keith was undoubtedly cast as the villain due to his slight resemblance to Gilbert, which is important to the plot, although he is noticeably taller. However, having Gilbert impersonate Keith and fool Hyams, Moorhead or Stone for even a moment is ludicrous and the weakest point in the story.

Finally, about The Voice. There was nothing at all strange or unnaturally high about Gilbert's voice. As a matter of fact, it was of medium range & rather cultured & refined. Which was the crux of the problem, of course. While it is possible that no voice could have ever matched the perfect one viewers heard in their minds while watching his strong, virile silent roles, the reality was very different from what they wanted to hear (imagine Robert Montgomery's voice coming out of Clark Gable's mouth.) Gilbert was doomed from his first scene in his debut talkie; his war with Mayer only intensified the agony. He would die in 1936, forgotten by most of his former fans, at the age of only 36.

Phantom of Paris, The (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Well-made, if far-fetched, drama from MGM has John Gilbert playing Cheri-Bibi, a famous escape artist who plans on marrying a rich woman (Leila Hyams) even though her father (C. Aubrey Smith) is against it. The father is killed after an argument with Cheri, which causes a detective (Lewis Stone) to arrest him. Facing death in the matter of hours Cheri escapes from prison to prove his innocence. It's rumored that this film was originally meant for Lon Chaney, which if true would be interesting since it's also rumored that Chaney turned down THE SHOW, which then went to Gilbert. Whatever the truth is, this remains a pretty solid "B" movie that has some great acting and a pretty good story. I'm sure many might go into a title like this expecting some type of horror picture but it's pretty much a straight drama with some pretty tense scenes. I think the film takes a turn for the worse in the final fifteen-minutes when Gilbert takes the identity of the man he believes did the real killer. The two didn't look like one another but even if they did manage to fake people their different voices would have certainly given them away. Gilbert turns in another winning performance and what's so nice here is how incredibly charming he is. The early scenes with him doing the magic tricks had him "acting" to large crowds and I thought the charm came through just like you'd expect a real magician to do. Being Gilbert we also get a love story, which has the actor delivering soft lines and doing a nice job with it. Hyams is much better here than she was in her previous film (WAY OF A SAILOR) with Gilbert. The two come across like a real couple and have some pretty good scenes together. Lewis Stone turns in a fine supporting performance as does Jean Hersholt, Natalie Moorhead and Ian Keith. Smith only appears at the start of the film but he too adds nice support. This film was adapted from a novel by Gaston Leroux and for the most part it's pretty successful. I'm sure the original story had more magic but I guess you can only expect so much from a film like this. The 72-minute running time flies by without too many slow spots and in the end it's yet another film to prove that Gilbert did have a voice and he knew how to use it.

It was interesting to see silent film star John Gilbert, who became known to me as co-starring in four films with Greta Garbo with beautiful chemistry with each other on and off screen, in a talkie after being in many silent films. His talkies though don't have the best of reputations, which along with the hatred between him and Louis B Mayer hurt his reputation as an actor too. Along with Gilbert, the premise was an interesting one and it's hard to go wrong with Lewis Stone and C Aubrey Smith.

'The Phantom of Paris' has its fair share of flaws and is not a great film (plus its curious title makes one expect something else entirely somewhat), but to me it does prove that not all of Gilbert's talkies were bad. While not near up to the same level as the best of his silent films, 'The Phantom of Paris' is one of Gilbert's better faring talkies with him as a lead and features one of his best talkie performances. Proving that he was more than up to the task at carrying a film as its main star and that there was more to him than a co-romantic lead.

A lot of good things can be seen here. The best aspect is the cast, with Gilbert being very good indeed in the lead role. Showing some great dramatic chops in the latter stages of the film. Leila Hyams is alluring and charming and Stone is typically sincere and reserved. Ian Keith is suitably sinister and Natalie Moorhead is just as effectively sleazy. Smith is great, not unexpectedly, despite appearing early on in the film and not for long. In fact, the cast do so well with what they have and suit their characters ideally that they are worth at least a third of my overall rating for 'The Phantom of Paris'.

Direction is competent, if more in the first half than the second. 'The Phantom of Paris' was clearly made with care and effort, evident in some beautifully sophisticated costuming and not too static photography. The dialogue doesn't come over as awkward and the first half is very intriguing and compelling.

Unfortunately, 'The Phantom of Paris' does lose its way once Bibi escapes and suffers from a lack of energy and tension and from getting increasingly silly. More character development would have been more welcome, only Bibi rises above complete sketchiness so it is a miracle that the cast are as good as they are, and the chemistry needed more spark.

Where the film really falls down is agreed with everything to do with the impersonation, which is so implausible and not believable for a second. How he was not recognised and mistaken for the man he impersonates so easily when there are a fair share of blatantly obvious differences between the two characters (different facial features and a not particularly minor height difference) beggars belief, even when trying to not take things so seriously.

Overall, not great but not half bad at all and one of Gilbert's better talkies. 6/10

Handsome "disappearing artist" John Gilbert (as Chéri-Bibi) entertains wealthy Parisians with his sensational Houdini-like escapes. Off-stage, Mr. Gilbert courts pretty Leila Hyams (as Cecile). When her father is murdered, Gilbert is accused and jailed. You will likely suspect the killer is sneaky Ian Keith (as the Marquis du Touchais), Gilbert's rival for Ms. Hyams' hand in marriage. As expected, Gilbert escapes from prison, vowing to solve the crime and clear his name. Eventually, he assumes a startling new identity, stepping into the "Marquis" character played by Mr. Keith...

How Gilbert passes for Keith strains credulity, but this is an otherwise fine mystery. "The Phantom of Paris" was the fourth, but first really good film in Gilbert's famously unsuccessful career in talking pictures. It was originally slated to star the recently deceased "man of a thousand faces" Lon Chaney. Gilbert, who surprised "talkie" audiences with a more high pitched voice than expected, had been excellent in "The Show" (1927), another Chaney-like role...

You can hear how Gilbert records poorly on the larger soundstages. But, it's also evident he and MGM had been working on the voice. Note how Gilbert seems to enjoy showing off his "deep" voice against the squeaky "cigarette case" actor (Tyrell Davis), apparently employed to show off his more high-pitched tone. Gilbert tries some weird acting tricks - like, what the heck is he doing with the knob of that chair while hiding in Jean Hersholt's basement? - but, in a challenging (almost dual) role, Gilbert clearly reveals a potential for greatness as a credible actor in the changing medium.

******* The Phantom of Paris (9/12/31) John S. Robertson ~ John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt

This intriguing film is based on a novel by Gaston Leroux (author of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) entitled CHÉRI-BIBI. John Gilbert, with all his charm showing, and looking and behaving every bit like Ronald Colman, plays a raconteur magician and escape artist named Chéri-Bibi who performs stage feats similar to those of the later American stage celebrity Houdini. The drama is set in Paris in the late 19th century. He and a 'girl of good family' named Cécile are in love. She is engaged to a dastardly aristocratic fortune-hunter named the Marquis du Touchais (this could be a satirical name meaning something like 'Lord Gotchya'), who is a most appalling character whose unsympathetic nature is exceeded only by his revolting Olympian pomposity. (There is nothing worse than a bad marquis other than, perhaps, in the world of the cinema, a bad marquee.) Leila Hyams plays the quavery-voiced ingénue Cécile, in true 1931 style. The dour and unremitting hatred of John Gilbert by a detective inspector played by Lewis Stone in his most threatening mode is the key to the story. At first Stone is secretly hired by Cécile's rich father to try to discredit Gilbert, so that his daughter will not be tempted to marry him. But Stone conspicuously fails, and is humiliated in public. His wounded vanity, elevated to the level of a maniacal idée fixe, becomes the source of years of persecution for Gilbert, whom he jails and then hunts down for years mercilessly, on a false murder charge. The story somewhat falls apart with Gilbert hiding in a cellar for four years, but then Leroux always liked men lurking underground, only to rise up with romantic intentions at unexpected moments. This is very much a watchable tale carried through by the sincerity with which its non-credible story line is believed in by the director and the actors, who all seem convinced that it is important, so it must be. After all, if it's in the papers or it's on the stage or screen, it must be true. Gaston Leroux knew that you don't have to get everything right, you just have to be able to carry off a melodrama with sufficient conviction. God knows how many times I have now seen PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, due to necessity. The reason why I don't get bored is that I sit there every time trying to analyze what it is that makes it work. Even Andrew Lloyd-Webber doesn't know. No one knows. I have certainly never figured it out and no one ever will. Actually, every time I see it I enjoy it. Now why is that? What is it about these Gaston Leroux stories that makes them not so much Ghastly Leroux stories as something more like Gastronomic Leroux stories, in the sense that they result in you just going on wanting more. 'Lerouxerie' could be patented as a kind of addictive junk food.