The 20th Century Fox DVD I purchased of this film had some interesting text on the cover. It said that "The Great Profile" was an autobiographical movie about John Barrymore's life. Really? Would Barrymore have made an intentional movie that parodied his own alcoholism and his associated acting demise as a result of it?
The movie clearly has a plot that does resemble Barrymore's life. It probably also resembles any number of other actors of the day. More than a few saw their careers tank due to booze or drugs. The same has been true for actresses. Barrymore played other roles besides this one in which his character was alcoholic, or often drunk. But, as a recovering alcoholic myself, I question that he would intentionally have played a role in a movie that was meant to portray his real life. Most alcoholics live in denial about their drinking ever being a problem until one of two things happens. They (we) reach a stage of ultimate surrender to the booze with a high and mighty attitude of "so what?" or "that's my business" which then generally leads to death in time. Or, we hit bottom and find recovery through one or more of many different ways.
Well, less than two years after this movie came out, John Barrymore would be dead, due to cirrhosis of the liver and pneumonia. In the early 1930s, the first years of sound pictures, Barrymore gave some very good performances, although his drinking affected other roles. He made just one excellent comedy - "Twentieth Century" in 1934. In that film, Barrymore's hamminess was so deliberate and over the top that one couldn't help but laugh. In this film, it seems more something for a disoriented actor to fall back on, and it doesn't have the comedic touch.
In this film, Barrymore seems to be sober at times, and perhaps just playing drunk at other times. But biographies and books say that in his last several years he couldn't remember his lines and had to have cue cards. So, it's likely that was the case with this film. And, it's also likely that his drunk scenes here were more than acting - maybe just part acting.
This is supposed to be a comedy, but there's not much funny here. My guess is that the script played up the part of Boris Mefoofsky, the agent of Barrymore's Evans Garrick. Gregory Ratoff plays that role. But it's not funny beyond the first instance maybe, when the nervous and harried Boris is at wit's end over Garrick's whereabouts. After that, the constant efforts of Boris to dodge some debt collectors from the mob are flat as a pancake. His antics and lines soon become irritating,
The rest of the cast do their best, but Mary Beth Hughes, John Payne, Anne Baxter and others just have too little to contribute to lift this film as a comedy. The film wouldn't even earn five stars if not for the general efforts of the cast and an occasional spark of humor from Garrick or someone else.
Here are the few good lines I heard.
Confucius, "This time I think master dead."
Evans Garrick, "Ingratitude - thy name is woman."
Evans Garrick, "I've got it. Tomorrow I shall enter a monastery." Boris Mefoofsky, "If you find a Russian one, I'll go with you."
Evans Garrick, to Mefoofsky, "Your troubles, my friend, belong to this life. Not to the sanctuary to which I am going."
Mary Maxwell, "You, you love me?" Evans Garrick, "More than life itself." Mary, "But... are you sure you're not confusing gratitude with love?" Garrick, "I'm old enough to know whether I'm in love or not."
Richard Lansing, "Well, I only thought..." Mary Maxwell, "I know what you thought, you evil-minded....Philadelphian."
