A common misconception about the decline of silent film stars at the dawn of the talkie revolution is that their subsequent unpopularity came from bad voices or an inability to recite dialogue. This idea ignores how much society in general was shifting during the late 20s and early 30s, what with the Great Depression puncturing Roaring Twenties decadence and optimism, as well as the usual shifts in audience taste that had always been occurring among moviegoers. These shifts had a lot more to do with the decline of old favorites than squeaky voices.
Lillian Gish's decline as a movie star was already in effect before moguls accepted sound was more than a fad. Her last few silent films had either underperformed or flopped. Gish was a phenomenal actress, but her tragic ingenue image was falling out of favor, even with attempts to complicate the persona with madness (THE WIND) or innocent sexuality (LA BOHEME and THE SCARLET LETTER). Stars rise and fall on the whims of their public, and the public was losing interest in Gish.
ONE ROMANTIC NIGHT is Gish's first talkie and it's often purported to be a showcase for how bad early sound filmmaking could be. I've seen it twice and honestly, there are way worse early sound films than this one. The acting is largely stiff and the action stagebound, but the script is a diverting trifle. Gish was too old to play the princess, but she had the proper patrician look and the ability to play girlish characters well. She's certainly better than Rod La Roque as the rakish prince, who comes off way too nasally and foolish to strike one as a properly enticing bad boy. Conrad Nagel, Marie Dressler, and OP Heggie all give Gish proper support and there's enough modest entertainment value in the whole affair to keep the film from being a bore.
