Desert Nights

Of all the major American studios, MGM was the slowest to switch from silents to talking pictures. The studio head, Louis B. Mayer, insisted that talkies were just a fad...and so they continued making silent films up through 1929. Other studios had pretty much gone all talking by 1929. One of the later silents, and John Gilbert's last silent, was this dandy film "Desert Nights".

The film is set somewhere in Southern Africa. You aren't sure of the country but you know that the Kalahari Desert is in the region. This desert plays an important part because the boss of a diamond mine, Hugh Rand (Gilbert) is kidnapped and a fortune in diamonds is stolen by some clever crooks. However, Rand turns out to be the clever one as he ends up taking the crooks for a strange adventure.

There really wasn't anything I didn't like about the film. Gilbert is good, as always and the film is well written and exciting. Additionally, the end if smart and works well. Surprisingly, I don't think this film was ever re-made as a talking picture and with such an interesting plot, it should have been.

This film is a little bit different from Gilbert's other silent films. Usually Gilbert was cast in films in which there was a tremendous amount of action and/or romance. This time, much of the film is just Gilbert in a somewhat psychological battle against two thieves and the elements.

Gilbert plays Hugh Rand, manager of a South African diamond mine. He gets news that two visitors are due - Lord Stonehill and his daughter Diana. They arrive ahead of schedule, and against Rand's own predictions Lady Diana turns out to be a beautiful woman. However, it soon turns out that the two are imposters, but are found out by Rand before he can notify anyone else. The pair of thieves take off into the desert with their stolen diamond and their company of co-conspirators with Rand as hostage.

Things begin to go wrong for the thieves, and pretty soon it is just Rand and the two imposters on foot, in search of water before the sun of the desert does them in. Throughout their journey Rand is laughing off the situation as well as laughing at the two thieves, now suddenly penitent and afraid of death. Rand has a right to laugh - he has control of the last canteen of water.

Gilbert often reminds me - in this and his other silent films - of Errol Flynn, showing temper and passion when it is called for, but usually laughing in the face of danger, having a genuinely good time in whatever situation he is put, and inviting us to join in the adventure with him. I've often wondered what would have become of his career had he been ten years younger and started out in talking pictures instead of silent film. Would he have been MGM's answer to Flynn in the age of the swashbuckling picture? This film is highly recommended for the silent film enthusiast.

John Gilbert's charisma is evident here as the manager of a diamond mine in Capetown, South Africa, forced to accompany the five diamond thieves into the desert to prevent him from "squealing." Among the thieves are Ernest Torrence and Mary Nolan, who gained admittance to the mine in the first place by pretending to be the expected Lord Stonehill and Lady Diana. Although the acting was uniformly good, I found there were too many plot holes that distracted me and made me dislike the film ultimately. I did enjoy seeing the beautiful Mary Nolan, an actress I was not familiar with.

I was also bothered by the abbreviated print shown on the Turner Classic Movies channel, which ran only 62 minutes. The copyright length of the film indicated the film should have run 80 minutes at the sound speed. A cut was obvious at one point where Torrence suddenly acquired a gun, whereas Gilbert had the upper hand in the previous scene. Perhaps this is the only print available these days.

If Desert Nights had come out in 1926 instead of 1929 people would be far less critical of it. I thought it was a super sexy melodrama and romance, with great performances by John Gilbert, beautiful Mary Nolan, and Ernest Torrence, the perfect villain with a touch of humor.

My favorite scene is in the beginning, before the trouble begins, when Ernest is playing the piano and the young couple, played by Mary and John, waltzed on the front porch. John Gilbert could have been a professional dancer, he was that good.

The story is about a bunch of jewel thieves caught in the desert, but you really won't care. Just watch it for the stars, and to see just how gorgeous John Gilbert still looked in 1929. Sigh.

9 out of 10 stars.

The great John Gilbert stars as manager of a diamond company in South Africa. He is kidnapped by a pair posing as English aristocrats (Mary Nolan, Ernest Torrence) after they steal $500,000 worth of diamonds.

They head into the dessert and quickly get lost. Their accomplices soon perish after drinking from a poisoned water hole (poisoned by Torrence himself). Gilbert is tied up in a wagon pulled by oxen, but the power soon shifts as they get hopelessly lost and the water is used up. Gilbert is freed and gets the upper hand.

Terrific little action film with great bits of comedy, and the three stars are solid.

Gilbert's last starring silent film. He looks great and has great fun as the man who hasn't seen a white woman in 3 years. Nolan is beautiful, and Torrence has one of his best roles as the villain.

Gilbert had begged MGM to make this as a talkie but LB Mayer refused. Too bad. This might have been a real classic and a solid success for Gilbert in the new medium. Rather, they stuck him in a sappy romance, HIS GLORIOUS NIGHT, and he flopped. It was all downhill for John Gilbert after that. MGM's stupidity was cinema's great loss. John Gilbert was a great star and should have had a great career in the 30s.