|
THE SILENT LOVERS |
||
(USA 1980)
|
||
| ALTERNATE TITLE | ||
Moviola: The Silent lovers (USA)
|
||
| FILM SCENES | ||
|
||
| COMPANY | ||
Warner Bros. Television (MGM)
|
||
| CREDITS | ||
Directed by John Erman
|
||
| TECHNICAL SPECS | ||
100 Minutes
|
||
| CAST | ||
Brian Keith - Mauritz Stiller
|
||
| SYNOPSIS | ||
This TV film tells the life in Hollywood of the late 1920s to mid 1930's. It is centering on the ill-fated romance between John Gilbert and Greta Garbo.
|
||
| RELEASED | ||
| May 1980, TV
|
||
| TRIVIA | ||
|
||
| BACKGROUND STORY | ||
| The Silent Lover's was one of three TV films based on the Moviola novel G. Kanin. All three were released on USA TV, in May 1980. This Year's Blonde (the early years of Marilyn Monroe), The Scarlett O'Hara War (the search for an actress to star in Gone With the Wind) and the The Silent lovers (all about John Gilbert and Greta Garbo).
|
||
| VIDEO-FILE | ||
See HERE!
|
||
| REVIEWS | ||
New York Times, May 20, 1980 - Part 1 |
||
TV: Gilbert and Garbo: THE SILENT LOVERS is a poorly chosen title for this dramatized account of the romance between John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. All they, and everyone else, ever do is talk. The show, the last of three adapted from Garson Kanin's Moviola, will be shown from 9 to 11 o'clock tonight on NBC-TV. Like the previous instalments, in the rise of Marilyn Monroe and the competition for the Scarlett O'Hara role in Gone With the Wind, The Silent Lovers mingles fact with fiction, or at least surmise and gossip. Thos time the results are less satisfactory. John Gilbert was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top male star when the director Mauritz Stiller, who had been signed in Berlin by Louis B. Mayer, arrived in Hollywood in 1925, with Miss Garbo, his protégée, in tow. She had been given a contract only at Stiller's insistence. The dissolute Gilbert and the serious Swede began a love affair while making Flesh and the Devil. There war real passion in their screen kisses and caresses. But Gilbert drank too much, a problem that was complicated by the beginning of the sound era in films, and his career quickly faded. |
||
| New York Times, May 20, 1980 - Part 2 | ||
| One of Hollywood's oldest legends is that Gilbert had a high-pitched voice that made him laughably unsuitable for talkies. Mr. Kanin prefers another theory. That is, that Mayer, furious after having been physically attacked by a drunken Gilbert, destroyed his career by sabotaging the sound track of his first talkie, His Glorious Night, in 1929. The Silent Lovers Has the premiere audience laughing at Gilbert's Donald Duck intonations. Oddly, the review of the film in The New York Times gibes an opposite impression. “Mr. Gilbert,” the reviewer wrote , “is to be congratulated on the manner in which he handles this speaking role. His voice is pleasant, but not one which is rich in nuances.” Kristina Wayborn, a young Swedish actress, makes an excellent Garbo, projecting something of her icy fire. However, Barry Bostwick, as Gilbert, is less a romantic leading man than a highly talented musical-comedy juvenile. Brian Keith brooks continuously as Stiller. Harold Gould as Mayer and John Rubinstein as Irving Thalberg, M-G-M's “boy wonder” of the period, are adequate in the one-dimensional roles provided by James Lee's script.
|
||
| THE ORIGINAL NOVEL | ||
Based on the novel Moviola, by Garson Kanin (1979)
|
||
| PROMOTIONAL PICTURES | ||
(in Treatment)
|
||
| DVD/VHS | ||
Not Available.
|
||
SOURCE |
||
IMDB – International Movie Database |
||
|
||
La Divina |
 |
||
 |
Garbo Biography Films - Introduction | ||
|
| |
Garbo related Films and Documentaries - Introduction |
© Copyright 2005 – www.GarboForever.com – Germany – TJ & John – The Webmasters
Third "Moviola" film.