John Gilbert Filmography

Born:: July 10, 1899 in Logan, UT
Occupation:: Actor
Birth name:: John Cecil Pringle
Biography:: A major talent of the silent era, John Gilbert is best remembered today as a textbook victim of the Hollywood machinery, a classic example of the motion picture industry's ability not only to manufacture stars but also destroy them. Born John Pringle in Logan, Utah on July 10, 1899, he broke into...Read More

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Hollywood

Synopsis: Produced for Britain's Thames television in 1979, Hollywood is a 13-part overview of the silent film era, lovingly assembled by historian Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Each episode runs one hour, and each concentrates on a separate aspect of the art of the silent cinema. Chapter titles include Read More

1988
30 Years of Fun

Synopsis: The fourth of Oscar-winning short-subject director Youngson's comedy compilations (the earlier ones were Golden Age of Comedy, When Comedy was King, and Days of Thrills and Laughter) is, amazingly, almost as full and fresh as those earlier efforts, containing highlights from such silent comedy Read More

1963
The Movies March On

Actors: Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, William S. Hart, Charles Chaplin, Ben Turpin

Synopsis: The Movies March On was Number 12, volume 9 of Louis de Rochemont's March of Time series. Narrated by the stentorian Westbrook Van Vorhees, this fascinating documentary manages to squeeze 40 years of filmmaking into a mere two reels. Beginning with the once scandalous The Kiss (1898), the film Read More

1939
The Captain Hates the Sea

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Helen Vinson, John Gilbert, Alison Skipworth, Wynne Gibson

Synopsis: It's Grand Hotel on the high seas, with a remarkable cast -- particularly for the usually parsimonious Columbia Pictures. As irascible captain Helquist (Walter Connolly) pilots his boat along the Atlantic, an assortment of subplots involving a vast array of characters play themselves out. Among Read More

1934
Fast Workers

Actors: John Gilbert, Robert Armstrong, Mae Clarke, Muriel Kirkland, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: This story centers around a love triangle between two construction workers and a girl. The film climaxes with a fight on top of a skyscraper. The story is based on a play called Rivets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1933
Queen Christina

Actors: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, Elisabeth Young

Synopsis: If Queen Christina is not the best of Greta Garbo's films (as many Garbo fanatics insist), it is certainly the most luxuriously romantic of her talkie features. The star is cast as 17th-century Swedish queen Christina, who feels that she can best function in a male-dominated world by adopting Read More

1933
Downstairs

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Anyone who believes that the career of silent screen idol John Gilbert ended because his voice has too high for the talkies hasn't seen this marvelously black comedy. In perhaps his best performance of the sound era (with his supporting role in 1934's The Captain Hates the Sea running a close Read More

1932
West of Broadway

Actors: John Gilbert, El Brendel, Lois Moran, Madge Evans, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: Though silent star John Gilbert's talking pictures were habitual money-losers, the stubborn actor insisted that MGM honor his $250,000-per-picture contract, signed just before talkies came on. West of Broadway wasn't a bad Gilbert vehicle by any means, but the star's previous failures worked Read More

1931
The Phantom of Paris

Actors: John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a magician finds himself accused of murdering his lover's father. He flees and the lover marries her other boyfriend--the real killer. When her husband dies, the magician gets plastic surgery until he resembles the killer and assumes his former position as husband to the girl. Read More

1931
Gentleman's Fate

Actors: John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Anita Page, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: Silent screen star John Gilbert had a tough time adapting to the talkies--not due to his voice, as is commonly believed, but because his type of florid romantic fare was no longer popular. Gentleman's Fate attempted to alter Gilbert's image by casting him as a bootlegger...albeit a reluctant one. Read More

1931
Redemption

Actors: John Gilbert, Conrad Nagel, Eleanor Boardman, Renée Adorée, Claire McDowell

Synopsis: Based on Leo Tolstoy's The Living Corpse, Redemption was originally scheduled as John Gilbert's first talkie, but was held from release until distribution of his second, One Glorious Night. The official reason, as handed down by the MGM publicity hacks, was that Gilbert's efforts to tackle a role Read More

1930
Way for a Sailor

Actors: John Gilbert, Wallace Beery, Leila Hyams, Jim Tully, Polly Moran

Synopsis: In his second talkie, former silent screen lover John Gilbert plays Jack, a sailor in the merchant marine who takes time out from carousing with pals Tripod (Wallace Beery) and Ginger (Jim Tully) to woo and marry Joan (Leila Hyams), the lovely pay clerk, whom he has promised to quit the sea for Read More

1930
Hollywood Revue of 1929

Synopsis: With the arrival of talkies, every major studio hopped on the musical bandwagon by turning out lavish "revues," spotlighting their top stars performing specialty numbers. MGM's entry in this all-star genre was Hollywood Revue of 1929, which, though a box-office smash and a "Best Picture" Oscar Read More

11/23/29
Desert Nights

Actors: John Gilbert, Ernest Torrence, Mary Nolan

Synopsis: Desert Nights was the last silent film made by MGM's resident heartthrob John Gilbert -- and the last of his truly successful efforts. The melodramatic plot revolves around the robbery of a diamond mine, masterminded by Steve (Ernest Torrence). The criminals have taken Rand (Gilbert), the mine's Read More

1929
His Glorious Night

Actors: John Gilbert, Catherine Dale Owen, Nance O'Neil, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Based on Olympia, a 1928 Ferenc Molnar stage soufflé, His Glorious Night has gone down in history as having more or less single-handedly caused the downfall of silent-screen matinee idol John Gilbert, whose ardent declarations of "I love you, I love you" to an overly inert Catherine Dale Owen Read More

1929
A Man's Man

Actors: William Haines, Josephine Dunn, Sam Hardy, Mae Busch

Synopsis: Adapted from a 1925 play by Patrick Kearney, A Man's Man was popular MGM leading man William Haines' final silent film (albeit released with a musical score and sound-effects track). Haines is his usual bright-and-breezy self as Mel, a likable soda jerk in love with would-be actress Peggy (Josephine Dunn Read More

1929
Four Walls

Actors: John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Vera Gordon, Carmel Myers, Robert E. O'Connor

Synopsis: Starring Joan Crawford and John Gilbert, this suspenseful, silent crime-drama follows the exploits of a gangster who does his time for manslaughter and emerges from prison determined to reform. Unfortunately, he soon finds it is easier said than done when his former colleagues pay him a call. Read More

1928
Masks of the Devil

Actors: John Gilbert, Alma Rubens, Theodore Roberts, Frank Reicher

Synopsis: Masks of the Devil was director Victor Seastrom's final silent film for MGM -- and his next-to-last American film before his return to Sweden. Based on a story by Jacob Wasserman, the film stars John Gilbert as Baron Reiner, who spends his entire life in pursuit of beautiful women. A ruthless Read More

1928
Show People

Actors: Marion Davies, William Haines, Dell Henderson, Paul Ralli, Tenen Holtz

Synopsis: This Marion Davies vehicle was loosely inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson. Davies plays would-be starlet Peggy Pepper, who arrives at the gates of MGM Studios with her dad Colonel Pepper (Dell Henderson) in hopes of becoming a great dramatic actress. Instead, she a scores a hit as an ingenue Read More

1928
A Woman of Affairs

Actors: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Synopsis: Michael Arlen's notorious novel The Green Hat was considered such a hot potato censor-wise that the property's title could not be used when it was adapted to film. Retitled A Woman of Affairs, this tale of a woman destroyed by syphilis was heavily laundered for the screen. Greta Garbo plays an Read More

1928
Cossacks

Actors: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Ernest Torrence, Dale Fuller, Mary Alden

Synopsis: Based on a Leo Tolstoy novel, The Cossacks centers around Lukashka (John Gilbert), a young Russian man who has no interest in fighting, unlike the other Cossacks around him. Because of his cheery, peaceful ways, he is ridiculed by the others of his village, even though he is the son of Ivan the Read More

1928
Love

Actors: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, George Fawcett, Emily Fitzroy, Brandon Hurst

Synopsis: This MGM-ized adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was originally titled Heat but was changed to Love when someone at the studio pointed out the possible implications of having the opening title read "John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in Heat." Heavily updated and revised, the film bore scant Read More

1927
Man, Woman and Sin

Actors: John Gilbert, Gladys Brockwell

Synopsis: John Gilbert was fond of a narrative poem called The Widow in the Bye Street by John Masefield and wanted to film it, but when he approached his boss, Louis B. Mayer, with the idea, it sparked a huge argument. Gilbert was determined, however, and Man, Woman and Sin is basically a disguised Read More

1927
Twelve Miles Out

Actors: John Gilbert, Ernest Torrence, Joan Crawford, Eileen Percy, Paulette Duval

Synopsis: John Gilbert was one of MGM's top stars when he appeared this melodrama. Playing against his usual matinee idol type, Gilbert plays a tough and restless wanderer. Jerry Fay (Gilbert) and Red McCue (Ernest Torrence) are fierce but not unfriendly rivals who run into each other in various ports. They Read More

1927
Show

Actors: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Connelly, Gertrude Short

Synopsis: Long believed to be a "lost" film, The Show resurfaced in the mid-1970s, proving to be a real treasure trove for aficionados of director Tod Browning. Ostensibly based on Tenney Jackson's novel The Day of Souls, the film also owes a great deal to Ferenc Molnar's Liliom. John Gilbert stars as Cock Read More

1927
Flesh and the Devil

Actors: John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, Barbara Kent, William Orlamond

Synopsis: A bulky, verbose novel by Herman Suderman was the source for the exquisitely silent Flesh and the Devil. On leave from the Austrian army, lifelong friends John Gilbert and Lars Hanson return to their loving families. At a reception in Hanson's honor, Gilbert makes the acquaintance of the Read More

1926
Bardelys the Magnificent

Actors: John Gilbert, Eleanor Boardman, Roy D'Arcy, Lionel Belmore, Emily Fitzroy

Synopsis: The Rafael Sabatini swashbuckler Bardelys the Magnificent served as an excellent vehicle for MGM's top male star John Gilbert. Set during the regime of France's King Louis XIII, the story concerns a bold young braggart named Bardelys (Gilbert), whose sexual conquests have become legendary. When Read More

1926
La Boheme

Actors: Lillian Gish, John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Edward Everett Horton, George Hassell, Roy D'Arcy

Synopsis: Amidst much fanfare, Lillian Gish was signed to a fabulous MGM contract in 1925 which not only assured her $400,000 per picture but also gave her complete control over her productions, including choice of co-stars and directors. For her inaugural MGM effort, Gish selected La Boheme, the theatrical Read More

1926
The Merry Widow

Actors: Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Roy D'Arcy, Josephine Crowell, George Fawcett

Synopsis: This silent adaptation of Franz Lehar's famous operetta (in which precious little of the original story was retained) was a rare event in Erich Von Stroheim's directorial career -- a critical and commercial success that the director was also able to complete according to his wishes (though in the Read More

1925
The Big Parade

Actors: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell, Claire Adams

Synopsis: The Big Parade was designed as a modest programmer concerning one young man's disillusionment in the face of war. When the MGM executives took a look at the projection-room rushes, they gave director King Vidor the go-ahead to film an all-out "spectacular", which ended up running 13 reels and Read More

1925
Man's Mate

Actors: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Noble Johnson, Wilfred North, Thomas Mills

Synopsis: John Gilbert and Renee Adore star with Noble Johnson and Wilfred North in this average melodrama. Scenes shift from Paris to Normandy and contrasts the underground urban grime with the pastoral beauty of the rural region. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide Read More

1924
Winner Take All

Actors: Buck Jones, Peggy Shaw, Edward Hearn, Lilyan Tashman, William Norton Bailey

Synopsis: Although cowboy star Buck Jones plays a prizefighter in this drama, he's only getting in the ring to pay for a ranch -- which gives it just enough Western atmosphere to satisfy Jones' regular fans. Perry Blair (Jones) starts off as a sparring partner for a fighter, but when he knocks the guy down Read More

1924
Wife of the Centaur

Actors: Eleanor Boardman, John Gilbert, Aileen Pringle, William Haines, Kate Price

Synopsis: John Gilbert was on the brink of superstardom when he appeared in this routine domestic drama -- his fame would explode within a year, when he starred in The Merry Widow and The Big Pararde back-to-back. Even though The Wife of the Centaur (based on the novel by Cyril Hume) wasn't a brilliant Read More

1924
Romance Ranch

Actors: John Gilbert, Bernard Siegel, Frank Beal, John Miljan

Synopsis: This very average silent western starred John Gilbert right before MGM made him an international superstar as the doughboy in King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925). Gilbert had already come a long way, from travelling stock companies to playing western villains and starring opposite Mary Pickford in Heart o' the Hills Read More

1924
The Snob

Actors: John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Conrad Nagel, Phyllis Haver, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Although John Gilbert became famous for playing the romantic lover, there was something inside him that occasionally rebelled at his glossy image. He leapt at the chance to play the exceedingly unsympathetic title character in this drama, which was based on the novel by Helen R. Martin. After her Read More

1924
Married Flirts

Actors: Pauline Frederick, Conrad Nagel, Mae Busch, Huntly Gordon, Patterson Dial

Synopsis: Pauline Frederick stars in this romance, based on the Louis Joseph Vance novel Mrs. Paramor. Nelly (Frederick) is so intent on her writing career, that she neglects her appearance and her husband, Wayne (Huntly Gordon). Jill Wetherell (Mae Busch), who is looking for a rich husband, finds Wayne to Read More

1924
Wolf Man

Actors: John Gilbert, Edgar Norton

Synopsis: This is melodrama, not a horror film, and it's booze, not a full moon, that changes John Gilbert's character from man to beast. Gerald Stanley (Gilbert) is an English gentleman who is engaged to Beatrice Joyce (Alma Frances). But Stanley's personality changes whenever he drinks, and his Read More

1924
Just off Broadway

Actors: John Gilbert, Marian Nixon, Trilby Clark, Ben Hendricks, Sr.

Synopsis: Jean Lawrence (Marian Nixon) is a failed musical comedy star who is befriended by Nan Norton (Trilby Clark), whose boyfriend is a crook. The crook is arrested and detective Stephen Moore (John Gilbert) shows up in New York, posing as the crook and pretending to have made a killing in Paris as a Read More

1924
His Hour

Actors: Aileen Pringle, John Gilbert, Emily Fitzroy, Bertram Grassby

Synopsis: Gritzko, a prince of pre-World War I Russia (John Gilbert), is the ultimate ladies' man. Women fall at his feet -- all except for a young but cold British widow, Tamara Loraine (Aileen Pringle). While she's spurning his advances, Tamara is growing ever more fascinated with Gritzko. And for the Read More

1924
Lone Chance

Synopsis: This tense but implausible melodrama was John Gilbert's last film for Fox before moving over to the greener pastures of MGM. Jack Saunders (Gilbert) falls in love with a mysterious girl tourist and leaves his home in search of her. In the big city, his money quickly runs out and he is offered a Read More

1924
He Who Gets Slapped

Actors: Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: This compelling and exceptionally well-executed silent drama, from new MGM studio executives Irving Thalburg and producer Louis B. Mayer is based on a highly-regarded Russian play and features the studio's biggest stars, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert and Norma Shearer. Directed by noted Swedish Read More

1924
In Calvert's Valley

Actors: John Gilbert, Sylvia Breamer, Philo McCullough, Herschel Mayall, Lule Warrenton

1923
Truxton King

Actors: John Gilbert, Ruth Clifford, Frank Leigh, Mickey Moore, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: During his tenure with the Fox studios, John Gilbert was cast in every imaginable role a male lead could have. He was Marco Polo, Cameo Kirby, and here he's the title character of this adventure, which comes by its mythical kingdom theme honestly -- it was based on a novel by George Barr Read More

1923
St. Elmo

Actors: John Gilbert, Barbara La Marr, Bessie Love, Warner Baxter, Nigel de Brulier

Synopsis: Starring New Zealander Shayle Gardner in the title role, this British screen version of Augusta J. Evans-Wilson's sentimental novel and stock company perennial was often mentioned when citing the poor state of British filmmaking in the 1920s. Gardner played the title role, a man who killed his Read More

1923
The Exiles

Actors: John Gilbert

Synopsis: On the verge of his superstardom at MGM, John Gilbert played the lead in the Fox production The Exiles. Gilbert essays the role of crusading district attorney Henry Halcombe, who secures a conviction for murder suspect Alice Carroll (Betty Bouton). Trouble is, Alice is innocent. Managing to Read More

1923
Madness of Youth

Synopsis: John Gilbert felt his talents were being wasted at Fox, and he was very vocal about his feelings towards the studio. But this film, made about a year before he moved over to MGM, gave him a rare opportunity to play an interesting character. Jaca Javalie (Gilbert) is a thief and a swindler who robs Read More

1923
The Yellow Stain

Actors: John Gilbert, Claire Anderson, John P. Lockney, Mark Fenton, Herschel Mayall

Synopsis: Silent film star John Gilbert was in the middle of his treadmill days at the Fox studios when he was cast in this drama as an honest young lawyer. John P. Lockney establishes himself as an especially wicked villain right off the bat when he kicks the hero's dog. Donald Keeth (Gilbert) has just Read More

1922
Gleam O'Dawn

Actors: John Gilbert, Barbara Bedford, James Farley, John Gough, Wilson Hummell

Synopsis: "Fox Introduces Unusually Promising Star in John Gilbert," proclaimed trade paper Moving Picture World in its review of this drama. Four years later, while at MGM, Gilbert would become one of the silent era's most prominent luminaries. Caleb Thomas (James Farley) and his son, Gordon (John Gough) Read More

1922
The Love Gambler

Synopsis: Drifter Dick Manners (John Gilbert) arrives at a ranch owned by Colonel Angus McClelland (James Gordon). When he wagers that he will be able to ride a wild bronco and kiss the ranchman's haughty daughter, Jean (Carmel Myers) -- and wins -- he lands a job there. But Manners and Jean really fall in Read More

1922
A California Romance

Actors: John Gilbert, Estelle Taylor, Jack McDonald

Synopsis: On the verge of leaving Fox Studios for MGM, silent romantic star John Gilbert appeared in California Romance. Gilbert plays a soldier-of-fortune, living in pre-statehood California. With the aid of the US cavalry, Gilbert fends off those who would block California's entry into the Union. Along Read More

1922
Calvert's Valley

Synopsis: Considering the kind of material he was given, it's no wonder that John Gilbert was not very happy at the Fox studios. This humdrum Northwest melodrama was typical, and it seems especially tired coming right after the flashier Monte Cristo. Here, Gilbert portrays Page Emlyn, who accompanies Jim Read More

1922
The Count of Monte Cristo

1922
Arabian Love

Actors: John Gilbert, Barbara Bedford, Adolphe Menjou, Barbara La Marr

Synopsis: On the whole, John Gilbert's starring vehicles at Fox were not as beneficial to him professionally as his films at MGM. Arabian Love was an exception, but Gilbert was required to emulate another popular star to make the film "click". Essentially a Valentino picture without Valentino, the film Read More

1922
Honor First

Synopsis: Three years before they made Hollywood history as the stars of King Vidor's World War I epic The Big Parade, John Gilbert and Renée Adorée appeared together in this melodrama -- ironically, yet another depiction of the Great War. Gilbert played twin brothers, Jacques and Honoré, both fighting in Read More

1922
Monte Cristo

Actors: John Gilbert, Estelle Taylor, William V. Mong, Robert McKim, Ralph Cloninger

Synopsis: aka The Count of Monte Cristo Much of John Gilbert's early work as a leading man was done at the Fox Studios. He made nineteen pictures for the company, but only two are still in existence -- this adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel, and 1923's Cameo Kirby. As Edmond Danton, and later as the Read More

1922
The Bait

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Hope Hampton, Harry James Woodward, Jack McDonald, James Gordon

Synopsis: The poetic work of director Maurice Tourneur was highly respected during the silent era. Producer Jules Brulatour was anxious to have Tourneur direct his fiancée, Hope Hampton. Unfortunately, the girl's talents were limited at best, and Tourneur finally agreed only because of Brulatour's Read More

1921
Shame

Actors: John Gilbert, Mickey Moore, Frankie Lee, George Nichols, George Siegmann

Synopsis: This eight-reel Fox feature is a blatant example of the rampant racial prejudice that existed in the early part of the 20th century. Even the Photoplay review, which pans the film, smacks of racism. "When the hero of Shame hears that his mother was Chinese, he immediately dashes to the mirror and Read More

1921
Ladies Must Live

Actors: Betty Compson, Robert Ellis, Mahlon Hamilton, Leatrice Joy, Hardee Kirkland

Synopsis: This drama was director George Loane Tucker's last film; in fact his health was failing as he completed it. Too bad the maker of 1919's The Miracle Man didn't leave a better picture than this mediocrity as his final legacy. Christine (Betty Compson) and Barbara (Leatrice Joy) are two women who Read More

1921
While Paris Sleeps

Actors: Lon Chaney, Mildred Manning

Synopsis: This melodrama, made in 1920 but not released until 1923, was based on a novel, The Glory of Love, by "Pan." Henri Santados (Lon Chaney), a sculptor in the Latin Quarter of Paris, is in love with his model, Bebe Larvache (Mildred Manning). Bebe, however, has met and fallen in love with a young Read More

1920
White Circle

Synopsis: After he has gambled away money belonging to a secret Italian society called "the White Circle," banker Bernard Huddlestone (Spottiswoode Aitken) exits London to go into hiding. Accompanying him to the Scottish coast are his daughter Clara (Janice Wilson, sister of Lois) and Northmour (Harry B. Read More

1920
Servant in the House

Synopsis: Manson, a servant (Jean Hersholt), comes to work for a curate, William Smythe (Edward Piel). The curate has spent his life pretending to be one of the elite, when he actually worked his way up from the gutter with the help of his brother, Robert Smith, a drain man (Jack Curtis). He now refuses to Read More

1920
Great Redeemer

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Outlaw Dan Malloy (House Peters) is notorious throughout the West. After his latest train robbery, he seeks refuge in a cabin in the mountains. There's a girl (Marjorie Daw) living there, and when Dan tries to attack her, she wounds him. Nevertheless, she admires his bravery and they become Read More

1920
Should a Woman Tell?

Synopsis: There is a shipwreck near a small fishing village, and one of the survivors is the wealthy Clarissa Sedgwick (Lydia Knott). She spends several weeks recovering at the home of a fisherman (Frank Currier) and grows very fond of his daughter, Met