He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

Summary: Paul Beaumont places all of his trust in his wife and his patron. For this, he is betrayed and humiliated in front of his peers. And so the inventor starts over, shucking off much of his old identity and reinventing a new one from the dregs: a clown who is slapped repeatedly for the audience's amusement. Eventually, his former patron reappears, this time as the potential beau of one of the performers - one who our hero and the horseman hold great affection.

Starring: Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Ruth King, Ford Sterling, Marc McDermott, Tully Marshall
Directed by: Victor Sjöström (credited here as Victor Seastrom)

Viewed Via: TCM/DVR (still going strong until I [a] clean out my queue of uncommented upon movies and [b] watch everything on the DVR - which hasn't really happened because...well...Buster Keaton month y'all!)
Current Commercial Availability: Warner Archive DVR program

( Read more... )

I really loved this. It's beautifully shot, well acted, and moving in both an emotional and "meta" way.

West of Broadway (1931)

Summary: Jerry Seevers comes back from WWI injured physically (doctors offer him a bleak long-term prognosis) and emotionally (his fiancee gets cold feet). And so he decides to spend his last few months drinking and bonding with escorts. He hits it off with one of these women and, on a particularly drunken night, decides to marry her. The light of day shows him what a horrible idea that was and he tries to convince her to annul. She loves him and refuses to do so. He flees out to the family ranch in Arizona. She is right on his tail, ready to make this marriage work.

Starring: John Gilbert, Lois Moran, El Brindel, Ralph Bellamy, Madge Evans, Frank Conroy, Hedda Hopper, Willie Fung
Directed by: Harry Beaumont

Viewed Via: TCM/DVR
Current Commercial Availability: Unavailable

( Of course I want a divorce. Everybody wants a divorce. That's what marriage is for. )

Should you see this movie? No. It would help you understand the kind of parts that aided in the destruction of John Gilbert's career, but you'd be better off just hearing about how much it sucked than actually witnessing it for yourself.