Gilda Gray Movies
One of the icons of the flapper era, Polish born Gilda Gray (born Marianna Winchalska) invented her trademark "shimmy," she later said, out of sheer nervousness during a bar-room performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner." Exploited mercilessly by tough impresario/nightclub owner Gaillard "Gil" Boag, who was to become her second husband, Gray reached top stardom with the Shubert Gaieties of 1919 and in the Ziegfeld Follies. She parlayed her talents into screen stardom as Aloma of the South Seas (1926), a blockbuster which reportedly earned Paramount a whopping three million dollars in the first three months of release. Cabaret and The Devil Dancer (both 1927) followed, but Gray was no actress and both films flopped. To exacerbate matters, there was a messy divorce from Boag in 1929 and a heart attack in 1931. Attempting a comeback, Gray was hired by MGM to add verisimilitude to the studio's gigantic film biography The Great Ziegfeld, but her three scenes all ended up on the cutting-room floor. There was a much publicized stage comeback in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe but Gray earned even more press claiming that Columbia Pictures unlawfully depicted her life story in the hit Rita Hayworth starrer Gilda (1946). Amazingly, she received a handsome out-of-court settlement for her troubles. Gray's real life story was rather more appropriately featured on the television show This Is Your Life in 1956, which inspired a flurry of renewed interest. Sadly, it didn't last long and Gray was all but broke when she succumbed to a second, fatal, heart attack in her Hollywood apartment three years later. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
In MGM's three-hour-plus The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell stars as the titular theatrical impresario, whose show business empire begins when he stage-manages a tour for legendary strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton). With nary a penny in the bank, he charms European stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer) to headline his "Follies", and later marries the luscious Ms. Held. From 1907 onward, Ziegfeld stages annual editions of Broadway's most fabulous revue, dedicated to "Glorifying the American Girl" but also giving ample time to develop the comic talents of Fanny Brice (played by herself), Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor and many others. Eventually, Ziegfeld abandons Ms. Held in favor of other beauties, setting the stage for the "telephone scene" which won Luise Rainer the first of her Oscars. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Powell, Myrna Loy, (more)
- 1936
It was standard operating procedure at MGM to cast their favorite singing team of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in new versions of old operettas, then retain only the music, drastically altering the plotlines to conform to popular tastes. This was the treatment afforded the Rudolf Friml-Herbert Stothart-Oscar Hammerstein-Otto Harbach musical Rose Marie--and thank heaven that MGM decided to jettison the original's creaky libretto about a woman who offers her body to the villain to save the hero from a trumped-up murder charge (this chestnut seemed old-fashioned even in 1928, when Joan Crawford starred in the silent version). In lieu of this wearisome storyline, the Eddy-MacDonald version casts MacDonald as a spoiled, temperamental Canadian opera star who learns that her uncontrollable brother (James Stewart), serving a prison sentence, has escaped to a cabin in the North Woods and needs someone to tend his wounds. MacDonald travels to northern Canada incognito, where in a hilarious sequence she tries and fails to pass muster as a dance-hall girl. Upon meeting likeable mountie Nelson Eddy, who unbeknownst to her has been assigned to locate her brother, MacDonald fabricates a story about needing an escort for a rendezvous with her lover. Such latter-day parodies as Dudley Do-Right notwithstanding, the Eddy-MacDonald sequences are often deliberately played for laughs, even when Nelson is uttering such lines as "Heavy? Why, I could carry you for hours!" Gradually, Nelson and MacDonald fall in love, only to fall out of love when Nelson tracks down and captures MacDonald's brother. Despite this rift, a happy--and logical--ending is not long in coming. It might be hard to watch such Eddy-MacDonald duets as "Rose Marie" and "Indian Love Call" with a completely straight face; it is reassuring, however, to find out that the filmmakers knew that "Rose Marie" was ripe for ridicule, and decided to laugh at themselves first in order to disarm the audience. To avoid confusion with the 1955 remake, the 1936 Rose Marie was retitled Indian Love Call for TV showings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, (more)
Just before making his talkie directorial debut with Atlantic, director E.A. DuPont dashed off the silent "backstage" drama Piccadilly. By the time the film was released in 1929, talking pictures had taken a firm hold of the British film industry, obliging DuPont to reshoot much of the picture with dialogue. American screen favorites Anna May Wong and Gilda Gray (the girl who popularized the "shimmy dance") head the cast, the former as Shosho, a dishwasher in the London nightclub where the latter, cast as dancer Mabel Greenfield, performs nightly. Jealous of Mabel's dancing partner Victor Smiles (Cyril Ritchard), club owner Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) fires Victor, whereupon business drops off dramatically. In desperation, Wilmot takes Shosho out of the kitchen and puts her on stage, where she scores a big success. Feeling threatened by Shosho, Mabel heads to her rival's apartment with blood in her eye. A shot rings out, Shosho falls dead, and Mabel is accused of murder. But during the trial, it turns out that Shosho was done in by her Chinese sweetheart Jim (Kim Ho Chang). In his first feature film appearance, Charles Laughton performs an outrageous bit as a rowdy night club patron; also seen in a minuscule role is young Ray Milland. The talkie version of Piccadilly wasn't released in the U.S. until 1932. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gilda Gray, Jameson Thomas, (more)
- 1927
Hip-swinging danseuse Gilda Gray, the girl who created the late-'20s dance craze "The Shimmy," plays the provocatively underdressed title character in The Devil Dancer. Written by Alice Duer Miller, this the story of Takia (Gray), a white girl brought up in a remote oriental Lamasery. English explorer Stephen (Clive Brook) stumbles onto this "forbidden" stronghold, where he interrupts a punishment ritual wherein Sada (Anna May Wong) is being buried alive. Fascinated by Takia's dancing during the ceremony, Stephen vows to rescue the girl from her "barbaric" surroundings. This, of course, does not meet with the approval of the despotic tribal chieftain (Michael Vavich), who has his own designs on Takia. Originally directed by Al Raboch, who was replaced early on by Lynn Shores, The Devil Dancer was completed by Fred Niblo, who received sole screen credit. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gilda Gray, Clive Brook, (more)
- 1927
A nightclub dancer is torn between two men -- a tough detective and an unscrupulous gangster -- in this rather lurid silent melodrama starring one of the icons of the era, "shimmy" dancer Gilda Gray. Miss Gray's kid brother Andy (Jack Egan) has fallen in with gangster Sam Roberts (Charles Byer) and the latter is shot and killed after an altercation in her dressing-room. Although an obvious case of self-defense, Andy is accused of murder by the dead gangster's moll (Mona Palma) and is forced to stow away on a liner bound for South America. Detective Tom Westcott (Tom Moore), meanwhile, tricks the moll into telling the truth and the kid is cleared of all charges. Despite her popularity on the stage and in the first screen version of Aloma of the South Seas (1926), Gilda Gray's fame was fleeting and her screen career was over by the advent of sound. Cabaret, which of course bore no relation to the later musical, was directed by one of the pioneers of the industry, Robert G. Vignola, whose career had begun with the old Kalem company back in 1908. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gilda Gray, Tom Moore, (more)
- 1926
Gilda Gray, best-known for inventing the shimmy, shows off her talents as a Hawaiian dancer in this South Seas drama, based on the play by John B. Hymer and LeRoy Clemens. Percy Marmont plays his usual role -- a man, who, after having his heart broken, degenerates into a drunken mess. Bob Holden (Marmont) travels to a South Sea island, where he saves Aloma (Gray) from the unwanted attentions of another white man. Aloma is more than grateful -- she falls in love with Holden and spends the better part of the film trying to seduce him. This does not please her native lover Nuitane (Warner Baxter). Just when Holden has succumbed to Aloma's charms and is about to marry her, Sylvia, his old sweetheart (Julanne Johnson), comes to the island with her nasty new husband, Van Templeton (William Powell). Aloma comes to realize that Holden is still deeply in love with Sylvia. Meanwhile, Nuitane drowns Templeton during a storm. Aloma returns to Nuitane, and Holden is reunited with Sylvia. This picture made a fortune for Paramount. A version of the story was filmed again in 1941, with Dorothy Lamour in the role of Aloma. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gilda Gray, Percy Marmont, (more)
- 1923
This well-cast drama was based on the play by Samuel Shipman. When Marion Dorsey (Hope Hampton) is away in Europe, her husband Andrew (Conrad Nagel) becomes involved with Vivian Hepburn (Nita Naldi). The scheming Vivian has a partner, Guy Tarlow (Lew Cody), who runs a gambling club and they get Dorsey so far into debt that he is compelled to sign a note with the name of his firm. Because he can't redeem the note, Dorsey faces a prison sentence, but Marion returns home and saves him. By posing as a wealthy widow, she vamps Tarlow and gets him to open up the safe containing the note and the money that her husband lost. Vivian throws a potential jail sentence in Marion's face, pointing that she herself committed "lawful larceny" by stealing Dorsey's love and destroying his honor. But Marion is able to outwit the villainous couple and clear her husband's name. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hope Hampton, Conrad Nagel, (more)
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