Friday, April 05, 2019

Great Moments In Movie Staches

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Did anybody catch Love, the 1927 silent film (based on Anna Karenina) starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert and John Gilbert's uniform and John Gilbert's mustache on TCM last night? Gilbert is playing the same character (that is to say Captain Count Alexei Vronsky) that Aaron Taylor-Johnson played in the recent film with Joe Wright and Keira, which now that I mention it is ripe...

... for its own one of these posts, but you get the gist. Anyway they've been screening a ton of Garbos this week and they aired Love back to back with the duo's previous feature 1926's Flesh & the Devil -- I recoded both but was too busy seeing Pet Sematary (review soon) to watch them last night, besides turning on the TV when I got home and catching a few minutes of John working this goddamned look like a pro. Hot damn. I've never seen either of these movies before but soon, my pretties, soon.


2 comments:

joel65913 said...

I've seen both.

Flesh and the Devil is pretty purple but there are moments so loaded with eroticism and sexual connection it's astonishing. Garbo and Gilbert's connection is super charged.

Love is so reworked it's virtually unrecognizable as Anna Karenina but on its own and thanks to the leads it's worth checking out. Metro had originally intended to call it Heat but someone was wise enough to point out that "Greta Garbo & John Gilbert in Heat!" on a movie marquee in the 20's would rain down huge cries of protest.

I never quite got John Gilbert until I saw him on film. In photos he looks attractive but fussy and prissy, at least to me but once I saw Flesh and the Devil and The Big Parade his allure jumped right off the screen.

LBean said...

I recorded "Love" and then accidentally deleted it. So now I have to buy it I guess.