"Downstairs" Review

 

by Daniel White

1932's Downstairs is notable for being one of the last films of John Gilbert, an immensely popular star from the silent era whose career began unraveling at the advent of sound. In it he plays Karl, an unscrupulous chauffeur who wreaks havoc in an Austrian manor. The myth that his voice was inadequate for talkies is dispelled here; he speaks well, acts with conviction, and commands the screen convincingly. He is equal to Paul Lukas, who plays Albert, the husband of Anna (Virginia Bruce), one of the woman he seduces. And Mr. Lukas was a very successful actor in film, winning an Oscar for 1943's Watch on the Rhine.

Gilbert's decline as an actor has more to do with the changing tastes of the public than anything else. He was too closely associated with the parts he played in the twenties, that of the smoldering, romantic pursuer of women. Audiences would not allow him to morph into the quick talking wise guy they demanded. His image was too closely associated with the "soft", self-indulgent Mad Decade. Standing in Breadlines, not boudoir lovemaking was the order of the day. John Gilbert and his ardent wooing was passe, Jimmy Cagney with a grapefruit in Mae Clarke's puss was what people wanted.

Downstairs (the story is attributed to Gilbert), appears to be an attempt to toughen him up, to "Gableize" him. His chauffeur is an unrepentant scoundrel, who uses every women he encounters for his own pleasure. Blackmail, chicanery, false flattery, and theft are all in a day's work for Karl. And if you're waiting for a scene of redemption or contrition, you won't find it here. As a Pre Code anti hero, Karl is one of the coldest. Gilbert's portrayal is shocking. He's almost saying, "Fuck You" to MGM, the public, and his peers. It's admirable in a perverse way. He refuses our pity and throws himself upon the pyre.

The movie has some racy Pre Code moments: Gilbert getting his flour dusted derriere "cleaned" by the cook (Bodily Rising) is an eye popper. Another scene where Anna reveals to Albert that she has slept with Karl is extraordinary. She frankly reveals to him Karl is a better lover than he ("There is a kind of making love that drives you mad and crazy"). It's an amazing speech from a woman telling her husband she strayed because, "he couldn't cut the mustard" in the bedroom. Wow, this was radical stuff, subversive, and contrary to the way society wanted it's women to behave.

John Gilbert is one of the more fascinating figures from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Few have risen so high, then crashed completely in such short a time (a heart attacked brought on by chronic alcoholism would have him dead at the age of 38). Powerless to control his declining career and failing personal life, he opted for self immolation. Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

With Reginald Owen, the vile Hedda Hopper, and the legendary Olga Baclanova of Freaks fame, Downstairs is available on YouTube.