Download "The Great Gabbo" (1929) for free!
To download The Great Gabbo, left-click the download icon to see the list of available files. Choose a file, keeping in mind that larger files will take longer to download and will have better quality. Then right-click the file name and select "Save target as" or "Save link as", depending on your browser.
Interesting and touching movie about an aging performer who can express himself only through his ventriloquist dummy. This is a period piece, and because it was made in 1929, some of the modern touches can be unintentionally funny. Check out the dramatic singing of flies (played by dancers) caught in a spider web. Even with the dated parts though, Stoheim’s brilliant performance as a man who cannot express love directly is wonderful. Difficult people are hard to love but Stoheim makes Gabbo recognizable and loveable in spite of his faults.
So much is written about Von Stoheim as a director that his talent as an actor is sometimes overlooked. His portrayal of Norma Desmond’s devoted ex-husband in ‘Sunset Boulevard’ is heartbreaking, just brilliant. I enjoyed him very much in ‘The Great Gabbo.’
Like so many creepy dummies to follow, Otto seems eerily capable of thinking and speaking on his own behalf, but unusually, he’s not evil – it’s Gabbo who’s the monster, an egomaniac who can’t form meaningful relationships or even say a kind word to anyone else unless it’s through his dummy.
Stroheim; truly a brilliant director and actor, a geinius in the field. We Americans are very fortunate to havew access to European films, so many of which undertake subject matter relating to the human condition, with a depth of field less often seen from Hollywood. Thanks, bnw, for having “The Great Gabbo” on your menu. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.