Legend has it that Louis B. Mayer sabotaged Gilbert's talkies by altering his voice on the sound track. If that is true, it is certainly evident in this film.
shareFunny, I am watching the movie right now and his voice sounds nothing like Don Adams. I am watching the performance and "LOVING IT."
I just watched this film twice today, and I thought the voice he put on here was more like a graduate of the Ronald Colman School of Over-Charming. But your Don Adams joke DID make me laugh out loud! Thanks!
"A woodcock!" Everyone must see the French restaurant scene in "Deception" (1946). Ah, Claude Rains!
Mayer never sabotaged Gilbert's voice, but he did put him in bad movies to try to force him to quit and void his expensive contract. Gilbert's voice was a bit thin, but it was perfectly fine for talkies, and it sounds excellent in this movie. His first few talkies were successful but audiences didn't like him because for years they had imagined what he sounded like as "The Great Lover" in silent movies and to hear him talk in his first romantic role made them laugh because he sounded different that what they had imagined, and because it was badly written and badly directed. Valentino would have had the same problem if he had lived to make talkies. But everyone blamed Gilbert's failure on the quality of his voice and that reputation stuck.
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