The Show

This one fascinates me. John Gilbert, as Cock Robin (now, there's a name for you!) is the ultimate antihero here; loud, coarse, manipulative, angry, violent, greedy. His usual expression is a hard, suspicious glare. We've all experienced something like it. He is constantly gauging other people, measuring them up, deciding the best way to use them.

He regards women greedily, wondering how much money he can get from them; in an early scene, he tells a besotted young country girl that he will "let" her buy him dinner that night, then later upbraids her for failing to meet him at the restaurant, complaining that he had to buy his own dinner. The man is a nightmare.

Of course, he has a Good Woman in love with him, though in this case, she's not entirely submissive. Salome (Renee Adoree) is Robin's partner in a popular show, which allows him to take advantage of a wide variety of women, and allows her to watch him do it.

We know that the two were involved earlier, and that Salome is deeply jealous of Robin, frightening away the women who are interested in him, which in itself is a full-time job. To complicate matters, the Greek (Lionel Barrymore), another member of the show, has decided that he owns Salome, and is more than ready to kill Robin to get her.

With the exception of an unintentionally funny scene where both Robin and the Greek are trying to avoid an enraged, deadly poisonous killer iguana, the movie is fabulously dark. As a matter of fact, most of the scenes take place after nightfall.

The title is particularly appropriate, because more than one show is seen here. We have the stage show, the one that scares the hell out of the audiences. We have the show that Salome puts on in front of other women, as if she and Robin are truly involved. We have Robin's show, when he masquerades as a dependable human being. And we have the most important shows, both Salome's, concerning her life at home; this is by far the most touching part of the film.

I did like the ending, despite its happy nature. John Gilbert really pulled off the part, and even his transformation - taking place gradually - is believable. Plus, given the tragically early deaths of both the leads (Renee Adoree died of tuberculosis in the early 1930s; John Gilbert was taken by a heart attack in 1936), it's good to see them playing characters who have a solid future ahead of them.