"THE SHOW" (MGM, 1926; released, 1927) Produced and directed by Tod Browning
Screenplay by Waldemar Young from Charles Tenny Jackson's novel "The Day
of Souls"; Camera, John Arnold; sets by Cedric Gibbons and Richard Day;
titles by Joe Farnham; 7 reels

With John Gilbert, Rene Adoree, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Connelly, Gertrude Short,
Andy MacLennan, Polly Moran.

Although "The Show" has never enjoyed a major reputation, one's curiosity in it
has always been piqued because those who have endorsed the film - for example,
James Card of Eastman House - have invariably been historians whose opinions are
worthy of respect. Its recent erroneous inclusion in the Museum of Modern Art's
exhibition and book on "lost" films merely added to this tantalising aura.

Alas, it must be sadly admitted that while it is a good and healthy thing when
any film resurfaces after years of obscurity, there are sometimes very good
reasons for that obscurity, and "The Show" is a case in point. It's the kind of
film that tends to reinforce the opinions of the unknowing that the silent film
was usually turgid, slow and over-wrought. If there were ever a wise and
critically astute yet neutral filmic Diety, one would hope that he would contrive
to keep films like this in the depths, while bringing out plenty of Tourneurs
and Borzages into the sunlight. (And of course, one would also hope that those
Depths would at least be accessible to film students!)

Even admitting my own rather strong anti-Browning bias ("Freaks" always excepted),
"The Show" does seem to contain all of the Brown vices and few of his virtues.
A compelling and attention-getting opening - a Browning trademark - isn't
necessarily a virtue when the film slackens off and the pace spirals downwards
after that opening. Here all the bizarre sideshow attractions seem to promise
much in rich and colorful melodrama, but that promise is just never fulfilled.
The plot too, consists of the standard Browning mechanics. I would agree with
the point made in a recent "Films in Review" letter (though not with the enthusiasm
with which it was expressed) that irony was an essential ingredient of Browning
plotting; but it soon became merely a gimmick, just as the shock tragedy of so
many early Ince films was an artificial device. I know nothing of the original
novel from which "The Show" was adapted, but it seems to have been reshaped to
the standard Browning formula; Barrymore in fact seems to have exactly the same
role (and the same modus operandi) as Chaney in "The Unknown" - except that
Barrymore's role is smaller and less bizarre. Another major liability of "The
Show" is that its camera speed demands silent speed projection most of the time -
making its its thin and already too drawn-out plot even longer. Still, there are
compensations: the occasionally interesting sets, Alton's always interesting
lighting, and Gilbert's performance, which do a lot to offset the absurdity of
plot and the tedium of pace.

It's good to have so many Brownings back
with us - either to re-establish his legend, or to demolish it - and either here
or at the New School, we'll be getting to a lot of the silent Brownings over the
next six months.

-- Wm. K. Everson

For 10/5/70 Huff Society