Gilbert Roland - A Latin Performer Unbounded

[MissGoddess]

Moira, I was wondering if you managed to track down any of those elusive
GR films you mentioned?

I found this STUNNING picture (I know what my new PC wallpaper will be) and
had to share it IMMEDIATELY:

click to enlarge and faint :



And here is another batch of swooneroonies...I just love this man.










The Love Mart (1927):

He looks a little like a young John Wayne here, to me:



Hair for days!





I love this one, too:

[moira finnie]

Thanks, Miss G. I copied that big beautiful one for my files on GR. Several of the others, including that last great shot of a nonchalant Gilberto leaning on the post, his hat in his hand, and giving the camera "smoldering look #35" was the last picture on my blog piece on him over on the Movie Morlocks...*sigh*

I almost posted here about a week ago, after catching G.R. in Juarez as the doomed colonel of Maximillian (Brian Aherne). Heavens, though I usually have a tough time noticing anyone other than Brian Aherne in most movies, in this one there was both G.R. and John Garfield (playing a peon from the lower East Side of NY ). Those 19th century whiskers hid much of Aherne's normal pulchritude anyway, even though Bri's acting may have been the best of his career! But I digress. In Juarez Gilbert Roland's character was noble, self-sacrificing and I had the feeling that close-ups were just made for him, especially in the scene when he bid his monarch goodbye. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it more because, as he often did in his better roles of this period, G.R. played appealing men on losing sides with feeling and panache. And he did it so well, as anyone who also saw The Sea Hawk (1940) last week might also know.

As to tracking down G. R.'s more obscure movies, I haven't been able to budget for many OOP dvr discs lately, but soon, Miss G., soon. I am particularly interested in The Last Train from Madrid (1937j), but have settled for a grainy episode of The Fugitive and The Night Gallery online as well. I enjoyed seeing him, however briefly, in Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef, though that is one of those films that I enjoy listening to more than watching, thanks to Bernard Herrmann's glorious score, (though he reportedly regarded it as "slumming"). I also find the Robert Wagner-Terry Moore match kind of icky.

Did you get to see any of Roland's silents yet? Thanks so much for taking the time to spam about one of my faves with those great photos.

[JackFavell]

Oh, holy.... I mean, my GOODNESS!

A man is supposed to look good either with a moustache or without it, but not BOTH! How can it be that GR looked equally good either way????!!!! I think you are asking for someone to have a heart attack, posting all those photos on one page.

I reread that Morlocks article just last week. Wonderful job Moira.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Moira!

YOu make me really wish I'd watched or recorded Juarez, now. I saw it once a long
time ago and really liked it, but I don't remember much about GR's role.

I haven't watched any of his silents YET, but I'm always planning to.

Here are two more pix:

(click to enlarge)

From his cameo in Around the World in 80 Days:


Boy, do I envy this actress (Elizabeth Whitney):

[MissGoddess]

Oh, holy.... I mean, my GOODNESS!

A man is supposed to look good either with a moustache or without it, but not BOTH! How can it be that GR looked equally good either way????!!!! I think you are asking for someone to have a heart attack, posting all those photos on one page.

Isn't he dreamy? Speaking of, I had a dream about him last night and that's what
inspired me to search for more photos.

[JackFavell]

I had a dream about him last night

Whaaat?!! Oh man. You have all the luck.....

[MissGoddess]

It was lovely. HE was lovely.

It's odd, because lately I've been having rather interesting, pleasant dreams when
all my life I've been plagued by nightmares. I mean the worst, worst nightmares.
I don't know, maybe it's a phase, but I'm enjoying it.

[moira finnie]

Wow, you are lucky to have GR show up in your dreams. I had a dream once about Cagney in his Cody Jarrett phase, prompted by what, I don't know, except that his character always scared me in that one. Why can't Jimmy show up in one of his pleasanter roles, such as Jimmy the observer in The Time of Your Life?

[MissGoddess]

Wow, you are lucky to have GR show up in your dreams. I had a dream once about Cagney in his Cody Jarrett phase, prompted by what, I don't know, except that his character always scared me in that one. Why can't Jimmy show up in one of his pleasanter roles, such as Jimmy the observer in The Time of Your Life?

Another odd aspect of my recents dreams is that just until recently, I virtually NEVER dreamed
about classic movies or stars. EVER. Suddenly, they are showing up ALL the time in my dreams.
Last week, one of the best dreams I ever had was that I was starring in a John Ford western
movie with John Wayne! And yes, they were both very nice to me, lol.

I have yet to dream about Gary Cooper, though. I guess coopsgirl has cornered the market on those.

[MissGoddess]

Here's a movie on YouTube caleld Isle of Destiny that features GR. I haven't watched it yet.

[youtube][/youtube]

[moira finnie]

Oh, April, I posted that same link in this thread on June 2nd. Isle of Destiny should probably have been called Isle of Obscurity, though it's kind of fun seeing GR struggling manfully against the tide of a poorly conceived movie. We'll have to figure out a way to upload some better clips for GR.

Here's my first attempts at screen caps. Hope they aren't too big.

GR with Claude Rains observing Claude's niece in The Sea Hawk (1940).

GR steals just about every scene in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), even when he interrupts a meeting with Kathleen Freeman, Leo G. Carroll, Walter Pidgeon and Kirk Douglas.


Pointing out the lucrative wages of sin to Kirk Douglas. I believe that "bad girl" Elaine Stewart is waiting below in a snazzy sports car.


Being colorfully "ethnic" in Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef.

[MissGoddess]

Thanks, Moira...I was too lazy to look back and double check if the movie was already mentioned.
Great job on the screencaps! You've got it down! You don't by chance have one from Juarez you
could post, do you?

[moira finnie]

I just came across a nostalgic article about meeting Valentino reportedly by Gilbert Roland for a 1975 issue of TV Guide found here below:
Gilbert Roland on Meeting Valentino

I'm looking around for a screen cap from Juarez (1939) but unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have been issued on DVD. All I can find is the trailer, which has no shots of GR. This is an odd movie, don't you think? Dieterle could be so interesting sometimes and other times he seemed to be a terribly stodgy director. The peasants trying to bring democracy to their homeland have little zest to this film, which seems quite odd for the period and the studio of Warner Brothers. Only a fairly awkward John Garfield as a humble Mexican patriot comes briefly to life. Warner Brothers seemed to have shot themselves in the foot, perhaps because this is one of those Paul Muni movies in which the guy gave a really awful performance (but more subdued than his worst in A Song to Remember). Strange, that he could be so good sometimes and so awful other times. Maybe the director William Dieterle couldn't help making those crazy, colorful royals more compelling than the democrats since he had Claude Rains, Bette Davis, Gale Sondergaard and Brian Aherne to use in the roles of the imperialists.

I think that the screen cap program I'm using has the red outline as a default, but I'll try to change that next time so that it doesn't distract from the image. For your entertainment, here is the first of five segments for the episode of The Fugitive in which GR plays "the Lee J. Cobb part" in a subdued manner with a Hispanic philosophical twist, with lots of comments about the meaning of true manhood, honor and his hopes for a better future on the concert stage for his boy. I wonder what ever became of the kid who played the fiddle player? Apologies for the sound track, which has an odd hollow ring.

Here are a new crop of photos I've come across of GR:

A very young GR with a very young Ramon Novarro:



In The Woman Disputed (1928) with Norma Talmadge (can anyone identify the other guy?)


Someone in this picture is humming "Fascination"...


Captain Kidd (1945). L - R: John Carradine as Orange Povey, Gilbert Roland as Jose Lorenzo, Charles Laughton as Captain William Kidd, Abner Biberman as Theodore Blades, Sheldon Leonard as Cyprian Boyle.


With Constance Bennett




Making a spaghetti western.


GR is near the end in The Furies (1950) in this one...

[MissGoddess]

My goodness, what a great article! I mean it has the authentic flavor of the man.

This was sacrilege. I resented it. It gave me the coraje, that rage I’ve had all my life about injustice.
For this was an injustice.

Oooh la la! I'm excited! <SIGH> Why oh why was I born too late!!!????

I don't mind the red borders on the screencaps, Moira. In fact, I rather wish my screencaps would
have borders. I just use Photobucket but I don't think it has a default for borders, you have to
do each picture separately. Thank you for finding more gorgeous Gilbertito. I have the large
photo I posted first yesterday on my PC and it's driving me to distraction. He is too much for this
prosaic place.

[moira finnie]

My goodness, what a great article! I mean it has the authentic flavor of the man.

This was sacrilege. I resented it. It gave me the coraje, that rage I’ve had all my life about injustice.
For this was an injustice.

Oooh la la! I'm excited! <SIGH> Why oh why was I born too late!!!????

Tell me about it. I wish someone would unearth GR's unpublished autobiography. Maybe he was self-consciously trying to write in the style of Ernest Hemingway, but that's not a bad role model for a man's life and I'd still like a look at that story, especially after reading this brief article remembering Valentino. I love the opening lines:

We cannot turn back to so little as yesterday. But remembering Valentino, I return to the days when I was a Hollywood movie extra at $3 a day and box lunch, and lived in a small room on Temple and Olive Street next to a synagogue. I covered the somber walls with photos of movie stars, and by a crucifix over the bed, my boyhood idol – Rudolph Valentino.

and the part about:
We, the young bohemian movie extras, penniless, undefeated romanticists, called him – Valentino.