Ramon Novarro

[moira finnie]

I'm surprised that we don't have a thread for Ramon Novarro, an actor who can grow on you.

Helen Chandler with Novarro.

Tomorrow, July 21st, Daybreak (1931) will be shown at 7:15AM EDT on TCM. Directed by Jacques Feyder (Carnival in Flanders), this is one of the few talkies that Novarro seemed to feel was better than most of the vehicles he appeared in during his waning years at MGM. Some people think it is his best mature role--after Ben Hur, of course. According to Leonard Maltin's description below it features a heckuva good cast (I also have a weakness for Helen Chandler, along with Karen Morley and Douglass Montgomery):

Ramon Novarro, Helen Chandler, Karen Morley, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith, Kent Douglass (Douglass Montgomery), William Bakewell, Glenn Tryon. Poignant love story detailing the romance between Austrian lieutenant Novarro and innocent piano teacher Chandler, who becomes the mistress of gambler Hersholt. Polished adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's novel is glowingly photographed by Merritt B. Gerstad and given a touch of European sophistication by the underrated Feyder

The studio (and Mayer) apparently were unsympathetic to the tragic element of the Schnitzler story, and insisted on many retakes but this movie earned the actor a few good reviews, with the actor blending worldliness with sensitivity. It may be worth a look.

On Friday, July 22, The Night Is Young (1935), Novarro's last MGM film is on at 7:30 AM EDT.

Novarro with Evelyn Laye in The Night Is Young.

D: Dudley Murphy. Ramon Novarro, Evelyn Laye, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, Edward Everett Horton, Donald Cook, Rosalind Russell, Henry Stephenson, Herman Bing. Novarro, wretchedly miscast and mugging mercilessly, brings his 10-year MGM career to a pitiful end playing a Viennese archduke who spurns his royal fiancee for a fling with ballerina Laye (who bolted back to England after this disaster). Oscar Hammerstein and Sigmund Romberg score, including "When I Grow Too Old to Dream,'' is an insufficient saving grace.

Despite Mr. Maltin and others' dislike of this movie, the lack of critical success that this movie earned then and now, (there had been one too many of these films about the prince and the show girl), I think it might deserve a look, if only to hear that title song sung well and to here When I Grow Too Old to Dream in something close to the original form. I happened to see this movie last winter. Aside from Charlie Butterworth's very annoying shtick, it was Novarro and Laye (who was a very big star on stage in Britain in musicals) who endeared themselves to me. They were both in good voice, and there is a tenderness in their scenes together that is likable--especially when it comes time to part. Having loathed Evelyn Laye in her heavy-handed debut, One Heavenly Night (1931) with John Boles, it was a shock to see her appear to charming effect in this movie.

[JackFavell]

Thanks Moira.

I like Novarro an awful lot, from silents right up through Heller in Pink Tights. Even in his less than perfect early talkies, he still comes across as a charming, lovely fellow.

For someone with such talents as an actor and a fairly decent singer, it always amazes me that they could not find a niche for him at MGM. With such a small amount of tweaking they could have come up with some better scripts, and let Novarro delineate a new persona, slightly different from his silent one, but certainly more effective than the one they typed him into in sound pictures, that of the pushy, full-of-himself outsider, which he somehow manages to get across anyway.

[mongoII]

Good pick, Moira. Novarro is indeed interesting. You may have noticed that I feature his images in the CANDIDS thread whenever I snag a good one.

[pvitari]

Grow on you? ;) He instantly attached himself to me with superglue some years ago and he's still there! ;)

Daybreak is on TCM today -- er, even as I type. ;) It's a 1931 talkie in which Ramon plays an Austrian nobleman who falls in love with a commoner. This seems to be a recurring plotline for him! ;) It was used not only in the great Lubitsch silent The Student Prince in Heidelburg -- a movie which deserves a lavish blu-ray presentation) but also the above mentioned The Night Is Young -- which I actually enjoyed. "When You Grow Too Old to Dream" by the way, is one of Sigmund Rombert's greatest (and last) songs (words by Oscar Hammerstein II) and guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye.

Navarro was the real thing -- he was by far the best actor (IMHO) among all the "Latin Lover" types in silent film and he was also very fine in talkies, but the quality of his films declined and I suppose some audience members might have been put off by his slight accent. He also had a very fine singing voice -- he had hoped to be an opera singer at one point -- and there are a number of movies in which you can hear him singing. My favorite is his sadly all too brief rendition of the beautiful Italian song "' 'A vucchella" in Huddle, accompanying himself on guitar.

[charliechaplinfan]

He is under rated that's for sure, I've yet to see one of his early talkies. I wonder if some of his career neglect in the early thirties was due to his efforts to launch his singing career, perhaps this was at odds with MGMs intentions for him. I also wonder if MGM were as eager to have him make the jump to talkies as they were with Garbo, William Haines's career floundered too at this point and Louis B Mayer didn't have a lot of time for the homosexuals on his roster. Am I being cynical? Most probably but I rate Novarro quite highly as an actor and find it a real dissappointment that we haven't got a raft of his precodes to feast on.

[JackFavell]

I don't think you are cynical, Alison... I almost said the same thing about Mayer and MGM, but thought maybe I was being too critical...Haines also had the same hyper pushy, full of himself "type" pushed onto him, and I can see a definite similarity in the way their respective careers were bungled...er... I mean handled.

[pvitari]

Another thing to consider is that stars like Novarro, Haines and John Gilbert all had very expensive contracts -- and it was now the Depression era. MGM was looking for excuses to unload these financially top-heavy stars and one way to do it was to stick them in substandard material and then with their careers (deliberately) on the wane, an excuse could be found to let them go. Or they'd want out of their contracts because they disliked the movies they were being forced to make, and the studio would agree to release them. Richard Barthelmess was in the same situation at Warners.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Some of this I know and some I've conjectured (is that a word?)...

Ramon was more of a gentleman and much more discreet in his private life.. He was publicized more as a leading man (ladies man) and the romantic objective of the leading lady....
Also, Norma Shearer adored him (as did several other women) and he was always an 'extra man' at dinner parties. My grandmother used him and Cesar Romero in this way.
Thus, I can see Ramon, somewhat overseen by Thalberg & Norma, as being at MGM until 1936. Remember, even Norma had some difficulties with Mayer after Thalberg died...
And, Mayer didn't really dislike Ramon, as he was a guest at the Mayer home even in the 50's....

William Haines was quite open and loud about his sexuality and so was his lover Jimmie Shields, even in the twenties. He was more the "Goodtime Charlie" in his films than the love interest of the female star (even though they would end up together)...
I always had the feeling that he was looking over her shoulder at the 'klinch' at her brother!!!
He defied Mayer and Thalberg and so was let go in the early 30's...
He became an interior decorator - and successfully did over many Hollywood and NYC homes.
He was never used as 'an extra man' at dinner, as he always was with Jimmie.... They were lots of fun and very bitchy queens, but not invited to premiers (etc.) for the public to see.
Mayer detested both of them and I don't think they ever went to his house; they did go to the Goetz's though and were often at mine....

So - - for what it's worth - - - -

Larry

[Vecchiolarry]

Yes Paula,

I can see your financial & contract reasons too deciding their final days at MGM.
I hadn't thought of that; but money certainly was a factor!

Larry

[JackFavell]

I knew about Haines' outspoken-ness, and his later career in decorating. I did not know that Novarro remained fairly friendly with Mayer. Thanks for putting things into perspective.

I guess it had less to do with orientation, and more about salary. It seem that once you made it at MGM, you had to start looking over your shoulder.

[charliechaplinfan]

Paula, I nearly said the same in my post but decided against it, I think as I was typing it I was asking myself, why would MGM seek to ruin the career of successful leading men, I guess I couldn't put it down well enough to explain what I meant. Thank you for doing so, manoeuverings of these sorts wouldn't surprise me, especially of MGM.

Larry, I've read as much about William Haines, he made no attempt to hide or apologise for his homosexuality which in the twenties and thirties, even in the Hollywood community would not have been liked by all. I didn't know as much about Ramon Novarro, I think I've always shied away from books about him because of his end. Thanks for sharing your Grandmother's memories of him, he looked such a gentleman, it's nice to have it comfirmed.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Ramon used to come over to swim in our pool and was a 'great dolphin' - his words - and could dive like Esther Williams!!!

I have heard that Norma Shearer loved him and adored him, but married Irving Thalberg because he resembled Ramon!! True or not, I do not know for sure; but look at them side by side....

I do know this for sure:
Others who adored him - Mae Murray, Pola Negri (who was devastated when he was murdered), Edie Goetz, Louise Fazenda and Mary Boland.
At the 1963 Oscars, Sophia Loren ran over to him, threw her arms around him, encircling him in a huge white feathered boa and exclaimed, "Oh my God, how I love this man!!"

Larry

[JackFavell]

What a treasure trove you are!

You know he was a sweetheart, just by watching him on screen, and he was so beautiful. It's nice to know he was loved by his contemporaries.

[Ann Harding]

Tomorrow, July 21st, Daybreak (1931) will be shown at 7:15AM EDT on TCM. Directed by Jacques Feyder (Carnival in Flanders), this is one of the few talkies that Novarro seemed to feel was better than most of the vehicles he appeared in during his waning years at MGM. Some people think it is his best mature role--after Ben Hur, of course. According to Leonard Maltin's description below it features a heckuva good cast (I also have a weakness for Helen Chandler, along with Karen Morley and Douglass Montgomery):

Ramon Novarro, Helen Chandler, Karen Morley, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith, Kent Douglass (Douglass Montgomery), William Bakewell, Glenn Tryon. Poignant love story detailing the romance between Austrian lieutenant Novarro and innocent piano teacher Chandler, who becomes the mistress of gambler Hersholt. Polished adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's novel is glowingly photographed by Merritt B. Gerstad and given a touch of European sophistication by the underrated Feyder

The studio (and Mayer) apparently were unsympathetic to the tragic element of the Schnitzler story, and insisted on many retakes but this movie earned the actor a few good reviews, with the actor blending worldliness with sensitivity. It may be worth a look.

Having seen Daybreak, I was terribly disappointed by the way MGM treated Schnitzler. The end was pure MGM hokum. It's a real shame they didn't leave Feyder alone. This film -and a few others- were the reason why Feyder left Hollywood. He wanted to regain his artistic control. Nevertheless, it's true that Novarro and Chandler are both sensitive in their parts.

[moira finnie]

Tomorrow, July 21st, Daybreak (1931) will be shown at 7:15AM EDT on TCM. Directed by Jacques Feyder (Carnival in Flanders), this is one of the few talkies that Novarro seemed to feel was better than most of the vehicles he appeared in during his waning years at MGM. Some people think it is his best mature role--after Ben Hur, of course. According to Leonard Maltin's description below it features a heckuva good cast (I also have a weakness for Helen Chandler, along with Karen Morley and Douglass Montgomery):

Ramon Novarro, Helen Chandler, Karen Morley, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith, Kent Douglass (Douglass Montgomery), William Bakewell, Glenn Tryon. Poignant love story detailing the romance between Austrian lieutenant Novarro and innocent piano teacher Chandler, who becomes the mistress of gambler Hersholt. Polished adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's novel is glowingly photographed by Merritt B. Gerstad and given a touch of European sophistication by the underrated Feyder

The studio (and Mayer) apparently were unsympathetic to the tragic element of the Schnitzler story, and insisted on many retakes but this movie earned the actor a few good reviews, with the actor blending worldliness with sensitivity. It may be worth a look.

Having seen Daybreak, I was terribly disappointed by the way MGM treated Schnitzler. The end was pure MGM hokum. It's a real shame they didn't leave Feyder alone. This film -and a few others- were the reason why Feyder left Hollywood. He wanted to regain his artistic control. Nevertheless, it's true that Novarro and Chandler are both sensitive in their parts.

I wonder if Feyder and Schnitzler might have gotten a better shake at Paramount or Fox in that period. Paramount always seemed far more cosmopolitan and Fox films could often be both gritty and tragic. According to Mark Viera's recent book on Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince, by the time that Novarro was asked to play the role in Daybreak by the mogul, (whose health problems kept him kept him away from Metro for part of the year in '31, allowing Mayer to assert more control), Novarro not only had an expensive contract but, though the actor was not necessarily effeminate in manner or speech on film, his gentleness was not a quality that seemed to fit the times. He had "lost his youthful glamour" and the parts he was given hadn't helped. Thalberg had hoped that teaming Feyder and Novarro could freshen his star's appeal, but studio interference didn't help. In Andre Soares excellent book Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro, he describes how Novarro seemed determined to become a singer at this period. Despite some efforts, his voice was pleasant but small, and the actor's approach to managing his own career once he left MGM appeared unfocused.

I do like his character roles when he was older, particularly in We Were Strangers (1949).