The Great Gabbo

I need to discuss this movie with someone.

My friend showed it to me. I liked it, even though it was a little weird. But I didn't fall in love with it or anything.
Imagine my surprise to still be thinking about it 2 days later.
Mainly, I can't believe how sad it has made me. I have forgotten how weird and simplistic the movie was and can only think about how pathetic and sad Gabbo was, and the creepy but touching way he communicated through the doll.
The last scene, with him walking around the ladder rather than walking under it... wow.
Am I stupid for getting so much out of this? Perhaps I am also being swayed by my love of that era. Everyone seemed just so damned innocent. And the music... it just makes the present seem so boring.

I'm sorry, I thought this was about that puppet on The Simpsons...

"I can do the Hully Gully
I can imitate Vin Scully!"

Yeah, I got it from Netflix. There was another movie on the DVD--Blind Husbands. I didn't watch it. It's a silent film.

I love Gabbo from The Simpsons. That's what led me to this movie. "All the little kids in Springfield are SOBs."

Phantom, I am slightly obsessed with these very early musical films from 1928-1933, and I love THE GREAT GABBO. It was originally shot in 'Multicolor' an early rival to Technicolor, and had a jaw-dropping musical number "The Ga-Ga Bird" featuring chorus girl dressed as giant chickens with huge webbed feet.

There's an excellent summation of the film in A SONG IN THE DARK: THE BIRTH OF THE MUSICAL FILM by Richard Barrios, which is the definitive tome on the subject in addition to being one of the very best-written books on film.

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