Erich von Stroheim
the Great Gabbo
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Synopsis
A brilliant but difficult ventriloquist can express tenderness most easily through his dummy. His treatment of his assistant drives her away, while success deepens his dependence on the act. The stage partnership begins to expose the fractures in the man behind the voice.
Cast
Inspirations
Ben Hecht's The Rival Dummy supplies the psychological premise. Large musical numbers interrupt the drama, reflecting an early sound-era effort to combine several kinds of audible spectacle in one film.
Sources and availability
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.
The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.
Availability checked on September 10, 2026.
Photograph credit
Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.
- Erich von Stroheim — Studio Harcourt · Public domain
- Betty Compson — Paramount Pictures, publicity photo. Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1927). Directed by Josef von Sternberg. · Public domain
- Donald Douglas — Film screenshot (Republic Pictures) · Public domain
- Marjorie Kane — http://mutoscope.listal.com/ · Public domain
