Downstairs

United States

1932

77 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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SCR John Gilbert, Lenore J. Coffee, Melville Baker

CAST John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen, Olga Baclanova, Bodil Rosing, Otto Hoffman, Lucien Littlefield, Marion Lessing, Torben Meyer, Karen Morley, Russ Powell, Nicholas Soussanin, Ellinor Vanderveer, Michael Visaroff

At the wedding of Albert and Anna, Karl, the new chauffeur, arrives. Albert is the head butler, second generation to the Baron. Karl soon seems out of place as a servant, and Albert tells him so. But Karl is a cad. Whenever he gets the chance, he will try to seduce Anna, who is not wise in the ways of the world. He lies without question if it is to his advantage and charms money out of Sophie, the old cook. He disrupts the household and then blackmails the Baroness to keep from being sacked. –IMDb

Director

Monta Bell

Monta Bell, the film director, producer and screenwriter, was born on February 5, 1891 in Washington, DC. He turned to the stage as an actor after trying his hand at journalism in Washington, DC. He was cast by ‘Charlie Chaplin’ in the great comedian’s “The Pilgrim”, which was his sole screen appearance as an actor. He worked for Chaplin as a film editor and assistant director before becoming a director in his own right in 1924. He specialized in comedies of manners akin to early Cecil B. DeMille and Ernst Lubitsch. He directed Greta Garbo in her American film debut “The Torrent” at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Bell left MGM to take over Paramount’s Astoria Studios in New York City as head of production at the New York-based Astoria sound studios. While he was studio chief, Astoria turned out the Marx Brothers’ debut film “The Cocoanuts” (1929). Going back behind the camera, Bell the director made comedies and melodramas in the early ‘30s, the time of the “talkies”. He quit directing… read more

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MarcH

3Jan12

It's "Gosford Park" crossed with "Red-Headed Woman", and--most importantly--it's the vindication of John Gilbert. An excellent portrayal of what must be the unsympathetic main character of the era...but with no mugging, no accents, no squeaky voice, and no silent-era gesturing. In two years this talented guy would be dead. He is very much on my radar now...and he should be on yours.

Robert Regan likes this