WAY FOR A SAILOR

This is the photoplay edition of WAY FOR A SAILOR, by Albert Richard Wetjen..

John Gilbert as “Jack Lassan” plays a male-chauvinist pig with a girl in every port.  He is funny, cocky, and thoroughly obnoxious.  Women are putty in his hands, and then something happens that shakes his confidence to the core.  He meets “a challenge.”  Her name is “Joan” played by Lelia Hyams.  Jack’s come-ons turn her off.  She is not one to be trifled with.  What’s Jack supposed to do?  Marry her and give up the good life?

Gilbert made two more films with Lelia Hyams: GENTLEMAN’S FATE and THE PHANTOM OF PARIS.  I love all three films, but WAY FOR A SAILOR is my favorite.  The dialogue is funny.  Gilbert is funny.  Despite a violent storm that lends suspense to the story, this film is full of side-splitting humor.  (But don’t get so caught up in the film that you miss Ray Milland’s brief appearance.  He was new to cinema, and his name is not mentioned in the credits.)

Wallace Beery plays Jack’s friend and foe, often teasing him without mercy.  It’s fun to watch them in a game of one-up-man-ship.  Jim Tully, a film critic and not a fan of Jack Gilbert, was assigned a role in the film too–most likely to generate publicity.  No doubt Jack was unhappy playing opposite Tully, but Jack did not allow this to get in the way of making a good film.  In my opinion, the film is a gem: a comedy drama, with more comedy than drama. I give it a 5-star rating.

Jack Gilbert and Wallace Beery play on-again, off-again friends in WAY FOR A SAILOR (MGM, 1930).

[WAY FOR A SAILOR, TWELVE MILES OUT, and many other allusions to John Gilbert’s films are hidden in the text of Chapter 21 of my one-of-a-kind novel, THE PRINCE IN THE TOWER.]

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