Movie Classic (Sep-Dec 1931)

The Gilbert-Bennett Romance Fades Out 1 JOAN THE LONELY JOHN AND THE WISTFUL JOAN ARE NOT THAT WAY ABOUT EACH OTHER AT ALL BY DOROTHY DONNELL JOHN ARE MERELY FRIENDS THIS is the way New York heard it: "A romance is b re w 1 n g between John Gilbert and Joan Bennett." But that isn't the story Hollywood tells, with chuckles of delight, about Jack Gilbert's "restful romance" with Joan — which lasted, according to Hollywood's version, just the span oi a single dinner party at Malibu. Romantically speaking, Jack has been a dull boy for a long time now. It has long been understood that he has lost his faith in humanity, has decided that he is through with love, and has retired into a sort of Garboredom, refusing himself to interviewers, the public, and even most of his friends. People just didn't understand him, that was all. He played tennis with a few masculine friends, and looked dark and stern and heart-broken, and very, very handsome. Gilbert the "great lover," disappeared. Then suddenly, for the first time apparently in months, he saw a woman. Joan Bennett is young, fragile, wide-eyed and wistful-looking. Playing with her young daughter on the sands, she was a womanly picture, you may imagine, to the eyes of a disillusioned man. Or, to produce a metaphor in harmony with Malibu's landscape, to a shipwrecked sailor of the sea of matrimony, looking for a sail. "She's restful. She has repose. She's serene," those near Jack heard him murmur. Whereupon the impulsive screen lover invited Joan to dinner at his bungalow. Now, to understand what follows, it is necessary to give you a background of Hollywood gossip. You may remember reading of the romance of Joan and John Considine, Jr., yroung film executive. You may remember reading also that this romance was ofF. The truth seems to be that it still is one of these on-again-off-again things. Between tiffs each is seen dancing with someone else at the Mayfair or some other favorite resort of the screen stars. Lew Ayres, for example, has been an occasional escort of Joan — probably only because Lew and Lola Lane were temporarily on the outs. It is recognized technique in the game of Love, to keep up interest by arousing jealousy. Which may be why Joan accepted Jack's invitation to dinner — and again, of course, may not be. At any rate, it seems certain that she must have let her part-time admirer know in some way that she was dining with the fascinating Jack. And it seems certain also that he retaliated by inviting the seductive Lola Lane to dine with him, and allowed this fact to be known. The stage was set for Jack Gilbert's Restful Romance, with varied emotions seething beneath the small-talk at several Malibu dinner tables. Some possibly guessed that all was not as serene as it seemed. Malibu keeps open house and people continually stroll in upon their neighbors. Among those who strolled in upon the Gilbert dinner party, so Hollywood relates the tale, was a friend of John Considine, who glowered at Jack's guest and presently strolled out again. However, says Hollywood, Jack was finding Joan everything he had hoped — gentle, sympathetic, restful, romantically lovely — when the peace was rudely shattered by the arrival of Considine, who, having sent his guest, Lola Lane, home to Hollywood in his car, had had time for reflection and considered himself ill-used. If you wonder how this tale got out, you must remember the topography of Malibu. The houses are built so closely together there that the inhabitants have no secrets from each other, and in this case many were those who were witnesses, auditors and practically participants in the evening's events. They relate excited demands for somebody to leave the house at once, equally irate refusals, statements. "This lady is under my protection! She shall do as she pleases!" Plaintive feminine queries (what lady doesn't like to be the center of a fight?): "How can you do this to me?" Invitations to somebody to come outside while somebody popped somebody in the nose, interspersed with protests of eternal friendship. In the midst of the general uproar appeared Lew Ayres, who had heard that Lola was dining at Malibu, was inclined to disbelieve that she had left, and — so we are told — insisted upon searching for her. The argument moved from house to house, from beach to interior, now waxing loud, now almost dying down, so that the sleepy neighbors -turned over in bed and drowsed off, only to be awakened by an offer to pop somebody's nose on the midnight beach outside their windows. At last, when everyone was too sleepy to be amused any longer, the roar of several automobiles, carrying the invited and uninvited guests away, fell upon the silence of early dawn. And John Gilbert's Restful Romance was at an end. A complete end, so we hear. 44