Otto is possessed by his alter-ego Gabbo, a domineering narcissist whose mind is as fractured as his soul...or is it vice versa? This very strange and beguiling premise of Ventriloquist and his wooden companion as more human than human (as the Tyrell Corp. would promise a century later) is more than it seems; it transcends the psychological and becomes supernatural. Gabbo (Erich von Stroheim) and Otto (block of wood) are a dynamic duo that is actually a solo act, yet the tiny cohort seems self-aware in its movements and dialogue. The story goes out of its way to present Gabbo’s talent as impossible: shoving handkerchiefs in his mouth, rubber balls, drinking, smoking and gobbling sausages all the while speaking and singing in Otto’s voice! Though Otto has a tube with a rubber ball attached that Gabbo squeezes to make its wooden jaw open/close, Otto often moves and winks seemingly on its own accord! It becomes creepier as the film progresses as Gabbo begins to lose his composure and descend towards madness.
This early talky posits our melodrama on Broadway so we are caught in the nexus of musical numbers and dance routines which add nothing to the plot except spectacle. Contemporary audiences must have been entranced by the well-choreographed and scantily clad women dressed in sheer blouses who kick and prance their way across the stage, and the rather strange shtick of the spider and the fly: the core strength of the actors/dancers is quite amazing, but I suspect the medium long shots were professional dancers and the actors appear only in the close-ups. Erich von Stroheim’s performance is overpowering, and he commands every scene while the other actors reduce their performances to accentuate his. It works to the benefit of the film as Gabbo is the epicenter and must seem larger-than-life because he lacks a “soul”. Stroheim’s scenes with Otto are strangely compelling as it’s these dialogues that reveal his true self to the audience yet never to his own self: Otto remains a mystery.
Mary (Betty Compson) begins the film as Gabbo’s browbeaten and humiliated companion who never loses her own compassion for Gabbo as she sees his humanity trapped in wood. She is forced to leave him in the first act but appears again when Gabbo is Great, his puppeteering act the toast of Broadway. But she doesn’t abandon her own life for his, not willing to become Gabbo’s flesh puppet again which drives him to his final act of destroying Otto: this is psychological suicide, and he breaks apart wandering towards oblivion as his name is removed from the marquee. Gabbo only got from life what he gave others: misery.
Final Grade: (B-)