Author Archive for: ‘Elisabetta Girelli’

‘Just Plain Danilo Petrovich’: John Gilbert’s Performance as Negotiation in The Merry Widow (1925)

The final scene of The Merry Widow (Erich von Stroheim, 1925) sees a coronation take place in the grandiose cathedral of Monteblanco, the Ruritanian kingdom where the film is set. The new monarch is the former Prince Danilo Petrovich (John Gilbert), splendidly robed and wearing an enormous crown; amid the opulence of the holy place, which is lavishly adorned and …

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