Just a Gigolo

source: Just a Gigolo

Trailer—Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo

Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo

With Bowie leading and a stellar cast, this needs to be viewed as a period that would have made a huge splash in the late 50's but is not well understood by an audience born after 1970. It's slow and elegaic which isn't a fit for the Marvel crowd. The man who wrote and produced it, Rolf Thiele, wrote Dietrich's part on Portuguese toilet paper at her former managers house to have something to attract her to the part. Rolf mentions being a fan of Million Dollar movies, what was essentially a streaming service for black and white films from the 20's through the 40's. A veritable education in the art and industry. It takes the knowledge gained from watching that eclectic collection to have a fair understanding of this piece.

If you're looking for another American Gigolo, you're not going to find it in Just a Gigolo. Starting with the extremely strange music during the opening credits and the odd war footage, it's clear the movie isn't going to make the history books as a classic. David Bowie comes home to Berlin after WWII and can't find work. He doesn't have any "skills", and since the workforce is pretty competitive from all the returning soldiers, he's unemployed and poor. Meanwhile, Sydne Rome comes onto him constantly, and even though he rebuffs her and seems a little shell-shocked, somewhere along the line he decides to become a gigolo to make some money. Given the general disinterest of his character, that part of the plot didn't really make sense to me. It did make sense to see Marlene Dietrich (brought out of retirement just this once) as the madam of the brothel. And it was nice to see Kim Novak, but next time I'll just rent one of her earlier movies that I know and love.

I must say that I love Bowie movies. I had not seen this one before. This one has particularly hilarious lines of it. I suppose if you're expecting them then you might be expecting too much but if you're just enjoying the movie it really has some very funny lines. It moves along had at a fine pace. Bowie is handsome and charming. I maybe it's a cross between Cabaret and The Party.

I'd heard for ages that this was pretty bad, and that Bowie was embarrassed by it. However, as it showed up on BFI subscription (i.e. Free to me) I thought I'd give it a go. Simply stated, I can see why the reviews were awful at the time. There is a fair bit to enjoy also, though, so worth a look. IMHO the main issue is that the tone is all over the place - some scenes are clearly played for laughs (heavily signalled by the "oom-pah" score) even if they are not funny. On the other hand, some bits really *are* funny. The balance between the nazism and the nightclub scenes is however much better handled in Cabaret (of course). Some reasonable acting therefore gets a bit lost along the way. Bowie himself looks a bit stiff and awkward much of the time - something that worked much better in the context of The Man Who Fell to Earth than it does here.

Kim Novak a great International Movie Star starred in a series of "lost films" at the end of her career, "Just A Gigilo" "The Children" and "Liebestraum" all were just either not released in the USA or tossed and forgotten. A shame because all 3 films deserve to be seen to evaluate Novak's acting. Kim Novak was a great star with Picnic, Vertigo, Bell Book And Candle etc. Novak's last major release was the great Mirror Crack'd with Rock Hudson, Anela Lansburg and trading wicked barbs with a true peer the great Elizabeth Taylor. This film was shot in Germany and David Bowie is the star with Maria Schell who starred with Glenn Ford in "Cimmarron" and a small unforgettable cameo by Marlene Dietrich who sings the title song. This film as I said was shot in Germany but Dietrich's scenes were shot on a. Soundstage in Paris. That is called clout. Kim Novak is a always professional in a small role. This film should be seen only to see real stars like Kim Novak and Marlene Dietrich.

Kim Novak's former husband Richard Johnson- whom Kim co starred in Moll Flanders- personally persuaded the great star to attach herself to Just A Gigolo which starred David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich and Maria Schell. I recently saw this movie and I found Novak entrancing in the film, sexy, and gorgeous. Kim Novak in an interview in 2010 said Kim Novak wondered why She made this film. I can understand that, it got little US distribution even with a great cast. But film fans of German films and especially of Kim Novak -who looks gorgeous, alluring, and is very stylish as always in this film is worth a look. There are also clips of this film on Youtube.com and I recommend all try and catch them as well. PS Kim Novak's last films Just A Gigolo, The Children and Liebestraum all received scant distribution only The Mirror Crack'd got the distribution it deserved David Barra Los Angeles

Above, a previous post makes the claim, "Believe it or not, this was David Bowie's first acting role in a motion picture, despite the fact that this film was released a year after THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. A large portion of this film was destroyed in a fire, so it took director Hemmings nearly three years to piece together a motion picture out of what remained." Don't believe it. This story is a total fabrication. All available contemporary sources reveal that "The Man Who Fell To Earth" was shot in 1975, and a simple viewing will attest to the fact that Bowie's physical appearance is of the 1975/1976 era of his career. Contemporary sources also show that "Just a Gigolo" was shot Berlin in 1978, and its initial running time was 147 min. upon its November, 1978 release in German cinemas. It was soon pulled from release because of poor reviews, and it was *intentionally* cut down to shorter lengths for its various international releases, not because of accident by fire.