NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (July 2021): Kino have transferred James Cruze's The Great Gabbo to Blu-ray. It is cited as being "PRESERVED BY The LIBRARY OF CONGRESS National Audio-Visual Conservation Center". The source is fraught with a few inconsistencies (see samples below) but generally looks pleasing in 1080P. There is a section that looks compromised with the framing showing rounded-corners but in much if the film there is consistent texture and a few instances of impressive detail. Overall, considering the age, I imagine this is quite a step-up from the DVD.

As Peter reminds us in email: "Kino doesn't restore the color sequences (sadly). If LoC doesn't have anything on them after all their work, I guess they are still considered lost – but you might want to add to the review that these legendary color musical numbers aren't here... and are still lost." (Thanks Peter!) 

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a linear PCM 2.0 channel track (16-bit) in the original English (with a spot of German) language. It has a bit of hiss in spots and suffers from the original production limitations but dialogue is audible if occasionally hollow. There is no credited score but has musical numbers including a few performed by performed by Marjorie Kane, Betty Compson and Donald Douglas etc. plus Icky (Lollipop Song) and Web of Love. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a commentary by Richard Barrios, author of A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. He talks about the production, the Silent Era, von Stroheim, how this is unique, made as a talkie, the differences from the Ben Hect story "The Rival Dummy" and how the film is significantly different, how the original running time was 10-minutes longer and a musical number was removed as well as imparting much more. I found it very informative.  

Watching The Great Gabbo, especially in the first half, made me think of Richard Attenborough's "Magic" with Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret or Alberto Cavalcanti's segment "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" from 1945's Dead of Night. It evolves into more of a musical with some impressive numbers with a huge cast of dancers. Certainly The Great Gabbo is a unique, and interesting, film. It's history is discussed by the valuable commentary and the Kino Blu-ray is recommended to fans of vintage cinema, Stroheim or ventriloquist movies.

Gary Tooze