Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

JohnHowardReid Alas, this one is presented on the Warner Archive DVD in black-and-white rather than the movie's original sepia. When filming with a sepia wash in mind, the cameraman would open up at least another stop. If this is not corrected in the printing, everything will have a washed-out look in black-and-white – which it certainly does here! So we already have one strike against the movie even before we start to watch it. Strike two turns out to be Brian Aherne. Frankly, as presented on the DVD, Aherne doesn't have enough charisma for a role as large and as demanding as this one. True, Aherne seems larger than life on the DVD – which is a good thing to aim for, especially if you are impersonating an actor – but he doesn't project the charisma that Garrick undoubtedly possessed. An actors' actor like Bill Powell could certainly get away with it, but not Mr. Aherne. He lacks the punch, the identification, the admiration, the larger-than-life personality. Director James Whale obviously realized that Aherne was not exactly the greatest Garrick in the world, so he has attempted to place Garrick center stage every time the camera catches him – which is far too often. Poor Olivia de Havilland receives hardly any attention from the director at all. Her role was small enough to start off with, but although I saw the movie only a few hours ago, I can remember her in only one shot. Yes, just a single shot in which she figured! On the other hand, Aherne comes to mind in so many shots, he literally smothers just about everyone else in the cast. I didn't spot Lana Turner at all. I'm told that she "hovers around in the background." Well, that could be true. Melville Cooper, on the other hand, has a comparatively large role – and he makes the most of it! So this is definitely one for Melville Cooper fans! The plot, such as it is, turns around on what is meant to be an elaborate joke. Personally, I feel that a joke is too weak an instrument to sustain interest in a movie that runs 90 minutes. You could get away with it in a two-reel short maybe! But 90 minutes, despite all the glossy production values, and a support cast as long as your arm – no!

JLRMovieReviews Brian Aherne is David Garrick, the famed English stage actor, in this fictional film and accidentally offends the Comedy Francaise, who has invited him to come and perform there. He tells his British people and fans he has to go and show them how a true actor acts. When word of this gets back to them, they concoct a plan to embarrass him. By way of playing the parts of an innkeeper and the staff, they initiate their plans. But Olivia de Havilland, an unexpected guest, shows up needing a room in the inn and of course you know what develops. Aherne seems to be too hammy or showy an actor for me. Either that or he doesn't seem to emote much charm or personality. Melville Cooper, in his own sly way, really steals the film from both the leads as the supposed innkeeper and the brains of the group; and Luis Alberni has a memorable bit going mad amongst the band of actors. On one hand, the film's whimsicality is the whole appeal of it, but, on the other hand, it doesn't seem to have enough substance to it and is TOO frothy. But you can spot a young Lana Turner and a young Marie Wilson (Martin and Lewis's friend Irma) as part of the troupe. All in all, if you like the leads, you'll probably like "The Great Garrick," but a more charismatic actor would have made the film a more satisfying experience for me.

Richard Burin The Great Garrick is an unusual, sometimes brilliant comedy presenting a fictional chapter from the life of the great English actor David Garrick (Brian Aherne). During a breathtaking opening, the mercurial, caddish thespian manages to both entrance London and offend the French, who've just invited him to star at the Comédie-Française - so they hatch a plan to humiliate him, staging an elaborate ruse during his stay at a rural hotel. When Garrick is tipped off by an old acquaintance (Etienne Girardot) to expect a set-up, he becomes wrongly convinced that the virginal runaway countess falling into his arms (Olivia de Havilland) is somehow involved. Aherne is absolutely sensational, the climactic reveal is stunningly powerful and there's a superb supporting performance from Girardot (the absent, balding comedian who somehow matched John Barrymore in Twentieth Century), but the tricks within the central scheme aren't very funny and the lushly romantic love scenes are somewhat undercut by the fact that Aherne is having de Havilland on. There's still much to enjoy and admire in both the original material and Whale and producer Mervyn LeRoy's masterful evocation of the period, but this tale of a Shakespeare-quothing ham enjoying the affections of de Havilland pales in comparison to 1937's other - the irresistible It's Love I'm After.

Kalaman James Whale's "The Great Garrick" is perhaps the most overlooked classic of 1937, a year that also saw such classics as "Stage Door", "The Awful Truth", "Make Way for Tomorrow", "History is Made at Night", "Angel" and some others."Great Garrick" is a brazen but abundantly enthralling costume comedy on David Garrick, a Shakespearen ham actor and the most famous English actor of the 18th century. Garrick played a significant role in the development of English stage in this period which saw the rise of Shakespeare and other playwrights. Garrick had a reputation of enthralling his audiences on and off stage. Here in "Great Garrick", he is ingeniously played by Brian Aherne, a sadly underrated actor giving one of his most memorable performances. Aherne's co-stars include Olivia de Havilland as Garrick's love interest Germaine, Edward Everett Horton as Garrick's sidekick Tubby, Melville Cooper, Lionel Atwill, Lana Turner, and Luis Alberni.Beautifully shot in stark black-and-white photography by Ernest Haller, "Great Garrick" is a nonstop laugh riot. The opening titles tell us, "David Garrick the actor was at the height of his fame. He was the idol of London and the tale we are now unfold is a romantic adventure that might have happened during the vividly gay career of the colourful Garrick". Garrick is just finishing playing "Hamlet" and makes a farewell curtain speech to the audience at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He has been invited to Paris by the Comédie Francaise, a famous French theatre which rivalled in fame London's Theatre Royal. To convince the audience he is not actually ditching them, he reads a blank letter telling them that he is going there to teach the French. In Paris, the actors of the Comédie Francaise hold an emergency meeting to discuss what they consider to be an insult. "Ridicule kills" says one of the actors. Thus, they perpetrate a series of hoaxes at an Adam and Eve inn near Paris where Garrick and his Tubby will be staying there before they arrive in Paris.Some of the hoaxes are outrageously hammy and over-the-top, especially Luis Alberni's annoying Basset, but that doesn't really hurt the picture at all. There are genuine glories in "Great Garrick" and most important of all are Whale's inventive, stylized direction, Ernest Vajda's endlessly witty screenplay, and Aherne's quietly graceful incarnation of Garrick.The film works as a companion piece to Whale's underrated 1936 musical "Show Boat" in that both films are entrancing and exuberant celebrations of the theatre. "Show Boat" concerns a group of traveling actors who are putting on a show; "Garrick" is bio-pic of a famous actor. Both films display the talent and versatility of a great director.