JOHN BARRYMORE

[Music] she left me one heritage a mad desire to dance with an iron brace to hold me from it all i want to do is to stagger new york a desert scene with a hundred camels and real sand brought from the holy land and would have a babylonian banquet with your slaves around you you're covered in emeralds in that scene from head to foot and nothing else and wet my cheeks with artificial and frame my face to all occasions and i do this and cannot get a crown [Music] he was called the greatest american actor of his time of all time his name is john barrymore and this is his biography [Music] [Applause] [Music] the happiest moments of john barrymore's life were spent before a camera or on a stage the only time i'm at ease he once admitted is when i can bury this damn profile of mine beneath false whiskers and a putty nose i need a barrier something to hide behind it was natural that john barrymore should feel at home in a theater for more than a century his family had lived on and for the stage near the turn of the century the american theater is enjoying one of its most vital and exciting eras movies will not become popular for years the stage is undisputed shrine of high drama and low [Music] comedy [Music] a leading actor of the day is maurice barrymore once a champion boxer now a dashing stage lover actress wife georgiana drew is a member of a legendary theatrical family her youngest child john barrymore even before he can read has learned about one-night stands and the gentle art of updating but john his brother lionel and sister ethel see no excitement in becoming actors ethel wants to be a concert janet the two boys dream of becoming painters barrymore is a lonely child his mother dies when he is 10 and his father pays little attention to it he retreats into his private world of daydreams at 15 barrymore is lured into a love affair by an older woman this illicit first romance leaves barrymore with the deep-seated fear that all women are capable of betraying the men who love them intent on becoming an artist barrymore's early drawings reflect his mental torment he creates scenes from the stark and threatening world of his imagination here evil is triumphant over man happiness is always a distant idealized figure ethel and lionel barrymore by now have been captured by family tradition and gone on the stage to stop her young brother from running wild ethel tries to persuade john to join her where she can keep a watchful eye on him finally at 21 barrymore yields and becomes an actor often playing with lionel in this emotion-laden atmosphere he is involved in one romantic escapade after another [Music] lionel barrymore has opened a new field for john acting in silent films the work is easy and profitable lionel jokingly calls the movies his most important discovery in an unremitting campaign against hard work [Music] john barrymore too is delighted with silent movies he is freed from the drudgery of learning lines playing raffles the gentleman jewel thief he enters wholeheartedly into the rough and tumble action loved by film audiences [Music] so gradually john barrymore begins to feel at home as a performer he demonstrates remarkable versatility the once reluctant actor reaches artistic height with a classic portrayal of dr jekyll and mr hyde [Music] barrymore himself however at the age of 42 is still confused impulsive often a victim of his own unpredictable emotions his friends vainly try to discourage him when he falls passionately in love with michael strange their marriage will end in divorce after an epic series of quarrels and reconciliation barrymore returns to the theater he becomes a perfectionist on stage he even appears in shakespearean works playing the most demanding role in richard iii he rocks audiences with a theatrical tour de force barrymore reaches the peak of his theatrical career playing hamlet the tormented danish prince with his deep inner conflict is to bury more a strangely kindred spirit his performance is hailed as a masterpiece be or not to be that is the question whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune but to take arms against the sea of trouble and by opposing end to die to sleep a chance to dream by there's the love for in that sleep of death what dream may come [Music] after his shakespearean triumph barrymore fears he will be frozen in these roads he decides to accept a contract in hollywood in beau brummel he scores an immediate success santarizing a man whose only true love is himself the movie colony in hollywood sets a blistering pace for the roaring twenties and barrymore goes overboard in this atmosphere of careless indulgence he goes on long binges ending up physically exhausted and disgusted with himself for short periods barrymore escapes to the sea with a group of bachelor friends and his beloved monkey clementine roaming the pacific near southern california he stops drinking and becomes in the words of a friend a gay uncomplicated adventure-loving little boy [Music] at sea barrymore writes in his diary of his inner hopes and fears he profoundly believes that life eventually can offer him what he calls unblemished romantic happiness two marriages have not given him the perfect love and security he yearns for but he is positive that somewhere he will find it [Music] then in may of 1925 john barrymore meets the great love of his life a young actress named dolores costello her youthful innocence and beauty captivate him completely in his next film the seabees barrymore demands that dolores be his leading lady her sternly protective mother has forbidden dolores ever to be alone with him but barrymore outwits her by seeing to it that the script includes lengthy love scenes before the cameras barrymore courts and wins dolores in the extravagant barrymore match [Music] at the age of 46 barrymore marries dolores costello [Music] a kiss from her made him forget all the woes that had once been his a friend right her love seems the promise of happiness unending [Music] john barrymore becomes a popular movie idol millions adore him as a dashing romantic leading man the perfect don juan [Music] in the early 1930s barrymore breaks away from romantic leads he now chills audiences playing grotesque villains like the fiendish bengali barrymore nearly 50 now is nagged by the fear that he will lose the affection of his young wife dolores he sees himself in the role of the aging tragic lover he is now called upon to play in films [Music] oh i seem to have been asleep for ages haven't i been good to you when you were ill who who gave you back your life you did i've done everything i could to repay you yeah except love me and old liebshia i do love you in pictures like the mad genius he is at his best evoking the nightmarish fears of childhood fears which have never stopped tormenting him strange you know the dream i always had ever since i was a little boy a great shining figure white and beautiful would come to me with wings gray shimmering wings and put them on my back and beckon me and when i start to fly oh so happy my heart would almost break a great claw would grasp my foot and pull me down down into the swamp black bubbly i might scream and wake that was a very pretty little dream drinking heavily now barrymore spends long hours brooding over imaginary evidence of dolores infidelity only rarely can barrymore pull himself together long enough to deliver a performance with his old style and gusto in 20th century a madcap comedy co-starring carol lombard his genius flares brilliantly ah so that's what it is money like jingled or fifteen thousand dollars in front of your nose your mouth will begin to water you'd start drooling and squealing give me give me give me give me that's right oscar now get up before i have the porter throw you off of me you'll see you're gonna be thrown off this train traveling with a giggle get out you fake you swindly you cheap little shopkin [Applause] call the conductor i'll tell the world who's a fake you are pretty i taught you everything you know even your name garland i gave you that after justice in heaven filled with plaque you will end up where you belong in the blessed house where's the scoundrel in 1935 barrymore's marriage reaches the crisis he himself has created dolores costello sues him for divorce a year later a new figure enters barrymore's life 19 nineteen-year-old elaine barry some columnists picture her as an heroic young woman trying to save barrymore from himself others imply that she is using barrymore only to get publicity to further her own career as an actress elaine does want to be a star and she eventually appears in this film [Music] elaine barry denies any romantic link with barrymore with regard to personal relationship between barrymore and myself she says in a public statement they have been and are of a strictly platonic nature based on a professional artistic relationship a year later however barrymore and elaine are married and their hasty impromptu honeymoon make headlines that triple humor is the quickest i've ever made i'll say so when you find you'd forgotten your money and i had to pay for the marriage license i guess it's got some kind of a record you're at the bar of a wedding ring i'm not worrying i'll collect the licensed money i hope i can assure you madame barrymore you shall be reimbursed madame barrymore you know i want to get used to that nay i've only had it a few hours you have it for a lifetime i hope in less than a month barrymore and his wife will begin raucous and highly publicized quarrels [Music] barrymore has become a celebrity of a strange and pitiful kind in hollywood the great profile is hastily preserved in concrete a memorial only to pass trials my god barrymore says they're burying me alive [Music] for a young girl you've certainly been in pictures a long time haven't you be a child oh yes barrymore has become a featured performer on rudy valley's radio show here he appears with jane withers the only role he is capable of playing is a crude satirization of himself barrymore is too shaky to stand before a microphone uncle john i need advice some advice on love love truth sit down the child this is gonna take some time uncle john i'm in love can you tell me what to do no darling but i can tell you what not to do oh but you don't understand suddenly i understand i was young once in 1939 barrymore returns to the theater to play his first stage role since his immortal hamlet 20 years before some hope that here where he began his career he will find some way to rebuild it but a backstage interview filmed the night before his broadway opening shows a saddened world just how far he has fallen uh ladies and gentlemen the uh boys if i'm not going too far from the uh new israel the press evidence they want me to say something about my private life not realizing the whole show might be pulled instant however there is one element in it which is enchanting this reconciliation we'll call it that the loveliest person i have ever met in my life mr elaine barrett we're back together again and it's a very wonderful experience the uh gentlemen from the newsreel have informed me that they wish to see the barrymore profile that is as much of it as left here goes when barrymore's play opens a reviewer writes he is not quite so bad but we cannot see traces of another actor i prefer to close my eyes and imagine john barrymore a superb and immortal man who can never be weakened by immortal disease or despair [Music] i indeed thou live it report me and my cause are right because i am satisfied what a wounded name things standing thus unknown shall live behind me it's how it [Music] of is and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story the rest is silent good night sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest on may 29 1942 at the age of 60 john barrymore is dead you