The bad reputation of this movie is well deserved. There are two reasons why people might still consider to watch it: David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich. Here, Bowie doesn't have the aura of a rock star. He is a broody, nerdy, wimpy kid. He isn't charming, entertaining, brazen, doesn't have the physical presence a gigolo needs. When Marlene, the madam of the gigolo brothel, asks him some questions to see, if he could do the job, he doesn't answer at all, he just stands there like an timid school boy. This awkward monologue is her big scene in "Gigolo". She wouldn't go to Berlin and was filmed sitting in Paris. But why couldn't Bowie go to Paris, to turn this thing into an actual meeting, into something memorable? Getting us to see some interaction between Bowie and Marlene was after all the big promise of "Gigolo". The real job interview would have been a chance for Bowie to show that his character Paul was worthy of being a gigolo. David Bowie could have tried to charm, to seduce Marlene Dietrich. Marlene - 77 at that time and with her legs already failing her - looks great, but this scene, that could have been the film's saving grace, is its biggest disappointment. Marlene has only one other scene, singing the title song "Just a Gigolo". All in all, she's got about four minutes of screen time.
When something is really bad, people start calling it a parody. A parody of what, exactly, should "Gigolo" be? "Gigolo" is not funny, but it is definitely not a serious movie. It is rife with insane ideas.
Paul (Bowie) arrives at the front at the very end of World War I. After more than four years of war and with him having a military background, he still doesn't have the faintest clue about the brutal reality of the trench war. That's a ridiculous idea. The scene feels nearly Pythonesque, the whole WWI-prelude is alarmingly absurd.
Hermann Kraft (played by the director David Hemmings) lives in the underground, literally. He lives in a parked subway wagon down in the subway system. Is this supposed to be funny? Yes.
The story is told over a period of 10 years, and time flies by: "Winter 1921", "Winter 1923", "Winter 1925", "Winter 1928". Still everything and everyone stays exactly the same. Paul's father, a colonel, is - or pretends to be - in a state of shock since the end of the war. He just sits in his chair, motionsless, his eyes wide open, he doesn't even blink. That's a slapstick idea.
Paul is a complete nobody, just a gigolo. In all those years he didn't manage to get himself a more honorable job. He doesn't do anything of importance. Still Hermann Kraft insists on calling him "one in a million". The movie can't decide if it is about some random guy or about someone secretly very special.
Everything is nonsensical, everything is a joke. But nothing is actually funny. David Hemmings admitted that he directed the movie with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. "Just a Gigolo" is a failed comedy. Maybe nobody laughed while watching it in a cinema, but later that evening, while talking about it in a pub, it became hilarious. The original ideas might have been funny, the movie itself is a paramount example of the incompetence of the writers and the director. Hemmings didn't know how to tell a joke, he tried it anyway and he failed miserably. Now the joke is on him: "Just a Gigolo" is a legendary bad movie.
With all that out of the way, there are a few things to enjoy. There are some nice scenes from 1920s Berlin. Bowie carrying a small pig. All the actors that had been persuaded by the name Marlene Dietrich to join the cast: Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, Curd Jürgens, Maria Schell ... Most of the time, Bowie looks pleasantly enough, he is a doll, slender frame, nice face - though at that time he still had unphotogenic teeth. Thankfully, he doesn't show them too often, playing the silent, brooding type. And he is a great walker. Watched with the appropriate mindset, "Just a Gigolo" isn't a total waste of time.
When something is really bad, people start calling it a parody. A parody of what, exactly, should "Gigolo" be? "Gigolo" is not funny, but it is definitely not a serious movie. It is rife with insane ideas.
Paul (Bowie) arrives at the front at the very end of World War I. After more than four years of war and with him having a military background, he still doesn't have the faintest clue about the brutal reality of the trench war. That's a ridiculous idea. The scene feels nearly Pythonesque, the whole WWI-prelude is alarmingly absurd.
Hermann Kraft (played by the director David Hemmings) lives in the underground, literally. He lives in a parked subway wagon down in the subway system. Is this supposed to be funny? Yes.
The story is told over a period of 10 years, and time flies by: "Winter 1921", "Winter 1923", "Winter 1925", "Winter 1928". Still everything and everyone stays exactly the same. Paul's father, a colonel, is - or pretends to be - in a state of shock since the end of the war. He just sits in his chair, motionsless, his eyes wide open, he doesn't even blink. That's a slapstick idea.
Paul is a complete nobody, just a gigolo. In all those years he didn't manage to get himself a more honorable job. He doesn't do anything of importance. Still Hermann Kraft insists on calling him "one in a million". The movie can't decide if it is about some random guy or about someone secretly very special.
Everything is nonsensical, everything is a joke. But nothing is actually funny. David Hemmings admitted that he directed the movie with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. "Just a Gigolo" is a failed comedy. Maybe nobody laughed while watching it in a cinema, but later that evening, while talking about it in a pub, it became hilarious. The original ideas might have been funny, the movie itself is a paramount example of the incompetence of the writers and the director. Hemmings didn't know how to tell a joke, he tried it anyway and he failed miserably. Now the joke is on him: "Just a Gigolo" is a legendary bad movie.
With all that out of the way, there are a few things to enjoy. There are some nice scenes from 1920s Berlin. Bowie carrying a small pig. All the actors that had been persuaded by the name Marlene Dietrich to join the cast: Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, Curd Jürgens, Maria Schell ... Most of the time, Bowie looks pleasantly enough, he is a doll, slender frame, nice face - though at that time he still had unphotogenic teeth. Thankfully, he doesn't show them too often, playing the silent, brooding type. And he is a great walker. Watched with the appropriate mindset, "Just a Gigolo" isn't a total waste of time.