So what did Conrad Nagel ever do, anyway?

[Gumlegs]

I'm a Keaton fan, but ahem, ...Buster had his own troubles in Hollywood, especially after he ignored Chaplin and let LB Mayer sign him to contract.

Okay, but I'm not sure what Keaton's going to MGM has to do with Nagel, who did turn out to be something of a flash in the pan.

[The Blackbird]

Nagel is one of those actors you see all the time in late silents and early talkies but without making a big impression. That said, I found him memorable in THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 where he could have been lost in a sea of talent but wasn't. Recently, I watched him do very well in QUALITY STREET (1927) that I posted on my FB group, Silent Films Today. Also, he was cast in one of the most famous films of all time. The catch is that it's perhaps the most famous Lost film - LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927). Since it's likely to remain lost I suppose it's not a spoiler to reveal that he played the same role as Jean Hersholt did in the talkie remake.

Actually, he played the role later essayed by Henry Wadsworth as the out-of-his-depth hero the cops are keeping out of the loop; Hersholt takes over from Henry B. Walthall. Nagel did perfectly fine as Garbo's leading man in the enjoyable THE MYSTERIOUS LADY and was also seen as the lead in SO THIS IS MARRIAGE, CHEAPER TO MARRY, SUN-UP, THE LIGHTS OF OLD BROADWAY, THE EXQUISITE SINNER, and HEAVEN ON EARTH. He starred in the comedies DANCE MADNESS, THERE YOU ARE and THE WANING SEX. Some of his more unusual assignments included playing Zasu Pitts' "Dream Lover" in PRETTY LADIES, and serving as narrator of THE TERROR and ONE MILLION B.C.

Go to YouTube to check out his appearance on the October 14, 1958 episode of TO TELL THE TRUTH.

[FrankFay]

Several people have mentioned his performance in Quality Street, and I'll add mine- he does a fine job with a difficult role, being required to be charming while acting like a bit of a cad. He is charming, funny when required to be, and he looks entirely at home in period dress

[FrankFay]

He's also rather good in One Romantic Night, opposite Lilian Gish and Rod LaRoque. For most of the picture he's impossibly noble and stalwart in his pursuit of Gish, but when he is confronted with the fact that if he DOES marry her she'll no longer be a princess, and he'll no longer have a comfortable job with the royal household - but he'll still have to support her in her accustomed lifestyle, well, then he pulls a rather good reversal of character as he realizes that love without money isn't to his taste.

[George O'Brien]

"Looking at pictures of young Nagel, I've decided he looks like Leslie Howard without the raw Latin sexuality."

Leslie Howard had raw Latin sexuality?! Have you ever seen "Gone With The Wind" or "Of Human Bondage"? He didn't have raw , or Latin, anything. He was a highly polished, English born, Hungarian /German Jew.

[Ludi]

I think that was a joke...

[drednm]

In Nagel's defense, he was taller than Borrah Minevitch.

[sepiatone]

I'm a Keaton fan, but ahem, ...Buster had his own troubles in Hollywood, especially after he ignored Chaplin and let LB Mayer sign him to contract.

Okay, but I'm not sure what Keaton's going to MGM has to do with Nagel, who did turn out to be something of a flash in the pan.

well if Keaton meant that Nagel's stay in the film industry was short lived, a research of Nagel's filmography reveals that he started in pictures almost at the same time as Keaton. If he meant that Nagel wasn't on the level of Valentino or Gilbert, he'd be more or less correct but he wasn't trying to be. As I mentioned Nagel has a similar position as did Elliott Dexter, a good solid support for the main actor but in Nagel's case later he was starred in late twenties productions.

[Gumlegs]

I'm a Keaton fan, but ahem, ...Buster had his own troubles in Hollywood, especially after he ignored Chaplin and let LB Mayer sign him to contract.

Okay, but I'm not sure what Keaton's going to MGM has to do with Nagel, who did turn out to be something of a flash in the pan.

well if Keaton meant that Nagel's stay in the film industry was short lived, a research of Nagel's filmography reveals that he started in pictures almost at the same time as Keaton. If he meant that Nagel wasn't on the level of Valentino or Gilbert, he'd be more or less correct but he wasn't trying to be. As I mentioned Nagel has a similar position as did Elliott Dexter, a good solid support for the main actor but in Nagel's case later he was starred in late twenties productions.

He didn't say it in my presence, so all I can offer is what I was told. Nagel's career certainly zoomed around 1929 and then rapidly settled down, so perhaps that was the meaning of Keaton's remark.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

He's also rather good in One Romantic Night, opposite Lilian Gish and Rod LaRoque. For most of the picture he's impossibly noble and stalwart in his pursuit of Gish, but when he is confronted with the fact that if he DOES marry her she'll no longer be a princess, and he'll no longer have a comfortable job with the royal household - but he'll still have to support her in her accustomed lifestyle, well, then he pulls a rather good reversal of character as he realizes that love without money isn't to his taste.

Found this online a few weeks ago, and felt it deserved a better reputation...

[Peg of the PreCodes]

Recently I saw One Hour Late (1934), in which Conrad Nagel is the least predatory boss in Hollywood history. He's a life-size Ken doll--handsome, perfectly formed, and almost certainly blank below the belt. I assume Mrs. Barclay was stepping out on her husband because she wasn't getting anything at home. But his function is to briefly come between Helen Twelvetrees and Joe Morrison, and he does this more than adequately.

[The Blackbird]

Nagel can also be seen in the famous "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" of ROUTE 66 in 1962.

[boblipton]

Nagel can also be seen in the famous "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" of ROUTE 66 in 1962.

Immortality!

Bob

[IA]

I can put in a good word for Conrad Nagel's performance in Irvin Willat's The Michigan Kid (1928). Nagel plays the titular Kid, a gambler running a saloon in Alaska who dreams of being with his childhood sweetheart (Renée Adorée). Adorée is lovely as usual, and though Nagel was usually blander than tapioca, here he embraces the raffish, enigmatic side of the Kid. The film itself is a juicy piece of meat-and-potatoes entertainment. Not a profound film or masterpiece, but a genre assignment blessedly better than it needed to be, thanks to Willat's hard-boiled style. The Grapevine DVD retains the arresting blue tones and pink tinting of the intense forest-fire climax, a bravura sequence that combines superb in-camera mattes with very fine miniatures. The results are so convincing that I was astonished to learn it was entirely filmed in the studio.

[maliejandra]

IA, that one is set at Cinevent! I've never seen it.

I like Nagel, especially in his silents. I would call out both Quality Street and The Mysterious Lady. Oddly enough he found the most success in the early talkie era because he had a nice voice, but I prefer the silents.

[Henry Nicolella]

" The catch is that it's perhaps the most famous Lost film - LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927). Since it's likely to remain lost I suppose it's not a spoiler to reveal that he played the same role as Jean Hersholt did in the talkie remake."
I believe Henry B. Walthall did the Jean Hersholt part. Nagel would have been the ineffectual (to say the least) hero played by Henry Wadsworth in MARK OF THE VAMPIRE.

[IA]

Nagel also starred with Sylvia Breamer in the spiritualist melodrama Unseen Forces (1920), directed by Sidney Franklin, which can be viewed online:
https://www.filmpreservation.org/preser ... orces-1920

He's his usual bland self but the film is well directed and of interest. It was thought lost for decades but resurfaced in New Zealand.

[brendangcarroll]

I was interested in the various references here to Mr Nagel's tricky relationship with LB Mayer.

One of my very favourite short subjects is the special newsreel of the premiere for GRAND HOTEL at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1932 ( it's a special feature on the DVD) where the MC is none other than.... Conrad Nagel.

At one point he greets and introduces LB Mayer and invites him to speak to the listening radio audience....

This short film encapsulates the epitome of Hollywood glamour for me. Compared to today's Red Carpet displays - where every so called "star" looks like they just got out of bed, - the GRAND HOTEL premiere is a priceless time capsule of style and elegance the likes of which, I doubt we shall ever see again.

And Conrad Nagel is such a stylish, elegant compere!

[greta de groat]

He was also in some bad talkies. A friend of mine thinks The Right of Way is a riot because it is so bad, and I found The Ship From Shanghai to be similarly hilarious.

Just saw The Right of Way, and it really is a stinker. I'm usually fine with him but he's hilariously dreadful here.

greta

[boblipton]

In Nagel's defense, he was taller than Borrah Minevitch.

In Borrah Minnevitch's defense.... can't think think of anything.

Bob

[Harlett O'Dowd]

He was also in some bad talkies. A friend of mine thinks The Right of Way is a riot because it is so bad, and I found The Ship From Shanghai to be similarly hilarious.

Just saw The Right of Way, and it really is a stinker. I'm usually fine with him but he's hilariously dreadful here.

greta

Just caught up with this. Yikes!

[R Michael Pyle]

He was also in some bad talkies. A friend of mine thinks The Right of Way is a riot because it is so bad, and I found The Ship From Shanghai to be similarly hilarious.

Just saw The Right of Way, and it really is a stinker. I'm usually fine with him but he's hilariously dreadful here.

greta

Just caught up with this. Yikes!

I watched this a few years ago and thought how bad "Beau Ideal" had been - the same year, 1931, and also with Loretta Young - but this was equally bad. She badded twice in the same year. Shame on her!

[smokey15]

While reading the posts about Conrad Nagel I recalled his name being mentioned in a "Petticoat Junction" episode in the 1960's. Bette Jo was going to NYC with Mrs. Douglas (Eva Gabor). When her sister, Bobbi Jo heard of this she got a bit depressed as she wanted to go too. Their mother Kate (Bea Benaderet) tried to cheer Bobbi Jo by telling her they could go on a little trip themselves. When Bobbi Jo asked where they'd go Kate told her that Pixley (the neighboring town) was having a Conrad Nagel festival at their movie house. I remember wondering "who is Conrad Nagel"?

[drednm]

While Nagel made his film debut in 1918, he starred in films for various studios and was a popular leading man to female stars. These MGM charts from Variety show that even at MGM in the late 20s Nagel was a Featured Player and not a Star. If he was elevated to star at MGM, it wasn't until 1930.