Only recently did I conclude that I was a fan of director Edmund Goulding (1891-1959), having passed that crucial moment when I was realized that several movies I like had a key artist in common. I’ve done two dedicated posts on Goulding films: Blondie of the Follies (1932) and the original Nightmare Alley (1947). I’ve seen his best known and most revered movie Grand Hotel (1932) at least half a dozen times, so a dedicated post on that one seems also inevitable. Goulding also directed two solid Somerset Maugham adaptations I like, Of Human Bondage (1944) and The Razor’s Edge (1946), as well as being known for such things as The Dawn Patrol (1938), Dark Victory (1939), and The Constant Nymph (1943). Marx Brothers fans will be interested to know that he is credited with shooting some of the scenes in A Night at the Opera (1935).
I was delighted to learn that Goulding had started out on the British music hall stage as early as age 9 as a singer. He gradually worked his way up to acting roles on the legitimate stage. He also wrote songs and plays. When World War One was declared, he wrote a one-act called “God Save the King” and immediately enlisted. After being injured in the war, writing became Goulding’s primary focus. His old vaudeville friend Elsie Janis encouraged to come out to Hollywood, and so he did, writing scenarios for silent films starring herself, as well as Olive Thomas, Norma Talmadge, Richard Barthelmess, and Mae Marsh. Some of the movies he penned which became major hits were Tol’able David (1921) and Fury (1923). He also appeared before the cameras himself memorably in Three Live Ghosts (1922).
Metaphysics and mortality informs the most worthwhile melodramas. Goulding’s pictures also sparkle and glitter, like the candles that attract moths, and we are the grateful moths. Many of Goulding’s best loved and remembered silent pictures have a Jazz Age/ chorus girl/ show biz angle, including Broadway Rose (1922), Bright Lights of Broadway (1923), Jazzmania (1923), The Dancers, and Sally, Irene and Mary (1925), which he also directed. He is also write the story for the important early talkie The Broadway Melody (1929), later remade as Two Girls on Broadway (1940).
Goulding’s songs include “Love (Your Magic is Everywhere)”, cowritten with Janis, but apparently not connected with his hit 1927 film of the same name, which starred Greta Garbo as Anna Karenina. His song “Mam’selle” was used in The Razor’s Edge.
In 1931, Goulding married a British dancer named Marjorie Moss, basically to help her out because she was terminally ill and down on her luck. She died four years later. In reality, Goulding took an active and not terribly hidden part in Hollywood’s gay community. There is a vivid account of his colorful social life, with testimony by the likes of Louise Brooks and others, here.
Many of Goulding’s later films were forgettable comedies, but his last couple are of interest: the juvey exploitation drama Teenage Rebel (1956), and Mardi Gras (1958) with Pat Boone and Christine Carère which at least sets its frothy musical comedy plot against NOLA’s flamboyant holiday.
Irrelevant tangent: Edmund isn’t the only Goulding with a birthday on March 20 — it’s also Ray’s.
For more on vaudeville consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, for more on early screen history please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.
(Travalanche) 
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