Review of The Last Gentleman

"I'll die when I like, and not before", says Edna May Oliver as one of the last of the oldest generation of the wealthy Barr family, much younger than her oldest brother (George Arliss) who has brought everybody together from the family on the pretension that one of the family, a missionary over in Africa, has died. In reality, he's obviously testing them to see who is worthy of his remaining estate, and it isn't his own children or their money-grubbing spouses. Placing two of the biggest scene-stealers (Arliss and Oliver) together in one film isn't going to leave much room for the other actors to capture attention, although they do try their very best. Janet Beecher, as Arliss's daughter and Donald Meek, as his son, are obviously on a mission to make sure they get the estate even though Arliss doesn't really like them. Olivier, too, doesn't quite seem on the up and up, giving her nephew Meek asides of utter hatred.

Practically perfect in every way, this has little details throughout the film that are metaphors for both the family's greed and their idiocy, whether it be cuckoo clocks going off out of nowhere or high-pitched caterwauling of some of the younger female characters. The aging Arliss has a few surprises up his sleeve and delivers each line as if it was Noel Coward on opening night. Frank Albertson is impish and impulsive as Oliver's adopted son who ends up romancing his own cousin. Rafaela Ottiano's prickly sister-in-law is obvious yet funny, while Edward Ellis as a butler with a past offers dignity and pride. This is a comedy/drama about spending one's last days as if you will never die and certainly not leaving this world without a fight.