This episode focuses on the fleeting fame of Hollywood during the silent and early sound era. Instead of focusing on the big-name stars who stayed on top, the show focuses on two actors--Clara Bow and John Gilbert. This is because for a time, both were the most successful and popular in the field--yet were all but washed up by the early 1930s. It discusses their successes, their failures and offers a few suggestions as to why they ultimately imploded.
I appreciate this episode for a variety of reasons. The first is that too often documentaries focus on the mega-stars and ignore the examples where stars do NOT fit nicely into stardom. The second is that the film did a better than usual job in explaining John Gilbert's fall, as too often folks just say 'he had a lousy voice and couldn't make the transition to sound'--even though this clearly was NOT true. Instead, the roots of his adversarial relationship with studio boss Louis B. Mayer as well as Gilbert's own demons are explored in depth.