Greta Garbo's Movies Get the TV Guide Treatment -- Part 4

This week we finish up Garbo's silent films. If you are interested in seeing summaries for Garbo's earlier films, start here. If you would like to know where the plots for her films came from, begin here.

Below is a cue card from "The Kiss" (1929), the card which follows the one that literally says "Irene, we can't go on meeting like this." But before we get to this bit of printed dialogue, we've got a couple of other Greta Garbo flicks to consider. 

Here's the first movie in this week's list!

"Wild Orchids"

As with "Love" / "Anna Karenina," Garbo's changeover from silent films to sound films meant that she could appear in two versions of what was essentially the same film. The story of "Wild Orchids" is very similar to the talkie film "The Painted Veil," released in 1934.

Summary:  Before we even start this story line, I must take just a moment to say how odd I find seeing Lewis Stone as one of Greta Garbo's love interests, even if he is only the older husband we know  will be ditched for a younger man. Because I've seen him as Andy Hardy's father, I can't see him any other way.

Now that I've forced myself to accept Lewis Stone as Garbo's husband (he couldn't be any worse than that Russian Intelligence guy from one of last week's films), we'll move on to the story itself. Stone plays John Stirling, who's bought a tea plantation in Java. He's not a super romantic guy anyway, and once the business of planning the plantation begins, Stirling has no time for his wife who married in the hope of having b oth stability and love. 

On the ship to Java, Garbo's character Lillie sees a haughty male passenger cruelly strike one of his servants. He turns out to be a prince if not a prince of a guy, and the minute he spots Lillie, he tries to creep up on her. He realizes that his best bet is to buddy up with Lillie's husband by offering tips on Javanese tea plantations. Stirling, the husband, listens to his new friend about business, but he doesn't listen to his wife when she tells him that the prince kissed her without her consent. 

The creepy prince hosts the couple at his estate, and Lillie tries to evade him by taking interest in her husband's work. But Stirling doesn't want her as a business partner, just as a wife, if that. That hurts her, and when the prince kisses her again, she gives in and kisses him back. Of course, the Neglectful Husband immediately spots the prince kissing a woman, and he's not sure if it's his wife or not. A necklace turns out to be evidence against Lillie, and John suggests that he and prince go out and walk around with guns -- well, that they go on a tiger hunt. You'll never guess what happens to the prince. Stirling, not satisfied with wounding his rival, tells his wife he is going back to the U.S. without her. But she says no no no, she only ever loved him. 

If you saw an earlier post about this film, you may remember that I mentioned that the movie poster for this film seems to depict Garbo's character throttling her love interest, but she's actually checking him to see if he's wounded. Note husband at left with pith helmet and rifle. 

Next film. . .

"The Single Standard"

Garbo plays a woman named Arden who is of the "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for grnder" school of relationships. She believes that men and women should be subject to the same rules of conduct. She wants to be free and equal and allowed to speak honestly. 

Her first try at love is while the son of a lord, an aviator who is posing as a servant -- a chauffeur. A lowly chauffeur is not allowed the luxury of a woman above his class, and he loses his job, and then kills himself. (Silent movies seem to have a lot of plot lines involving killing oneself over minor social blunders.)

There's a guy named Tommy Hewlett who's had his eye on Arden for a while. But again,  another rich guy who's slumming -- a former prizefitghter turned artist -- gets to Arden first. (This second beau is played by the same actor who was the prince in the previous Garbo film.) Rich guys says, "Hey, I'm going to sail my yacht around the world," and Arden says "Hey, I'll go with you." ("And hold onto the huge medicine ball.")

They do sail here and there for a while, but then he decides he'd do better without Arden and he brings her back. 

Tommy Hewlett's still hanging around, and when Arden gets back from the yacht thing, he proposes and Arden accepts. She and Tommy have a son and create a pretty good life for themselves. And we know that can't be allowed. So. . .

The guy with the yacht regrets that he put his art before love, and Arden is easily wooed and she's ready to jump on the yacht again. Tommy confronts his rival and there is a lot of melodrama and people saying they don't love someone when they do and pretending to have terrible accidents because a scandal would run Arden's son's life. But Arden realizes she should put her son first, and she does all the right things and saves the day. Whew. 

Here's a scene with Arden and her son romping at the beach. Somewhat wacky vintage movie music has been added to the silent film.

Now we're at the spot in our list where we find the movie with the cue card, the one shown at the top of this blog post. 

"The Kiss"

Another character actor moment before a plot summary: Lew Ayres plays a secondary role as a teenage boy with a crush on Garbo's character. Ayres was one of the actors who played Dr. Kildare, but as I watched "The Kiss," I kept thinking of him as the mad doctor with Donovan's Brain in an aquarium tank. Anyway, let's get on with our overview of "The Kiss."

Irene (Garbo), a woman unhappily married to an older man (hey, just like in the last movie!) has secret meet-ups with Andre, an attorney, in an art museum. And not just any old art museum, either. 

Andre says he wants to face Irene's husband and tell him the truth, but Irene says her husband has a terrible temper and she married him so now she's stuck with him, and she leaves, after she and Andre share a kiss. 

Irene's husband is jealous and he's hired a P.I. to follow his wife, but the detective reports not the kiss in the art museum but that Irene was at a dog show with Pierre, the son of a friend of Irene's husband. Both young Pierre and irene's true love Andre show up at a party given by Irene's husband, with considerable romantic drama. Andre tells Irene he's going to leave Lyon and go off to Paris. 

Irene's husband needs to ask Pierre's father for a business loan, so Irene goes with her husband to the estate. There is some random tennis playing Then Pierre asks Irene for a photograph he can take to college with him, and when he comes to get the picture, he asks for a small kiss and then grabs Irene for a passionate smooch. This is witnessed by Irene's husband, who loses it and starts chasing the kid and clobbering him. Irene can only save Pierre by shooting her husband, and she tries to pass it off as a suicide. The cops don't buy it and indict Irene, so Andre (remember, he's a lawyer) comes back from Paris to defend her. Pierre's father tells the jurors that Irene;'s husband was broke, and Pierre swears Irene didn't shoot her husband. But after she's acquitted, Irene can't live with the lie, and she tells Andre the truth. He has a brief head-in-hands moment, then shakes it off and gives Irene a big smooch, witnessed by the cleaning women who tidy up the courthouse. 

Here's a video clip from "The Kiss." The musical background has some little squeaky sounds in it. This film was made right before true sound films were the norm and there was a lot of experimenting with syncing up records to the film, inserting sound effects but not dialogue in silent films, etc. Maybe this clip features the original sound, what audiences heard in the late 1920s?

Next week:  Garbo talks!

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