Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786306000340
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6306000348
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Running Time: 89
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1929-11-16

Customer Rating:
Summary: Last silent film for Garbo and MGM
Comment: This isn't the best Garbo silent ever made, but it was the last, and it was also the final silent film made by MGM. It's only a little over an hour long, and supposedly was originally 90 minutes long. What makes this film good is the combination of Garbo's acting and the cinematography here. Movies like this and Sunrise make me somewhat sad that the silent film era ended, because what could be done creatively with the camera was lost from this point until the early 30's once the problems of the static camera got worked out and the novelty of sound at the expense of everything else wore off. Garbo convincingly plays the sympathetic yet no-longer-in-love wife when in the presence of her husband (Anders Randolf), the longing lover who wishes to defy convention and just leave her marriage behind regardless of the consequences when with André Dubail (Conrad Nagel), and the knowledgable "older" woman who is enjoying the attention she is getting when with the very young and naive Pierre Lassalle (Lew Ayres). Whenever she is alone she has no trouble conveying which of these three moods she is in. The story is a very good tale of tortured romance with a little bit of mystery thrown in towards the end, but the main attraction is the romance and the beautiful and creative shots. The only thing really annoying is the original Vitaphone score that went along with the movie. With all of the other subtle expression going on in this film, the choice of the theme song from "Romeo and Juliet" to convey the feelings between Garbo and Nagel every time they shared a scene just seemed a bit over the top.

There are still quite a few Garbo silents such as this that are very worthwhile and are not yet on DVD. TCM should do a volume two of their "Garbo Silents" and at least include this film, "The Single Standard", "A Woman of Affairs", and "Love". "Love" is a very good film and isn't even on VHS.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Couldn't disagree more
Comment: This movie is the last silent film MGM made. I do not think it is a "mediocre" Garbo vehicle in anyway. The cinematography in this film for it's time is very well done, intriguing concepts of "flashbacks" during the story and how they are expressed with this early film technology make it very worthwhile. A classic example of how something extremely innocent one minute can turn into a crime the next. Garbo's acting is very fine.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wrong Kiss
Comment: Sorry, but I can't figure out any other way to correct a mistake on Lawrence M. Burnabo's otherwise excellent National Film Registry lists. The title may be the same, but "The Kiss" that's on the NFR is Edison's 1896 kinetoscope film, not this Garbo silent.

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