This early Garbo vehicle is a superb, over-the-top melodrama. Garbo is a simply glorious vamp, a radiant beauty who enjoys and manipulates the passionate love of two best friends (in every sense), to their near destruction and ultimate redemption.
The relationship between the two guys -- John Gilbert and Lars Hanson -- is as homoerotically suggestive as any on film before the 1970s -- and you can see from the emotions flooding Garbo's face that she feels the competition!
Very good acting -- silent screen mode -- across the board in this nicely mounted MGM production.
A good, rich, era-appropriate musical score with Wagner/Mahler overtones adds depth to the TCM broadcast of this silent classic!
And tonight, TCM also broadcast their 90-minute "Garbo" documentary -- excellent, and a great complement to this film..
What a GREAT MOVIE STAR she was! Maybe the greatest of all?
The relationship between the two guys -- John Gilbert and Lars Hanson -- is as homoerotically suggestive as any on film before the 1970s -- and you can see from the emotions flooding Garbo's face that she feels the competition!
Very good acting -- silent screen mode -- across the board in this nicely mounted MGM production.
A good, rich, era-appropriate musical score with Wagner/Mahler overtones adds depth to the TCM broadcast of this silent classic!
And tonight, TCM also broadcast their 90-minute "Garbo" documentary -- excellent, and a great complement to this film..
What a GREAT MOVIE STAR she was! Maybe the greatest of all?