The Kiss

The Kiss (1929) was the final silent film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was also the final silent film of stars Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel.

The subtle acting and sophisticated (and purely visual) storytelling show how far silent cinema had come by the late 1920s. When talkies took over Hollywood, the acting regressed back to that of the stage, the background music was replaced with static hiss, and even basic film-making techniques were restrained due to the sound equipment. It would take a few years for sound technology to grow in sophistication.

Removed from its distinction as the end of an era, The Kiss is an average melodrama, especially for Garbo, who plays an unhappily married woman in love with another man. She looks luminous and acts completely with her eyes, her brilliance showing through even in material such as this. Conrad Nagel is competent in an unchallenging role, and Lew Ayres is simultaneously adorable and somewhat sinister as the young man smitten with Garbo.

The big twist is predictable and the recorded score is cheesy, using Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet theme as the lovers' leitmotif, but overall, this is a skillfully made bit of melodramatic fluff, the last gasp of MGM's silent output.

"The kiss" took the melodramatic accents of Feyder 's precedent work " Les Nouveaux Messieurs"and tightened them up;whereas that work should have been boiled down to a 90 min movie, "the kiss" depicts a tragedy in admirably succinct style :only 62 min,a very good screenplay which does not reveal the whole truth before the last minutes.It's the classic story of the divine lady married with a graybeard without love ,in love with a more handsome gent;add a young man,pretending to be a man (the subject of the immature young lad will come back later in Feyder 's career in " Pension Mimosas")and all the ingredients of a good melodrama are in it.

In Hollywood,Feyder accurately depicted his native land:in jails for women ,the wardens were nuns (in 1960 ,in Clouzot's "La Vérité" ,Brigitte Bardot was guarded by sisters too);and the gendarmes' uniforms are exactly as they were.

After this successful work (which owed a lot to G.Garbo in her last silent movie) ,Feyder was disappointed with the screenplays left for him to direct and he came back to his native land and produced his greatest achievements :"Le Grand Jeu" ,"Pension Mimosas" and his masterpiece "La Kermesse Héroique".

In Lyons, Irene Guarry (Greta Garbo) is not happy with her marriage with the old businessman Charles Guarry (Anders Randolf) and is in love with the young lawyer André Duball (Conrad Nagel). Irene knows that the jealous Charles will never give the divorce to her; therefore they decide to stop seeing each other since she does not want to be an unfaithful wife and defy the convention. André also decides to move to Paris. One day, Irene knows the eighteen year-old college student Pierre Lassalle (Lew Ayres) in a party during his vacation and she learns that the youngster is infatuated with her. By the end of his vacation, Pierre asks a photo for Irene and she promises to give one to him. Meanwhile Charles has a meeting with Pierre's father Lassalle (Holmes Herbert) and discloses that he is on the verge of bankruptcy. Lassalle promises to help his friend and they schedule a meeting in the night. When Charles goes to the encounter, Pierre arrives at his home and asks for a goodbye kiss to Irene. Meanwhile Charles does not feel well and returns home, witnessing their kiss. Charles tries to kill Pierre and later the student arrives home and tells his father that Charles is dead. Irene is arrested accused of murdering her husband. What happened in Charles's office?

"The Kiss" is a melodramatic romance and the last MGM and Greta Garbo's silent film and the debut of Lew Ayres. The movie has beautiful shots, a mystery and Greta Garbor extremely beautiful. Despite being a silent film, MGM uses sound technology with a powerful orchestral soundtrack. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Beijo" ("The Kiss")

Greta Garbo's last silent film finds her unhappily married to Andres Randalf, tearfully fending off the advances of old boyfriend Conrad Nagel and letting young and callow Lew Ayres steal A Kiss from her. Ayres is the son of Holmes Herbert who is her husband's business partner complicating things even more.

You can't blame Ayres though. In that last silent film Garbo is certainly at her most alluring and she carries the film off beautifully.

Ayres is thinking with his male member and he's at an age where there is more tendency to do that. When Randalf catches him with Garbo he starts beating on the kid as any jealous husband would. He gets shot for his troubles and Garbo is arrested. She also shields young Ayres telling him to leave the premises.

This is where Nagel comes in. Even without dialog as per usual in a courtroom scene he does well in putting over the dramatic impact of the trial. All actors love courtroom drama and Nagel gets some good innings in here.

I have to say though, French forensics leave a lot to be desired if they are manipulated in the way they are.

In the hands of a lesser actress The Kiss would have been melodramatic claptrap. But Garbo can make anything look positively poetical.

"The Kiss" happens about midway into the movie ... Greta Garbo gives young admirer Lew Ayres a friendly kiss goodbye as he's about to leave town, Ayres, who cannot control his infatuation with the beautiful Garbo, goes in for another, less platonic kiss, at which point Garbo's husband sees them from afar and goes berserk. A fight amongst the three ensues, gets carried into another room where the door is shut to us, the audience, and we hear a shot. Garbo's husband is dead, but who did it?

Prior to the "kiss" moment, we've seen Garbo and her lover (Conrad Nagel) in a torturous romance ... they both love each other madly but Greta doesn't see any way out of her loveless marriage. In the meantime, Lew Ayres follows Greta around like a puppy dog; he's an 18-year-old completely infatuated with the beautiful married lady.

The latter half of the movie deals with the investigation of the husband's death, Greta's arrest, and her trial where she is defended by Nagel who in addition to being her former lover is also a lawyer.

I won't give away the outcome of the trial, but I will say that the jury believes it is Person A who did it and after the trial we learn it was Person B.

The musical score to this flick was absolutely horrible. I especially could have done without the "Romeo and Juliet" theme that was played every time the flick wanted to telegraph Greta's and Conrad's love to the audience.

Despite the score, this was a very enjoyable silent movie. I find some silents tedious, others quite well done. "The Kiss" definitely falls into the latter category. Worth watching.