Il destino

There really was an art to silent film acting. It wasn't just all exaggerated facial expressions. That becomes clear when you see really good silent actors who know exactly how to put across the material.

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert are really, really good, and they sell the melodrama of "A Woman of Affairs" in a way that others couldn't. In the best of circumstances, films this old feel antiquated by today's standards, but "A Woman of Affairs" feels more sophisticated than other films of its type because of the subtle downplaying of Garbo and Gilbert. Garbo creates an actual woman responding to events that feel like they could actually happen to a real person rather than a stock character histrionically reacting to tear-jerking plot devices. She's fascinating to watch, conveying much with the lift of an eyebrow or a small hand gesture. Her performance here makes it clear why she had the stuff to make the transition to sound.

I have to give director Clarence Brown his due as well. There's a fluid, cinematic quality to this film that makes it feel far more mature than pretty much any of the early sound films coming out around the same time. For example, the film that won the Best Picture Oscar in the year of this film's release was "The Broadway Melody," a dreadful early sound film without a brain in its head. Compare that to the mature subject matter of "A Woman of Affairs" -- the homoerotic obsession one man has for another, for starters -- and you can see how much more daring late silents were than early talkies.

Bess Meredyth, credited in the opening titles with "continuity," received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing for her work on both this and another Clarence Brown film, 1929's "Wonder of Women," at the 1928-29 Oscars. This was during the time when the eligibility period for the Oscars was a wonky August 1 of one year through July 31 of the following year, and it wouldn't be until 1934 when the Academy changed the eligibility period to match the calendar year. This was also during that brief window of time when Oscar nominations could site work on multiple films, as Meredyth's writing nomination did.

Grade: A-

A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS (MGM, 1928), directed by Clarence Brown, from the then controversial novel, "The Green Hat" by Michael Arlen, reunites then popular love team of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in their third collaboration on screen. Initially teamed under Clarence Brown's direction in the highly popular FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926), followed by LOVE (1927), taken from the Leo Tolstoy's classic novel, "Anna Karenina," Gilbert and Garbo once more star in a silent melodrama about love and tragedy. Unlike their earlier screen efforts, their characters in this story are already acquainted since childhood, leaving no chance of meeting and falling in love, but the difference here is that their relationship is interfered by a third party who happens not to be another lover or spouse. And unlike their earlier two films, Garbo is more the central focus here than Gilbert.

The story begins quite amusingly, finding the wild and merry Diana Merrick (Greta Garbo) driving recklessly down the road in the Mack Sennett Keystone comedy fashion, nearly missing the ditch diggers as she drives over them. Moments later, the characters in the story, the Holderness and the Merricks, are introduced with each passing scene. Diane is a carefree woman who has loved Neville Holderness (John Gilbert) since childhood. She has a brother, Jeffry (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), a pampered youth who's so bored with his life that his only satisfaction is boozing up with liquor. Jeffry's closest friend, David Furness (Johnny Mack Brown), tries to stop him from his wild and wicked ways, but to no avail. Neville's father, Sir Morton (Hobart Bosworth), disapproves of the Merrick family's way of life. When he learns that his son wants to marry Diana, he manages to send Neville away to Egypt for a few years, in hope that the two will forget one another through the passage of time. Two years later, Diana marries David. On their wedding night, detectives (one of them played by character actor Fred Kelsey) enter their honeymoon suite in France to arrest David on the charges of theft. Before he can be arrested, David ends his life by jumping out the window. To keep David's name clear for decency sake, she secretly sets out to repay the victims of David's past crimes, a deed only known to the family physician, Doctor Hugh Trevelyan (Lewis Stone). Over the next few years, Diana makes the gossip columns as being a widow of many love affairs throughout the world. As for Neville, he becomes engaged to marry a nice young girl named Constance (Dorothy Sebastian), whom, as Diana describes through the title cards, as a girl "whose eyes are so true and clean." But Old Man Holderness, knowing how his son and Diana still feel about one other, continues to keep the scandalous Diana away his son, causing Neville to become like Jeffry, an unbearable alcoholic.

While not as famous by today's standards as FLESH AND THE DEVIL, A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS somewhat predates those "Peyton Place"-type soap-operas or Lana Turner melodramas quite popular during the 1950s and 60s. It also shows that aristocratic families may have all the luxuries that money can buy, but money does not always buy happiness. Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s portrayal as an unhappy youth who turns to drink, is quite believable, especially when his glassy eyes, uncombed hair almost covering a portion of his eye, with whiskey glass in his hand that at times has him resemble a young John Barrymore. Whether this was intentional or not will never be known. Fairbanks, however, does well with his early screen performance.

Clarence Brown's direction with the Gilbert-Garbo loves scenes do have some bonuses, but are not as "hot" as in FLESH AND THE DEVIL. One scene that stands out is finding Diana, wearing a special ring on her finger, making love to Neville on the couch, with Diana telling him, "I would only take it off for the man I love." The camera then pans down to her hand just as the ring slowly slips off her finger. As for the story itself, it takes place during a span of ten years, yet the characters in the plot don't look any different in the conclusion as they appear in the opening, making the storyline look more as if it takes place in a span of ten months than ten years. The costumes and hairstyles are obviously modern late 1920s, which works out better in the latter portion of the story than the early segments, circa 1918. And although Garbo has that special beauty, especially when properly photographed, she doesn't look particularly attractive in some of those costumes designed for her, mainly when wearing those flapper-designed hats. Essentially a silent movie that was initially distributed in theaters with recorded scoring, one wishes such a score for this film have been used for its current video distribution, which comes with a Thames stereo orchestral soundtrack. The stereo score has its moments, but when it comes to its slow tempo violin playing in some segments of the story, it becomes a real sleep inducer. A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS was remade by MGM in 1934 as OUTCAST LADY starring Constance Bennett and Herbert Marshall. Both versions are available for viewing on cable TV's Turner Classic Movies.

One final note: A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS was one of the 13 feature films presented on the public television series, MOVIES, GREAT MOVIES (Original air date: October 26, 1973), a 50th anniversary tribute to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer of the silent era, as hosted by Richard Schickel, on WNET, Channel 13, in New York City. Clocked then at 109 minutes, the TCM print differs in scoring and length, either at 98 (Thames) or 91 minutes. (***)

Greta Garbo was the antithesis of the old fashioned, expressive silent movie actors of yesteryear. Instead of wildly moving her arms and gesturing her emotions with her total body, the Swedish actress expressed her characters' emotions by way of little hints of facial movements. A perfect example of her subtle acting expressions is seen in her third movie with actor and lover John Gilbert in December 1928's "A Woman of Affairs."

Movie critic David Denby described her acting style in the way she lowered her "head to look calculating or flutters her lips. Her face darkens with a slight tightening around the eyes and mouth; she registers a passing idea with a contraction of her brows or a drooping of her lids. Worlds turned on her movement."

"A Woman of Affairs" was another huge money-maker for MGM. The movie proved that Garbo was becoming a printing press of dollar bills for the studio. This was her fifth Hollywood film, and the adoring public continued to flock to movie houses nationwide to witness those slight yet profound expressions. As a contemporary reviewer penned in 1929, "She has glamour and fascination for both sexes which have never been equaled on the screen." Based on a 1925 play adapted from the 1924 best-selling but controversial novel The Green Hat, by Michael Arlen, "A Woman of Affairs" forced MGM to rework some the important details mentioned in both the novel and the play that included descriptions of syphilis, miscarriages and heroin use. The Will Hays Production Code frowned on those topics. The story, set in England, focuses on three childhood friends, Neville (John Gilbert), who falls for friend Diana (Garbo). An assignment to Egypt causes Neville to miss his opportunity to marry Diana, who ends up crossing the threshold with her other childhood friend, David (Johnny Mack Brown). During their honeymoon, David commits suicide for embezzlement. Setting off a soap opera-like drama is Diana's eye-popping discovery that Neville has returned to England several years later with a new-found love in Constance (Dorothy Jeffry).

Critics point out the movie's highlight occurs when Garbo is in the hospital nine months after she spent an evening over Neville's house. It's hinted she's had a miscarriage, which explains her passion to cradle a bundle of flowers. The sequence displays every emotion an actress can possibly show: from crying, to loving, to questioning, to a sense of loss and hope. Garbo informs the viewers all this simply by her facial expressions. Because of such a highly emotional sequence in the hospital, Garbo's clout with the studio was so valuable that MGM granted her the unusual request that visitors, including studio executives, be restricted from the set. The actress even asked black screens be built surrounding the area she was filming so extras and even technicians couldn't view her acting. Garbo defended her closed sets by explaining "If I am by myself, my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise."

No one could argue about the results Garbo gave on the big screen. And the beancounters in the studio's accounting room stood by the actress's on-set demands after their offices were flooded with the receipts from the tremendous amount of tickets she sold under the MGM logo.

This film is a great Garbo vehicle, and has such a perfect example of her mystique. She somehow manages to be a woman who enjoys sexual pleasure and the company of men, but at the same time, is saintly, with a love that is pure for only one man, and sacrifices herself in more than one way ... and she is transcendent on both sides of this coin. The film is packed with moments where a range of her wonderful expressions are on display, some vivid, some subtle. If you're a Garbo fan or want to become one, this would certainly not be a bad place to start.

Unfortunately, the film suffers a bit from a heavy dose of melodrama, most of which seems pretty contrived. The plot often doesn't make a lot of sense, in part because the original story was watered down pretty significantly for the censors. An example of this is the questioning of Garbo after her husband has committed suicide. It's obvious why this happened; he was about to be arrested for embezzlement and the police saw him jump, so the viewer (ok me anyway) is watching the aftermath thinking huh? In the original, however, it was because he has syphilis, something that was obviously a personal secret, and hence the questioning (and also later shunning) of Garbo. There are other examples that took too much of the edge off the story and made it less sensical.

Garbo dominates the film, but it's a fine cast behind her. John Gilbert is given less to do here which is too bad, but the chemistry the pair had is quite evident in a couple of open lip kisses. Dorothy Sebastian is radiant as a virtuous woman, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is suitably desperate as an alcoholic.

The film touches on marrying someone who is decent and loving them for that quality, but being passionate and truly in love with someone else, which is a timeless theme. The scene where Garbo is waiting in her honeymoon bed and gets a tepid kiss on the forehead, then in frustration resorts to turning on and off the overhead light after being left alone says it all. At one point her real love, played, by Gilbert, asks "Why did I ever let you go?" to which she responds "Yes, why?", and I don't think the film gives a good answer to this question, especially as it plays out. The pace as it does so is a little on the slow side too, and the dramatic ending is over-the-top. It's a near miss for getting a higher rating, but it's certainly watchable for Garbo.

This is a beautifully crafted melodrama, well acted and with high MGM production values, but with moral values that nowadays may well be seen as belonging to another planet. Nevertheless once the historical perspective is in place this is still a simple timeless classic, one I've now seen a dozen times over the years.

Very honourable woman falls in love with equally honourable man, much to his even more honourable father's disfavour. You might notice that understanding "Honor" is the key to understanding this film! Garbo and Gilbert were perfect for the roles (making this a lovely bookend for Flesh And The Devil) and both never looked more gleaming beautiful, although Garbo had a few odd costumes along the way. They had a couple of languid clinches, but this time the plot got in the way of these scenes becoming "hot". Lewis Stone had already dropped into his avuncular stereotype here, his was a marvellously hammy but key performance. Everyone undulates their way to a fitting climax and conclusion (although didn't Neville come back into the room to Constance rather fast after Diana told him ---- ?)

All in all one of my favourite silent melodramas, strangely neglected nowadays - or is there no honour left?