[sabotai]

The Temptress (1926)


(8 minute excerpt)

Directed by: Fred Niblo
Starring: Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Roy D'Arcy
Length: 106 min.
Genre: Drama / Romance
Based On: The novel "La Tierra de Todos" by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Manuel Robledo (Antonio Moreno) meets Elena (Greta Garbo) at a party and they fall in love (as that sort of thing happened easily back then). The next day, he finds out she is already married to someone he knows. At a dinner party later that night, it is learned that she was having an affair with a wealthy man named Fontenoy, who has gone broke spending his fortune on Elana.

Robledo returns to Argentina to finish the dam he was building. Elena and her husband show up, trying to escape the social criticism. While there, they get involved in a fight between Robledo and a local bandit named Manos Duras (Roy D'Arcy) and Elena's husband is killed. Elana returns to France. Several years later, Robledo completes his dam and returns to France with his fiance. He sees Elena and follows her, only to find that she has become a drunk.

The movie moved at a nice pace, after the beginning. The dinner party scene was long because it included a sequence that was shot under the table that showed men and women playing "footsy". I guess it was to show the people having fun and how they were carefree, but it caused me to feel that the movie stalled on the starting line.

After that, they get the movie to Argentina and that's when it picks up. From then on, it's a good tale of men all falling for the same woman and all scheming for time with her, except for Robledo who wants her to go away, the man who she wants to spend all of her time with.

I generally don't like romantic movies, and I'm getting tired of the silent romantic movie formula, but Greta Garbo is a fantastic actress and this movie deviated from that formula a bit. This was the first film of hers I got to see and I can say that now I am actually looking forward to her other movie from 1926, Flesh of the Devil, which seems to be the more highly regarded movie.

Entertainment Rating: 7/10
Historical Rating: 7/10