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The Temptress
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The Temptress is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore and Roy D'Arcy it premiered on October 10 1926. The film melodrama was based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez adapted for the screen by Dorothy Farnum.
In her eighth film and only second film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios Greta Garbo plays the title role, a beautiful woman who destroys all who come in contact with her.
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Encyclopedia
The Temptress is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore and Roy D'Arcy it premiered on October 10 1926. The film melodrama was based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez adapted for the screen by Dorothy Farnum.
In her eighth film and only second film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios Greta Garbo plays the title role, a beautiful woman who destroys all who come in contact with her. The film was released on DVD in 2005 with a brand new score, written by Michael Picton of New York, who won TCM’s fifth annual Young Film Composers competition.
Plot
The story opens in Paris at a masquerade party where the unhappy Elena (Garbo) meets Manuel Robledo (Antonio Moreno), an Argentine engineer. After removing their masks, they spend the night together in a park and they fall in love under the stars. They declare their love for one another, with Manuel giving her a ring, before departing.
The next day when he goes to visit his friend, Marques De Torre Bianca (Armand Kaliz), Manuel is stunned to learn that his wife happens to be Elena. He is disillusioned and upset. Wanting nothing more to do with her, he leaves.
At the dinner party, Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott), a middle-aged banker permitted by Bianca to have Elena be his mistress in order for them to be financially secure, distracts the guests by making a startling speech around the table on how Elena, the temptress, has ruined his life and blames her for his financial ruin. As he drains his glass he collapses at the table after taking his drink that was evidently filled with poison.
Back at their home, the Marquis, who had encouraged his wife's affair with Fontenoy, informs Elena that he too is overwhelmed with debt. Distraught over the incident and the departure of Robledo back, she empties her jewel box, giving all that she received from Fontenoy to the Marquis. Robledo arrives to comfort his friend and tell him that he is returning to Argentina. As he is leaving, Elena tries to convince him that she really does love him, but he doesn't and departs quickly.
When Robledo returns to Argentina, he receives a difficult reception from the whole town, especially associates Canterac (Lionel Barrymore) & Pirovani (Robert Anderson). We learn that these men have escaped their financial troubles, and women, back home by traveling to this remote country to spearhead the construction of a dam. Their efforts are being stalled by a local bandit Manos Duras (Roy D’Arcy) and his men.
Lo and behold, the Marquis shows up to visit Robledo in Argentina, and he has brought Elena. He tells Robledo he had no choice since she financed the trip. Elena dresses formally for dinner and every other occasion, showing up the local shoeless women and entrancing all the men much to the disdain of Robledo. Manos, who observed her arrival, comes to Robledo’s one evening to serenade Elena. He becomes jealous and he fights Manos to protect her honour. Even though they use whips, with which Manos is a master, Robledo wins. After he leaves he is left alone with Elena as she tends to his wounds, Robledo denies that his actions were a sign that he loves her. And Manos, still seething from his loss in the fight, returns to shoot Robledo but kills the Marquis instead.
Free from marriage, Elena has distracted the men. Robledo's associates Canterac & Pirovani have even forgotten about their women back home. One night, the town throws a party in her honor, during which Canterac kills Pirovani with his sword over Elena. Manos, who had not lost sight of the larger fight of stopping the foreigners from completing their project, chooses that night to seek his revenge and dynamite the dam producing some early special effects for 1926.
Robledo and the men attempt to repair the damage before it floods. However, they are not successful and a tired, nearly drowned Robledo returns to find Elena. Though at first he tries to kill her, he finds that he cannot and, with his resistance low, he succumbs, declaring that he is beaten and that he does love her. As he sleeps, and though she had insisted to Robledo that she had never used the word "love" with anyone else, she leaves him, with a note telling him that she will not be his ruin.
Six years later, the dam is completed and the engineer Robledo is back in Paris being lauded for his success by a crowd of people, his fiancée on his arm. As they are climbing into a cab, however, Robledo sees a woman in the crowd that he thinks is Elena. He follows her, finding her in a cafe, where he buys her a drink. He is surprised that she doesn't seem to remember him, and soon leaves. Elena then has a vision, that a man across the cafe is actually Jesus Christ, halo and all. It is then revealed that she has kept Robledo's ring, the one he had given her that first night they met. She it gives to the man and the film ends with her walking away, alone down the street.
Filming
Mauritz Stiller was originally set to direct Greta Garbo's second film for MGM but as production began he was forced to back down from the directorship because as a newcomer to the Hollywood film scene his command of the English language was very basic at the time. He was replaced at MGM studios by Fred Niblo and was very unhappy with his dismissal something that affected Greta Garbo during the four months of filming The Temptress.
Swedish director Stiller had been influential in bringing Garbo to film and their partnership was so successful that when MGM took on Garbo they also hired the man who made her face recognisable. Soon after Garbo had filmed The Torrent, Stiller was called in to helm The Temptress. However, Stiller's arguing with the studio bosses meant that he had to leave even after shooting a considerable amount of footage. Despite its filming difficulties, The Temptress came through and proved to be a success, showing early signs of Garbo’s career potential.
Overview
The Temptress is the first of several films in which Garbo played what could be considered as a typecast role, until it got to a point where she drifted from the role in later films. Although Greta Garbo is the main star, Antonio Moreno does play a key role in creating the melodramatic scenes of the film, particularly in scenes where he discovers he has been cheated upon by Elena, is suffering from the wounds of his bout and witnesses the dynamiting of his precious dam. Robledo does have a slight Zorro status about him, which is increasingly evident upon his return to Argentine and his role as a hero for the impoverished.
The cinematography of the film contains two notable silhouette shots, an amusing "under the table" sequence at a dinner party where men and women's legs and feet engage in some avid flirting and the ubiquitous MGM long banquet table tracking shot which appears in later films such as Anna.
Main cast and characters
| Image | Actor | Character | Notes |
|---|
| | Greta Garbo | Elena | Elena is the main character of the film able to use her physical beauty to capture the heard and "tempt" the opposite sex. She is highly manipulative and is able to win over the hearts of men within an instant leading to some fierce competition between her Argentine love interests | | | Antonio Moreno | Manuel Robledo | Robledo is an Argentine engineer on leave from a dam building
project back home in Argentina in Paris where he meets Elena at a masquerade ball and falls in love with her | | | Marc McDermott | Fontenoy | Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott) is a middle-aged banker who had an affair with Elena during a difficult period. He blames her and labels her as the temptress, stating she had ruined his life and blames her for his financial ruin. He commits suicide in a highly melodramatic fashion by poisoned wine in public. | | | Armand Kaliz | Marquis de Torre Bianca | The Marquis de Torre Bianca is a Frenchman and the husband of Elena but also the close friend of Robledo | | | Roy D'Arcy | Manos Duras | Manos Duras is a local Argentine bandit who like Robledo falls for Garbo when she arrives in Argentina. He vies for her affections and is surprised when the jealous Robledo clearly still has feelings for her and confronts him violently. Despite Duras being a maestro with a whip he is beaten almost to death by Robledo fuelled by his desire. | |
Other cast
Uncredited cast
- Steve Clemente .... Salvadore (uncredited)
- Roy Coulson .... Trinidad (uncredited)
- Louise Emmons .... Newspaper Vendor (uncredited)
- Inez Gomez .... Sebastiana (uncredited)
- Bob Kortman .... Duras henchman (uncredited)
- Ethan Laidlaw .... Caballero (uncredited)
- Alys Murrell .... Josephine (uncredited)
- Mauritz Stiller .... (uncredited)
DVD release
The film was released on DVD on 6 September 2005 by Warner Home Video as part of the Greta Garbo collection also featuring the film Flesh and the Devil on the same disc. The DVD version of The Temptress had a brand new score, written by Michael Picton of New York, who won TCM’s fifth annual Young Film Composers competition.
DVD chapters
Disc #2, Side B -- The Temptress
- Credits [1:08]
- Costume Ball [2:37]
- Behind the Masks [5:28]
- Dawn of Love [2:58]
- Marquis... and Marquise [6:32]
- Fontenoy's Dinner Party [4:57]
- Banner Headlines; Jewels [3:30]
- Robledo's Departure [3:06]
- The Argentine [7:02]
- Manos Duras [4:31]
- Unexpected Guests [6:05]
- Dinner Attire [3:47]
- Serenade [4:23]
- Bullwhip Duel [6:15]
- Comfort and Contempt [3:18]
- No Happiness [5:02]
- Offer Refused [4:17]
- Fiesta; Deadly Blades [6:33]
- Dam Destroyed [4:52]
- Heroic Efforts [5:51]
- From Hatred to Love [4:57]
- Six Years Later [5:57]
- Elena's Vision [2:07]
- End Credits [:35]
Trivia
- When the camera crane pulls back from Fontenoy along the long banquet table prior to his death, the crane visibly throws a shadow across him from the overhead studio lighting.
Reviews
External links
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