 |  | The Divine Garbo in a Complex Love Triangle in the Orient |  |
I always feel approaching a Greta Garbo film to review it is like entering some Sacred Temple where one must show due respect and restraint.For the whole of the 1930's decade she along with Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer held the prime positions as the annointed Queens of MGM. Garbo however always seemed to have her own special niche in the pecking order and always had more popularity with European audiences than with the average American movie going public who flocked to Crawford's shop girl melodramas and Shearer's lady like portrayals in high society settings.
Fresh from her triumph in "Queen Christina", the previous year MGM legend Garbo tackled this modern dress romantic film which turned out to be her last modern themed film for quite some time. Indeed by this stage in her career Garbo was down to only making one film a year so her productions were always viewed as special events even when their stories might not have always been up to the quality of the rest of the production. "The Painted Veil", is a classic example of just this. While the story itself is fairly ordinary the same cannot be said for the lavish production with all its "A" list features, and the interesting central performance by Garbo. The story centres around an Austrian girl named Katrin who after the wedding of her only sister finds herself at a loose end and lonely for companionship. Still in the fallout from the wedding Katrin meets her father's assistant Dr. Walter Fane (Herbert Marshall), a sturdy but unexciting man who is immediately infatuated with Katrin and on a whim asks her to marry him before he returns to his position in Hong Kong. With nothing more inviting on the horizon Katrin agrees and after the wedding travels to China with Walter where she takes her place as one of the colonies bored wives who spend their days shopping and playing cards. Into this setup comes Jack Townsend (George Brent),who works for the British Embassy in Hong Kong and very quickly the two are involved in an affair. Walter discovers the truth and to punish Katrin decides to go into China's interior to help fight the cholera epidemic taking her with him in the belief that there at least no man can have her and she will be deprived of her one source of happiness. Because Jack refuses to give up his promising career which he would have to do to marry Katrin, she goes with Walter where in the midst of the crisis the two begin to see the real value in each other. As the crisis worsens Walter is nearly killed by a stab wound inflicted by an angry villager who's house Walter orders burnt to fight the epidemic. Katrin who has been tirelessly nursing the cholera sufferers then rallies to he husband's side and even the reappearance of Jack in the plague stricken area cannot tear her away from her real duty to her husband.
Based on a novel by none other than W. Somerset Maugham, the material at times is a bit thin but still makes compulsive viewing if only to see Garbo's sterling performance as the wayward woman torn between two very different men. Directed with gusto by veteran MGM director Richard Boleslawski he keeps the main action against which the story is set rolling on. As the two male leads Herbert Marshall and George Brent have their work cut out for them against Garbo but come across rather well in their very different characters. Marshall plays his usual upright character but here is injected with just an element of malice to make his playing a little less bland than usual. George Brent used to playing against powerful leading ladies like Bette Davis has just the right element of the cad in his character to breathe a bit of life into what could have been a cardboard character. Being a Garbo vehicle all the MGM expertise are evident on the screen from the superb lighting for all of Garbo's closeups courtesy of William Daniels, her stunning clothes by the legendary MGM designer Adrian, the interesting depiction of China in the last days of the Empire and the quite harrowing scenes of the cholera stricken villages all created within the confines of MGM studios.
I find Greta Garbo always a pleasure to watch on screen and she manages with her unique style to breath life into any story no matter how weak the material. Her absolute understanding of any character she is playing is always very evident and no more so than in "The Painted Veil". I enjoy the real feel of olden times China which is created in this story and find it a terrific romantic drama and to sit back and enjoy. It certainly shows one of MGM's crowning glories in a lavish production created around her where she is showcased to perfection. I recommend the exotic "The Painted Veil", to anyone interested to studying the great mystique of the legendary Greta Garbo. August 12, 2003
 | | A Classic is a classic is a classic | |
Where else can you watch Garbo cheat on Herbert Marshall with George Brent...and during the interum meet up with Warner Oland (Charlie Chan) in a bar??? It definietly caught my attention. I would recommend if only for the aesthetics. Check out the bar..very KONTIKI...gotta buy this one..
January 18, 2001| | | one of garbo's better films. | |
The film did badly when it was first released. After viewing it, i know the present audiences can't really rely on the history. Though the film was not Garbo's best,but it's one of the better ones.
June 27, 2000Set in the mysterious Orient, Garbo is cast as an unfaithful wife who eventually mends her ways........... she's magnificent throughout this rather weak story in one stunning scene after another (Garbo alone is worth the "price of admission"). Garbo just had finished her smash hit QUEEN CHRISTINA when she went into this rather mediocre Maugham tale. The rather melodramatic story, which was adapted for the screen by John Meehan, Salka Viertel and Edith Fitzgerald, seems to hark back to Garbo's silent films as she's torn between a worthy husband and a passionate lover; its plot is curiously similar to that of WILD ORCHIDS (1928) except that China replaces Java as the exotic locale. It was rumoured offscreen that Garbo and Brent had a briefly torrid little affair; however Garbo baulked when Brent insisted on marriage!
May 19, 2000More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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