The Garbo Silent Collection Disk 3 - The Temptress (1926) DVD5 Silent Classic [DDR]
The Temptress (1926) is an 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 fourth film and only second film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Garbo plays the title role, a vamp who inadvertently destroys many men who come in contact with her. The film was released on DVD in 2005 with a new score, written by Michael Picton, who won Turner Classic Movies’s fifth annual Young Film Composers competition.
CAST:-
Greta Garbo............Elena
Antonio Moreno......Manuel Robledo
Marc McDermott ...M.Fontenoy
Lionel Barrymore...Canterac
Armand Kaliz..........Marquis de Torre Bianca
Roy D'Arcy..............Manos Duras
Directed by Fred Niblo
Produced by Irving Thalberg
Written by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Dorothy Farnum
MOVIE REVIEW:- The Temptress (1926) Silent Film
The story opens in Paris at a masquerade ball 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 a 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 love her 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.
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 Manos leaves, Elena tends to Robledo's wounds, and he 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, with 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 gives it to the man and the film ends with her walking away, alone down the street.
In an alternate ending, Robledo spots Elena while at an awards ceremony and the two reconcile.
SYNOPSIS:- The Temptress (1926) Silent Film
In a masked ball in Paris, Manuel Robledo, a young Argentinian architect, meets Elena, the Marquess of Torre Blanca. Later, the young woman is rightly accused causing the misfortune and loss of wealth of Fontenoy, a man who fell for her charms. To escape social criticism, the Marquis of Torre Blanca transfers his residence to Argentina. There, Elena meets again Manuel, when he is building a river's dam. Manos Duras, a thug, harasses Elena, and when Manuel intervenes, he defies him to a whip duel. The duel is long and vicious, both men suffering many cuts on their faces and naked chests, but in the end, the thug is vanquished and humiliated. Manos Duras sets up an ambush to murder Manuel, but the Marquis of Torre Blanca is killed instead. Now, there only two men in love for Elena, the eternal temptress
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 29.970
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: Silent with English Intertitles
RunTime 117 mins
Subtitles: None
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 117 mins