The Temptress

Greta Garbo cemented herself as a screen icon in this melodrama, her second American film, and one of her biggest successes. Robleda and Elena meet at a Parisian costume ball. The masks soon come off and hours later the smitten couple watches the sun rise over the City of Light. Later that day, Robledo visits a friend and business colleague, the Marquis de Torre Bianca, and is stunned to meet the Marquise…Elena. A suitor’s suicide, rival swains cracking bullwhips, a catastrophic dam collapse—all are part of the storm swirling around Elena as the story leaps from Paris to South America and back again. Garbo won acclaim as the predatory femme in her U.S. debut The Torrent, so the studio turned to a similar role (and same novelist) for her next film. While the actress did not welcome the role’s typecasting, but when you see the powerful finale you will understand how she could take a part and make it heartendingly real.