Wednesday with Greta Garbo

“The Kiss” (1929)

This is the rare Greta Garbo movie that’s good entirely on its own. Garbo is stunning as a woman every man wants. She’s married to an older, preoccupied man on the brink of bankruptcy and can barely resist a handsome, amorous lawyer. Meeting him in museums with kisses in closeups, Miss Garbo is the anguished, lonely wife Irene.

Conflicted, she sends the attorney away despite his gallantry. She returns to the old man, who has secretly had her followed by a private detective without her knowledge. Irene comforts her husband in their gorgeous Art Deco home. Making peace with marriage—unaware of the seriousness of his financial trouble—her voracious yet restrained Irene is a progressive depiction of woman given the picture’s 1929 release.

Lush and lustrous, with a screenplay by Hans Kraly from a story by George M. Saville, The Kiss (shot in 40 days before—releas…