... and that is what both Greta Garbo and Constance Bennett are doing here - playing against type. I actually liked this one when I expected to dislike it. I don't think this one was an attempt to turn Garbo into a pin-up sweater girl as much as it was the Americanization of an old soul, and an old soul that people had become accustomed to seeing in a certain type of role for the previous 16 years.
It was great fun to see Greta's character improvising a woman of the world with no real knowledge of exactly what that meant, and it was also great fun to see Constance Bennett's Griselda, a rival for the affection of Larry (Melvyn Douglas), doing what I thought she should have done in all of those precodes where she was so mistreated and yet suffered in such silence - going off in private when things weren't going her way and yelling, throwing things, and having a bit of a temper tantrum, then readjusting her clothes and hair, regaining her poise, and walking right back into the thick of things as though nothing ever happened.
The thing that struck me as odd in this film even in the production code era - Karin (Greta Garbo) and Larry have just married after a whirlwind courtship. It is their wedding night. Both just put on their pajamas, and Larry promptly announces he is tired and lies down to go to sleep like they've been married for ten years and just returned from Black Friday shopping???? And this isn't what bothers Karin at all - it's that he admits being swept up in the moment about saying he wanted to live a simple life, and he now wants to go back to New York and his job as magazine publisher. Otherwise she would have laid down and gone to sleep too??? If this was close to realistic it would be the end of the human race.
But that's the point. The whole thing is a farce from beginning to end and a delightful surprise at that. Highly recommended for the fun of it all.
It was great fun to see Greta's character improvising a woman of the world with no real knowledge of exactly what that meant, and it was also great fun to see Constance Bennett's Griselda, a rival for the affection of Larry (Melvyn Douglas), doing what I thought she should have done in all of those precodes where she was so mistreated and yet suffered in such silence - going off in private when things weren't going her way and yelling, throwing things, and having a bit of a temper tantrum, then readjusting her clothes and hair, regaining her poise, and walking right back into the thick of things as though nothing ever happened.
The thing that struck me as odd in this film even in the production code era - Karin (Greta Garbo) and Larry have just married after a whirlwind courtship. It is their wedding night. Both just put on their pajamas, and Larry promptly announces he is tired and lies down to go to sleep like they've been married for ten years and just returned from Black Friday shopping???? And this isn't what bothers Karin at all - it's that he admits being swept up in the moment about saying he wanted to live a simple life, and he now wants to go back to New York and his job as magazine publisher. Otherwise she would have laid down and gone to sleep too??? If this was close to realistic it would be the end of the human race.
But that's the point. The whole thing is a farce from beginning to end and a delightful surprise at that. Highly recommended for the fun of it all.