The Kiss (1929)

Jacques Feyder: The Kiss (US 1929) with Greta Garbo (Irene Guarry) and Lew Ayres (Pierre Lassalle). This was the first major film role for Lew Ayres. He became world-famous in his next film: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

Le Baiser / Kohtalokas suudelma / Kyssen.
    US © 1929 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) presents, controlled by Loew's Incorporated. P: Albert Lewin (n.c.), Irving Thalberg (n.c.).
    D: Jacques Feyder. SC: Hanns Kräly – titles: Marian Ainslee – from the story by George M. Saville. Cin: William H. Daniels. AD: Cedric Gibbons. Gowns: Adrian. Movietone synchronization: Dr. William Axt – the soundtrack listing (including copious Tchaikovsky selections from the Romeo and Juliet overture and the pathetic symphony) has been published on IMDb. ED: Ben Lewis.
    C: Greta Garbo (Irene Guarry), Conrad Nagel (André Dubail), Anders Randolf (M. Charles Guarry), Holmes Herbert (M. Lassalle), Lew Ayres (Pierre Lassalle), George Davis (Detective Durant.
    Filming dates: 16 July – 26 August 1929.
    Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City.
    Released in two versions: a silent one and a sonorized one with a Movietone soundtrack and sound effects. The silent version was released in full frame, the sonorized one in the Movietone aspect ratio. 62 min
    Premiere: 15 Nov 1929 (New York City), 16 Nov 1929 (wide).
    Finnish premiere: 3 Nov 1930.
    Copie 35 mm, Cinematek de Bruxelles, original English version, sous-titres français dans la copie, full silent frame, duration announced: 1H01
    Présenté par Samantha Leroy.
    Grand piano: M. Camille El Bacha.
    Viewed at Salle Charles Pathé at the Fondation Jerôme Seydoux Pathé, 73 avenue des Gobelins (retrospective Greta Garbo, La Divine), 15 Feb 2023

"Irène est l'épouse malheureuse de Charles. Pierre, le fils d'un associé de Charles, la poursuite de ses attentions amoureuses. Un soir, alors qu'elle lui donne un innocent baiser, Charles les surprend. Fou de jalousie, il s'attaque à Pierre mais meurt dans la bagarre. Irène est accusée du meurtre." (Fondation Jerôme Seydoux Pathé program notes)

"Irene, victim of a loveless marriage to wealthy Guarry, carries on a clandestine affair with André, a young lawyer whom she loves but forces herself to forget; and in desperation, he leaves and goes to Paris. Pierre, the youthful son of a Lyon financier, is fascinated by Irene, and when she gives him an innocent goodby kiss, Guarry, thinking she has been unfaithful to him, attacks the boy. The ensuing struggle results in Guarry's death. Irene recounts the events of the fateful evening to the police, but her story is full of contradictions and she keeps the boy's name out of the affair. Brought to trial, she is acquitted with André's help, but later she confesses that she killed her husband to save the boy's life. At last she finds happiness with André." (AFI Catalog online)

AA: The Kiss was the last silent film of Greta Garbo and the MGM studio. It was released amidst the turbulence of the Wall Street crash, anticipated in the film: M. Charles Guarry, the husband of Irene (Garbo), facing bankruptcy, has a stroke. Against all odds, The Kiss became a huge hit, Garbo's second most successful film to date.

Garbo was once again brilliantly showcased by the greatest studio of glamour. Adrian created gowns, Cedric Gibbons designed Art Deco milieux, William H. Daniels made magic with the camera, and Ben Lewis stunned with montages, superimpositions and visual effects.

Like in Jean Renoir's films, the dramatis personae form a quadrangle. Irene is faithful to her suffering husband, but she is surrounded by a suitor, the lawyer André Dubail (Conrad Nagel) and a teenage admirer, Pierre Lassalle (Lew Ayres).

The most fatal sequence of events is related to Pierre. Irene displays tact and a sweet sense of humour as Pierre timidly reveals her affections. Irene avoids hurting Pierre's feelings, in no way playing with them.

But love is a play with fire. An innocent kiss can lead to tragedy. Pierre does not accept a "no" as a "no", and Charles witnesses Irene in the grip of the youngster's passionate advances.

Irene is not like Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft / The Graduate) or Mrs. Reynolds (Deborah Kerr / Tea and Sympathy), but she does incarnate sympathy. To Irene's sympathy both men react destructively.

As usual, the literary quality of the storytelling is beside the point. In a silent Garbo vehicle, it is like a manuscript for a ballet whose substance lies in wordless body language. And in the case of Garbo, increasingly eloquent facial expression.

Again, Garbo overcomes the limitations of the narrative and the obsolete conditions of life in which the storyline plays out. Her screenplays would not have survived the Bechdel test. But it cannot be claimed that Garbo's characters are defined by her relationships with men, because they observe everything from the viewpoint of transcendence.

I was also thinking that the death of Mauritz Stiller the year before marks her performances in 1929 in a poignant way. Garbo is timeless, never more than here. In our age of revaluation / transvaluation of gender, Garbo is beyond conventional roles and identities. Also a legacy from Mauritz. When Abraham met Greta at Mauritz's grave, he recognized his brother in the figure emerging from the distance of the graveyard corridor. They conversed in Swedish.

– I want to be buried with Mauritz.
– That is not possible.
– Why?
– Because you are not Jewish.
– I would like to convert.
– That would be too complicated, and besides, you are too young to think about such things.

Jacques Feyder was one of the greatest directors of the silent period in masterpieces including Crainquebille, Visages d'enfants and Gribiche. His Thérèse Raquin (1928) was for many the greatest lost silent treasure. I was puzzled to register how great The Single Standard felt, directed by John S. Robertson. Now I'm puzzled to discover Jacques Feyder not quite at his best in The Kiss, perhaps hampered by the studio system in his first Hollywood assignment.

The Brussels print is complete and in full frame but, duped and bumpy as a result of unevenly shrunken source image and intertitle footage, fails to convey the MGM glamour. Yet it is a luminous pleasure to behold.