The Single Standard

John S. Robertson: The Single Standard (US 1929) with Dorothy Sebastian (Mercedes) and Greta Garbo (Ada). In 1929 Dorothy Sebastian was also Buster Keaton's costar in Spite Marriage, his best female lead and a long-term romantic partner.

Le Droit d'aimer / Gleiche Moral / Elämän valhe / En kvinnas moral.
    US © 1929 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) presents, controlled by Loew's Incorporated. .
    P+D: John S. Robertson. SC: Josephine Lovett (adaptation) – Marian Ainslee (titles) – based on the novel (1928) by Adela Rogers St. Johns. Cin: Oliver T. Marsh. M for the sonorized version: William Axt (compilation soundtrack listing detailed in IMDb). AD: Cedric Gibbons. Cost: Adrian. ED: Blanche Sewell.
    C: Greta Garbo (Arden [Ada] Stuart), Nils Asther (Packy Cannon), Johnny Mack Brown (Tommy Hewlett), Dorothy Sebastian (Mercedes), Lane Chandler (Ding Stuart), Mahlon Hamilton (Mr. Glendenning), Kathlyn Williams (Mrs. Glendenning), Zeffie Tilbury (Mrs. Handley).
    Filming dates: 15 April – 3 June 1929. Production Dates: 19 April – June 1929,
    Filming location: San Pedro, California, USA (scenes on the boat off-shore).
    Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios – 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City
    Released in two versions: a silent version and a sonorized one with a music soundtrack and sound effects. Silent length: 6474 ft. Sonorized length 6574 ft / 24 fps/ 73 min
    The silent version was released in full frame and the sonorized one in the cropped Movietone ratio. Only cropped prints survive.
    Premiere: 27 July 1929 (New York City), 29 July 1929 (general).
    Finnish premiere: 25 Aug 1930.
Copie 35 mm, Bundesarchiv, Deutsche Fassung (deutscher Vorspann und Zwischentitel), Movietone aspect ratio. Duration announced: 1H10.
Présenté par Marion Polirsztok
Grand piano: Satsuki Hoshino
Electronic subtitles in French
Viewed at Salle Charles Pathé at the Fondation Jerôme Seydoux Pathé, 73 avenue des Gobelins (retrospective Greta Garbo, La Divine), 14 Feb 2023

"Arden Stuart, une oisive de la riche société de San Francisco, rencontre Packy Cannon, un marin combattant devenu artiste, dans une galerie d'art. Elle tombe amoureux de lui et part avec lui sur un yacht pour une liaison prolongée. Lorsqu'il la quitte pour aller à Paris pour affaires, elle retourne à San Francisco et épouse un ancien prétendant, Tommy Hewlett." (Fondation Jerôme Seydoux Pathé program notes)

"Arden Stuart maintains that the set of moral principles applying differently to the sexes should be altered in favor of a single standard of conduct applying equally to men and women. She refuses to take seriously the marriage proposal of Tommy Hewlett, of her own social set, and steps out with Kendall, the handsome family chauffeur; but Kendall commits suicide in despair. Then she meets Packy Cannon, an ex-prizefighter turned artist, and takes him on her yacht to the South Seas, where their romance develops over a period of months; but when Packy fears she is interfering with his creativity, she returns home and marries Hewlett. After the birth of their child, Packy returns, realizing that his love for her is stronger than his devotion to his art. Arden plans to leave with him, but her love for the child persuades her to remain with her husband." (AFI Catalog synopsis)

"For a number of generations men have done as they pleased--and women have done as men pleased... " (motto of The Single Standard)

AA: I saw for the first time The Single Standard, Greta Garbo's penultimate silent film. Charles Chaplin and Greta Garbo were the last Hollywood superstars still popular in silent films when sound film became dominant. Silent cinema reached its greatest heights when it ended.

For me, The Single Standard is a Greta Garbo vehicle, beyond genre, beyond subject matter, and beyond the literary source. Adela Rogers St. Johns was an exciting talent and worthy of attention, but it is not for her literary merit that the film adaptation of The Single Standard remains relevant.

Greta Garbo is at her best here, conveying much in subtle looks and gestures. She kept getting better in the mastery of pantomime, in the unique art of the silent cinema enhanced by luminous, superhuman close-ups.

The story is relevant to the post-WWI experience. Ada's first lover is an ex ace pilot suffering from the post-traumatic stress disorder, a member of the "lost generation" immortalized in Ernest Hemingway's novels such as The Sun Also Rises. Having lost his social standing and unable to readjust, he commits suicide by car crash.

The shock is transferred to Ada who finds a new lover in an art gallery, seeking shelter from the rain and unwanted attentions of a man on the street. Packy is a sailor and a boxer who has turned into a painter. They embark on a cruise in the South Seas on Packy's yacht. But art is what matters most to Packy, and he abandons Ada in San Francisco.

I know too little of John S. Robertson to assess how much the film's success can be attributed to the director-producer and how much to the genius of the system. Brilliant cinematography by Oliver T. Marsh and elegant gowns by Adrian contribute unforgettably to this Hollywood dream.

It is a dream of fulfillment for men and women equally, against the double standard, told visually, one of the cinema's counterparts to D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, frankly and proudly sensual, a pre-code film: finding the greatest beauty in an uninhibited expression of sensuality. There is no sin in Ada's paradises.

It is a satire about manners and mores, casting a sharp eye on hypocrisy. Recently I wrote about Leo Tolstoy and the cinema and remarked on the distinction of Greta Garbo's Anna Karenina interpretations. Her originality is in bringing a dimension of cosmic solitude to Tolstoy's tragedy. The same is valid here. To each frame, she brings transcendence.

Ada returns to her own social world and the patient Tommy, but I don't find this movie conformist. It is about a woman's equal freedom to love and pursue happiness. What happens is not because of social norms but an inner urge.

Ada is proud of the blood flowing in her veins. She is also proud of her motherhood, giving birth to new life and the supreme joy of witnessing her child grow. In her pursuit of the single standard, she transcends her social circle. In motherhood, she transcends herself.

The Bundesarchiv print has a duped look. The glamour is missing, but the print conveys the mastery of the cinematography in extreme close-ups and underwater passages and the irresistible flow of Blanche Sewell's editing.