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The Temptress (1926) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.0/10   345 votes
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Director:
Fred Niblo
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Writers:
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (novel)
Dorothy Farnum (scenario)
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Temptress on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
3 October 1926 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
Tagline:
She had added another to her list of victims (from original lobby card) more
Plot:
In a masked ball in Paris, Manuel Robledo, a young Argentinian architect, meets Elena, the Marquess of Torre Blanca... more | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
Forsaking All Others more (13 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Greta Garbo ... Elena
Antonio Moreno ... Manuel Robledo
Marc McDermott ... M.Fontenoy (as Marc MacDermott)

Lionel Barrymore ... Canterac
Armand Kaliz ... Marquis de Torre Bianca
Roy D'Arcy ... Manos Duras
Robert Anderson ... Pirovani (as Robert Andersen)
Francis McDonald ... Timoteo
Hector Sarno ... Rojas (as Hector V. Sarno)
Virginia Brown Faire ... Celinda
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
117 min (18.7 fps) | 106 min (2005 alternate version)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Silent
Certification:
USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)
Company:
Cosmopolitan Productions more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Mauritz Stiller was fired after 10 days of production and replaced with Fred Niblo. more
Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: When the camera crane pulls back from Fontenoy along the long banquet table prior to his suicide, the crane throws a shadow across him from the overhead studio lighting. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007) (TV) more

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User Comments

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17 out of 19 people found the following comment useful.
Forsaking All Others, 24 January 2005
Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida

THE TEMPTRESS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1926), personally directed by Fred Niblo, from the novel by Vicente Blasco-Ibanez, stars Swedish actress Greta Garbo in her second Hollywood production, following her American debut in THE TORRENT (1926), and the first to place her name on top of the casting credits. As with her MGM debut, Garbo plays a girl of Spanish origin (this was the last to do so), and like so many films that were to follow, especially during the silent era and early talkies, she would portray a woman (usually unhappily married) who satisfies her emotions with illicit affairs, finding the one man she truly cares about, and destroys those around her before reaching bottom herself, committing suicide, or both. THE TEMPTRESS would set such a pattern.

The story opens in Paris at a masquerade party where the unhappy Elena (Garbo) meets Manuel Robledo (Antonio Moreno), an Argentine engineer. After removing their masks, they fall in love under the stars. Later when he comes to visit his friend, Marques De Torre Bianca (Armand Kaliz), Manuel is stunned to learn that his wife happens to be Elena. At the dinner party, Marquis Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott), a middle-aged banker permitted by Bianca to have Elena be his mistress in order for them to be financially secure, distracts the guests by making a startling speech on how Elena, the temptress, has ruined his life, and dropping dead at the table after taking his drink of poison. Disgusted by the ugly truth, Manuel decides to forget Elena by leaving for the Argentine where he accepts a water dam building project. Just as Manuel is slowly forgetting Elena, she arrives with her husband, and by doing so, causes frustration and destruction to both men, and others as well, with Manuel, who feels she to be responsible for the murder of his friend and husband, as well as the near destruction of his dam dynamited by his enemy, finds he still cannot resist her.

The supporting players include Lionel Barrymore as Canterac, one of the construction workers who falls victim to Elena; Robert Anderson as Pirovani, the friend Canterac kills because of Elena; and Virginia Browne-Faire as Celinda, the pretty young girl who silently loves Manuel. Adding to sin and destruction is Roy D'Arcy as Manos Duros, the bandit leader, in a menacing performance as Manuel's arch enemy who, after forcing his intentions on Elena, is challenged by Manuel to a duel, with the bandit's method being the use of whips. The bull whip duel is one of the high points in the story, resulting to whip scars on the bare torsos covered with blood, as well as Manos, who fights dirty, aiming for the eyes, being quite graphic for its time.

THE TEMPTRESS, an important project that helped advanced the screen career of Greta Garbo, at long last, premiered January 24, 2005, on Turner Classic Movies cable channel, accompanied by a new score composed by Michael Picton. Scoring a silent movie is challenging, as mentioned in the half hour special that preceded the movie, and minutes into watching THE TEMPTRESS, the result of Picton's work is satisfactory and rewarding. In spite the fact that host Bob Osborne announced THE TEMPTRESS as making its world television premiere, it actually did play on television, but many years ago. THE TEMPTRESS was one of the selected 13 silent films shown weekly on the public television series in commemoration of MGM's fifty years titled "Movies-Great-Movies," (WNET, Channel 13, in New York City from August to October of 1973) hosted by Richard Schickel, movies accompanied by an an orchestral score (and in the New Jersey area as part of the 1974 series, "Films of the Gatsby Era," with same movies, different hosts, on WNJM, Channel 50). THE TEMPTRESS made its final TV run on WNET in the spring of 1978 when it became part of the double bill five week movie tribute to Garbo and Katharine Hepburn. Schickel, as did Osborne, talked about how Garbo's discoverer, Mauritz Stiller, started out as the film's director, but due to complications during production, was replaced by Fred Niblo. The information regarding THE TEMPTRESS remains the same, with the exception of its time length. When shown in the 1970s, the running time was about 114 minutes. TCM's print runs at 105. But regardless of its length, possibly due to projection speed, THE TEMPTRESS is a welcome addition to the TCM lineup, and well worth viewing again after many years or the first time ever. While THE TEMPTRESS belongs to Antonio Moreno, whose name is almost forgotten today, it owes its success to the temptress herself, Greta Garbo, which is the sole reason for its rediscovery.

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