A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS
starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert
THE FILM SPECTATOR
November 24, 1928
One might be reconciled to silent pictures remaining a little
longer if all of them were as good as A Woman of Affairs,
which Clarence Brown has made for Metro, the clause in his contract
that provides that no one is to interfere with him while he is
making a picture, being responsible for the fact that it is good
even though it is a Metro production. Although they call the woman
of affairs Diana Merrick, she is none other than our old friend
Iris March to whom Mike Arlen introduced us. You remember here,
the captivating woman wearing the green hat. What an exceedingly
silly industry is this one of making picture. The Green
Hat is a story either fit or unfit for screen presentation.
If fit, then it should be presented under its own name; if unfit,
it should not be presented at all. Will Hays, that sanctimonious
monk in tarnished cassock, did not pass upon the moral merit of
the story. He received his orders from Louis B. Mayer, and then
consented to the filming of some other story. It's an old custom
that Hays brought with him from politics. You'll remember that
he accepted tainted money as campaign contributions and tried
to defraud the public into the belief that it was derived from
other sources. Well, anyway, Clarence Brown made The Green
Hat into a picture that rates highly as an example of
screen art and which will hold the close attention of any intelligent
person who views it. In making this statement, I am assuming that
the public will see it as I saw it and that Metro is not going
to tie pans and other things on it to make a noise. The picture
is engrossing for the same reason that the book is engrossing,
not for its story value, but for its delightful treatment. Brown
had a superb cast -- Greta Garbo, Jack Gilbert, Dorothy Sebastian,
Lewis Stone, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Hobart Bosworth and John Mack
Brown. While it is a joint Gilbert-Garbo production, Jack sat
back and allowed Greta to earn all the bows. Whether she will
prove to be your conception of Iris March depends upon what that
conception is, but she is my Iris March down to the flicker of
her eye-lashes. In my opinion she never gave a more intelligent
or a more entertaining performance on the screen. Al the performances
are what we might expect from such a brilliant cast. Young Doug
Fairbanks without question is destined to be a great actor. At
the present moment the thing that he is in the greatest need of
is a haircut. Clarence Brown's direction displays the same mastery
that made Flesh and the Devil an outstanding picture,
although Woman of Affairs will not attract the attention
the other did, as Arlen's contribution in the way of a story is
not as great as Sudermann's. But there still is a torch of timidity
in Brown's direction and not until he gets over it will he show
us what a really capable director he can be. In one sequence he
swings his camera form a group to a door through which a character
exits, then swings it back other group of which the departing
player was a member before he left. It is a smooth manner of avoiding
a cut, but Brown uses the idea only once in that sequence and
not once again in the picture. His grouping in medium and long
shots always is intelligent and effective, but he is too timid
to go a little farther and tell his story with such shots. He
falls back on close-ups after he has demonstrated that he could
do without them. He is one of the most painstaking directors in
pictures, one of the most thorough workmen, and when he gets a
little more confidence in himself, he is going to give us some
extraordinary pictures. The titles in Woman of Affairs
are punctuated with that display of gross ignorance that has become
the Metro trade-mark. It is why the lion in the main title roars.
For more information, see "A Woman of Affairs" as our 'Feature of the Month'