quiet_curiosity (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quiet_curiosity) wrote2010-05-16 09:22 pm
quiet_curiosity) wrote2010-05-16 09:22 pm
Entry tags:
The Single Standard (1929)
Summary: Arden Stuart wants to live an honest life. But that honesty couldn't save a lover from death by his own hand. Her next strike at love ends when the man in question insists they break up to preserve their moment of pure bliss. So Arden settles for the dependable Tommy. But can Arden resist when her previous love comes back into the picture?
Stars: Greta Garbo, Nils Asther, Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, Lane Chandler, Mahlon Hamilton, Kathlyn Williams, Zeffie Tilbury
Directed by:John S. Robertson
Viewed Via: TCM/DVR
Current Commercial Availability: Warner Archive DVD-R Program
1) Johnny Mack Brown? Nils Aster? Dorothy Sebastian? Are they just the standard part of a late MGM silent? I'm getting kind of bored with the lack of cast variety. Anyway, Asther is attractive and he has good chemistry with Garbo but he doesn't do anything for me. Brown is still really boring and has the same non-existent chemistry with Garbo that he had in A Woman of Affairs.
That said, there was not enough Sebastian for my taste. I've really grown to like her.
2) Garbo is ok. Her wardrobe, though, is really fabulous. Adrian FTW. She also shows great chemistry with the kid who plays her son. But Garbo is uniformly great with her onscreen kids.
3) The Plot: GAH KILL ME NOW! In his Garbo bio, Barry Paris sums it all up by saying that it is about "a girl who demands sexual equality but settles for motherhood". And that line still does not sum up all the nonsense. Our lover cuts off the relationship with Arden because it's "too perfect" right now and staying together longer would screw things up. What the hell? And the husband, who knows how much her previous lover's suicide affected her, is willing to put her and their son through that same emotional bender to "set her free". Never mind how everyone kind of jovially laughs at the male indiscretions at the beginning of the movie while chiding Arden for lesser crimes near the end. Single Standard my ass.
4) Holy off-center title cards, Batman! It was distracting and, at times, a real hindrance to reading.
Skip it...just skip it.
Stars: Greta Garbo, Nils Asther, Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, Lane Chandler, Mahlon Hamilton, Kathlyn Williams, Zeffie Tilbury
Directed by:John S. Robertson
Viewed Via: TCM/DVR
Current Commercial Availability: Warner Archive DVD-R Program
1) Johnny Mack Brown? Nils Aster? Dorothy Sebastian? Are they just the standard part of a late MGM silent? I'm getting kind of bored with the lack of cast variety. Anyway, Asther is attractive and he has good chemistry with Garbo but he doesn't do anything for me. Brown is still really boring and has the same non-existent chemistry with Garbo that he had in A Woman of Affairs.
That said, there was not enough Sebastian for my taste. I've really grown to like her.
2) Garbo is ok. Her wardrobe, though, is really fabulous. Adrian FTW. She also shows great chemistry with the kid who plays her son. But Garbo is uniformly great with her onscreen kids.
3) The Plot: GAH KILL ME NOW! In his Garbo bio, Barry Paris sums it all up by saying that it is about "a girl who demands sexual equality but settles for motherhood". And that line still does not sum up all the nonsense. Our lover cuts off the relationship with Arden because it's "too perfect" right now and staying together longer would screw things up. What the hell? And the husband, who knows how much her previous lover's suicide affected her, is willing to put her and their son through that same emotional bender to "set her free". Never mind how everyone kind of jovially laughs at the male indiscretions at the beginning of the movie while chiding Arden for lesser crimes near the end. Single Standard my ass.
4) Holy off-center title cards, Batman! It was distracting and, at times, a real hindrance to reading.
Skip it...just skip it.