The Kiss

Both MGM's and Garbo's last silent, this is one of the actress' most memorable films, simply because it combines characteristic studio gloss (art direction by Cedric Gibbons, luminous close-ups by William Daniels) with a genuine feeling for her mixture of erotic glamour and doomy passion. As a woman tried for the murder of a husband who refuses her a divorce, she is perfectly cast, while Ayres makes a fine show as the youngster whose kiss seals her fate. And Feyder's direction contrives to transcend the novelettish nature of the material by means of its elegance, ambiguity, and sheer commitment to the melodramatic emotions.