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Date: 1928 Review based on Flicker Alley (2002) version.
GoE was adapted by Avery Hopwood from a Broadway play. It is a romantic comedy and maintains a wonderful balance between the two. The film moves at a stately pace quite different than the frantic pace of a Keystone comedy. GoE is punctuated by humorous vignettes such as Griffith’s and Ray’s light blinking game or “Baron” D’Arvil being served seagull instead of squab. The picture could easily have descended into silliness but the pacing by the director Lewis Milestone, of “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930) fame, with the help of the expert orchestration of Richard Isreal kept that from happening. All the actors approach the material with dead, but not leaden, seriousness. It was not till my second viewing of the movie that I became aware of how much of the film is actually devoted to comedy. Structurally the film is divided into three sub-movies which could almost be played independently. The first portion is Toni LeBrun’s experience at the “Palais de Paris,” a cabaret that she naively thinks is an opera hall. Until D’Arvil’s attempt to “seduce” Toni, half way through the cabaret sequence, the movie is indistinguishable from a drama or melodrama. This impression is reinforced by the highly symbolic scene where Toni, standing in a garbage strewn street, first sees the Palais de Paris. As Toni looks on the camera lingers on a garbage can with the Palais de Paris name on it.
It is at the Palais de Paris that Toni meets the
delightfully wicked Maude George The next movie segment concerns the wooing of Toni by rival uncle and nephew. The former being the dapper Colonel Dupont, played by Edward Martindel, and latter Richard Dupont, played by Charles Ray. Both actors put in solid but uninspired appearances. Charles Ray had been a popular actor in the 1910s under the direction of Thomas H. Ince. Charles was more or less confined to the role of naïve country bumpkin who becomes wise to the sins of the city and finally gets the girl he is too bashful to speak too. By the time of GoE, Ray was well beyond that, He had left Ince years before and had run his own production company until he was bankrupted by the production of “The Courtship of Myles Standish” (1923). The setting for this segment is the Hotel Eden. The setting provides an interesting back ground for humor moments as Toni unsophisticated background is played off the sophisticated atmosphere of the hotel. Watch those oysters! The setting also provides appropriate romantic settings such as the garden, which the film is named after, or scenes around the piano.
The last section of the film is also set in the
Hotel Eden. The plot of this section deals with Toni’s wedding. No significant
new characters are introduced in this portion of the film, but D’Avril reappears
as the groom’s cousin. In the first segment, D’Avril is portrayed as a cad who
uses money to buy respectability. In the second segment he is portrayed as noble
at heart but with a weakness for woman. D’Avril refuses to reveal the bride’s
secret and ultimately chiding his cousin for listening to his title chasing
relatives. This piece of hypocrisy can easily pass one by but does stand at
GoE is in no sense a moral drama and bears no serious message. It is a light hearted romantic comedy. It sustains very humorous acting while remaining serious. GoE is a wonderful movie to watch on a night when one wants to be entertained and humored but one is not up to a slap stick farce. Flicker Alley has added to this movie a fine assortment of extras. The disk contains two shorts; “The Toy Shop” (1928), an entertaining sentimental piece, and “Hollywood the Unusual” (1927), a Hollywood promotional pieces that showcases unusual architecture of the dream factory. Also included are text excerpts, lobby card stills, images from GoE’s 1928 press book, cast biographies, promotional photographs and production stills. Like the movie the disk is well balanced, all together a disk well worth owning. © 2005 Diana
Savage
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Balance,
that was the first word that came to mind after watching this film. “The Garden
of Eden” (referred to as GoE from this point forward) provided a good balance
between the serious, romantic, and comic. GoE was nicely balanced between
melodrama and dramatic, a rare balance in any era. The film is carefully setup
as a serious film and the comedy slowly and unobtrusively creeps in, without
turning silly, at least so the conscious mind notices. GoE is not a classic, but
is a good solid film better than most films and well worth watching multiple
times. Corinne Griffith as Toni LeBrun shines. Louise Dresser as the secret
baroness, Rosa, puts in a solid performance. Charles Ray escapes his normal hick
role even if the naïve innocent aura still hangs over him. Maude George plays
the bad woman excellently. We do not see much of her but she provides a
wonderful example of the silent era’s predatory woman stereotype.
playing the Cabaret owner, Madame Bauer. Madame Bauer is a Marlene Dietrich like
character who has gone wrong. Under her hard exterior there is no heart of gold
waiting to be thawed. Instead she is a cigarette smoking business woman who
doesn’t think twice about exploiting the naïve Toni and pimping her out to
“Baron” D’Avril. It is also at the Palais de Paris that we meet Rosa, the secret
Baroness. Rosa’s heart inherited all the gold lacking in Madame Bauer’s heart.
Rosa befriends Toni. Griffith and Dresser are perfect foils for each other,
their expressive faces reacting wonderfully to each other.