The Kiss (1929)

Greta Garbo is at her shining best in this rather simple story of unrequited love - and she’s not the only one suffering, neither! It’s “Irene” who is bored with her dull marriage to the boorish “Charles” (Anders Randolf) and those frustrations are only exacerbated by her affections for the aspiring young lawyer “André” (Conrad Nagel) who reciprocates but doesn’t want her to cause her husband any unpleasantness by leaving him. Rather than just rub salt in their wounds, the pair decide it’s best to avoid each other and for a while that works. She is close friends, platonically, with the love struck student “Pierre” (Lew Ayers) and it is as she is innocently saying good-bye to this young man that her husband espies the pair and violently gets completely the wrong end of the stick. Meantime, we learn that “Charles” is under quite a bit of strain. His business is close to it’s knees and it’s to “Lasalle” (Herbert Holmes) that he turns to for help. It may well be that this lifeline will be forthcoming, but when the two threads combine we discover that the young lad with whom he is furious is none other than the son of his potential benefactor. Then tragedy intervenes and that sees the conflicted “Irene” up in front of a judge charged with murder. Director Jacques Feyder really does pack quite a bit into this hour long drama as it vacillates from lover to loved, hating to hated and all of this well presided over by both an on-form Garbo and by effective efforts from both Nagel and Ayers as the plot thickens. We know a little of just what the court is trying to find out, but there’s still a degree of jeopardy awaiting them and us as the truth will out…! This is a bit of a masterclass in dialogue-free story telling - even if that story isn’t exactly fresh - and is well worth a watch.