ThiefHott Too much of everything

Executscan Expected more

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

lugonian THE PAINTED VEIL (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1934), directed by Richard Boleslawski, returns Greta Garbo to formula level of material, that of a lonely wife having an illicit affair. While this sort of story could have been a remake of any one of her silent melodramas from the 1920s. WILD ORCHIDS (1929) with Garbo, Lewis Stone and Nils Asther immediately coming to mind, each having a similar theme with Oriental setting and exotic dance numbers. THE PAINTED VEIL is not an original screenplay but one taken from the literary work by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1925. With numerous Maugham novels transferred to the screen over the years, with the then recent and better known ones being RAIN (United Artists, 1932) with Joan Crawford; and OF HUMAN BONDAGE (RKO Radio, 1934) featuring Bette Davis, THE PAINTED VEIL starring GARBO (as she was billed in the opening credits), has become either one of her lesser known movie projects, the least favorites among fans and critics, or a combination of both.The contemporary plot, first set in Austria, revolves around Karin Koerber (Greta Garbo), an young adult woman living at the home of her parents (Jean Hersholt and Bodil Rosing). After her 18-year-old sister, Olga (Cecilia Parker) marries Heinrich (Hans Von Morhart), and go off on their honeymoon, Karin faces a lonely future without her. Her loneliness is short-lived when British bacteriologist Doctor Walter Fane (Herbert Marshall), a visiting wedding guest and close friend of her medical professor father, approaches Karin and asks her to become his wife. Having admired her since childhood, they know little about each other. However, Karin, liking the idea of going to places she's never been, readily accepts. Once in the Orient, Karin finds herself facing time alone, spending quality time playing bridge with other wives while Walter spends long hours on his medical work. Having already met Walter's American diplomatic friend, Jack Townsend (George Brent) and his wife (Katherine Alexander), Karin is given the pleasure of Townsend's company as he escorts her through the city's exotic locales. When Jack kisses Karin, she tells him, "How could you?" He replies, "I could." As Karin makes an effort to avoid seeing Townsend again, she comes to realize her love for him by going to the festival. Walter learns of the affair but knows Karin could never have Townsend, considering how his career and reputation mean more to him than Karin does. Feeling rejected by Townsend, Karin resumes her loveless marriage traveling with Walter on his missionary work to a disease infested city in China where they find danger and further uncertainty in their lives.Remade as THE SEVENTH SIN (MGM, 1957) with Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers, and again under its original title in 2006 featuring Naomi Pitts and Edward Norton, the latest edition, longer and more to the point in terms of unfaithfulness than its predecessors, one would expect the Garbo version to be the first and best of the three. One of the faults of the original probably rests heavily on tight editing of the script, leaving certain scenes ending without any explanation. As for the film itself, it was either producing a two hour plus epic or putting in material that really matters. The writers (scripted by Salka Viertel, Edith Fitzgerald and Jhn Meehan) naturally chose the latter, resulting to a cleaned up 83 minute soap opera with approval from the newly enforced production code. Dull passages aside, the waiting for the climatic showdown between husband and wife before expressing their true emotions ranks one of its few suspenseful moments captured on film. From then on, everything mellows.Most of the secondary characters depicted are undeveloped. Some appear briefly and disappear from view with little or mention about them again, particularly Townsend's wife. Some sources list Beulah Bondi and Billy Bevan in the cast, though their roles in the finished product are played by the substituting Bodil Roding and Hans Von Morhart. Fans of the "Charlie Chan" movie series will get to see both Warner Oland (Chan) and Keye Luke (Number 1 Son) appearing separately in smaller parts. For the leading men, however, Herbert Marshall is ideally cast as the troubled husband, considering how he's been through all this before with his on-screen wife (Marlene Dietrich) in BLONDE VENUS (Paramount, 1932) with Cary Grant as the other man named Townsend, Nick in fact, who comes between the married couple. Though it would have been more interesting as well as historic having Grant appear opposite Garbo, it is George Brent, on loan from Warner Brothers, who gets that acting honor instead.Distributed to home video in 1990, availability of THE PAINTED VEIL rests on occasional revivals on Turner Classic Movies. Though the movie strays from Maugham's original novel in some areas, with name changes of certain characters, it does, overall, succeed for what it's got, and that's GARBO. (***)

vincentlynch-moonoi If you want to get the gist of Somerset Maugham's novel, you have two excellent choices: the modern (2006) film starring Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, and Liev Schreiber, or this 1934 version. Having not read the novel, I can only assume that the 2006 version is more faithful to the novel, and I really like both films. The 2006 version is more visually impressive (as you might expect), more realistic, and more edgy. This earlier version is more a film to revel in for the wonderful performances by Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall. I have always loved Herbert Marshall's performances, and it is nice to see him in this film where he was still young enough to be a romantic leading man rather than a character actor. George Brent is here, too, as the third person in the love triangle, and while he is suave and sophisticated, he's also sort of the villain of the film; it was a good role for him and he handles it well.For its time, this was a rather lavish production, and they did a nice job conveying the rough and tumble aspects of the story, with the scenes of rioting done very nicely. What was much more unrealistic were the scenes of a Chinese festival and inside a Buddhist temple; almost annoyingly "Hollywood". Additionally, the home of Marshall-Garbo was too western for the Orient, however.As I understand it, the conclusion of the film does not follow the ending of the novel. In this film, the Marshall character lives, while in the novel (and 2006 film) the character dies, and the film avoids the illegitimate child born to the Garbo character. Okay, so the film is unfaithful to the novel. But I will say that at least in this film version I could like the main characters, while in the 2006 I truly disliked all of the major characters and I found the film depressing (while being realistic). No, I'll take this 1934 whitewashed version, although I also have the 2006 version on my DVD shelf.Even as a bit of a movie buff, I never knew much about Garbo. In doing a little research I realized it's because of her early retirement. I was surprised to learn that she lived until 1990! This is an excellent film to enjoy a Garbo performance.I rarely give 8's. Highly recommended.

MartinHafer While this certainly isn't a great film by any standard, it is a pretty good film and is much more watchable into the 21st century than many of Garbo's films (many just seem very old fashioned and contrived today--sorry Garbo fans). Plus, it's also worth seeing just so you can see Greta smile--something you only saw happen in a very few films (such as TWO-FACED WOMAN and NINOTCHKA--two of her last films).Greta plays a bored young lady living in the middle of nowhere. She yearns to see the world and quickly marries newcomer, Herbert Marshall. The intensity of the love isn't really there--she's just anxious to leave and Marshall has a strong infatuation. They return to Marshall's home in Hong Kong where he is a doctor working for the government health services. However, his work keeps him away from home so much that it's no surprise that she falls for a cad, played by George Brent. Brent isn't serious about their divorcing and getting married, but he lies to Greta to string her along. Soon, Marshall finds out and unleashes his anger on her--not accepting that the affair was in a way his fault because he neglected her so. Greta is ashamed and tries to make the best of the marriage--even when the plague takes her and Marshall hundreds of miles into China. Slowly, the wall between them begins to vanish and Garbo begins to appreciate what a great man she has married. And, by the end of the film, the love that never really developed between them is in full bloom. Despite this ending being handled in a bit of a heavy-handed fashion, the ending was very satisfying and I'm glad I saw this film due to its generally excellent writing and acting. In particular, I liked how Garbo did NOT play the silly vamp she often played in earlier films, but was a more three-dimensional and believable woman--a welcome departure from many of her earlier and very, very similar roles.

Incalculacable Based on a book by W. Somerset Maugham of the same name, The Painted Veil tells the tale of Katrin Koerber (Greta Garbo) who is lonely after her sister's marriage, with whom she was very close. She agrees to marry her father's research associate Dr. Walter Fane (Herbert Marshall) who takes her to China. However, he is deeply involved with his work and often neglects Katrin in favour of his work which leads her to seek love and attention from another man: Jack Townsend (George Brent).Although I have been unsure of Garbo's acting abilities at times, she does well and truly shine in the role of the unfaithful and confused wife - a complex character which she masters with ease. Herbert Marshall does a good job of her husband caught between emotions and George Brent – not a terribly good looking man – was unconvincing as her lover. These two men seem to fade into the background when Garbo is on screen – her exotic; cat like appearance really captures the audience – despite not playing a glamorous character! The scenery of old China is lavish and the costumes for Garbo are a pleasure to see. However, the divine Greta Garbo is the only thing that really makes The Painted Veil watchable. The plot is thin and weak but Garbo does a wonderful job and makes the melodramatic material believable and interesting. Not a great film, but watch it for Garbo.