Cheap The Painted Veil (Video) (Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall) (Richard Boleslawski) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Painted Veil

The Divine Garbo in a Complex Love Triangle in the Orient
I always feel approaching a Greta Garbo film to review it is like entering some Sacred Temple where one must show due respect and restraint.For the whole of the 1930's decade she along with Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer held the prime positions as the annointed Queens of MGM. Garbo however always seemed to have her own special niche in the pecking order and always had more popularity with European audiences than with the average American movie going public who flocked to Crawford's shop girl melodramas and Shearer's lady like portrayals in high society settings.

Fresh from her triumph in "Queen Christina", the previous year MGM legend Garbo tackled this modern dress romantic film which turned out to be her last modern themed film for quite some time. Indeed by this stage in her career Garbo was down to only making one film a year so her productions were always viewed as special events even when their stories might not have always been up to the quality of the rest of the production. "The Painted Veil", is a classic example of just this. While the story itself is fairly ordinary the same cannot be said for the lavish production with all its "A" list features, and the interesting central performance by Garbo. The story centres around an Austrian girl named Katrin who after the wedding of her only sister finds herself at a loose end and lonely for companionship. Still in the fallout from the wedding Katrin meets her father's assistant Dr. Walter Fane (Herbert Marshall), a sturdy but unexciting man who is immediately infatuated with Katrin and on a whim asks her to marry him before he returns to his position in Hong Kong. With nothing more inviting on the horizon Katrin agrees and after the wedding travels to China with Walter where she takes her place as one of the colonies bored wives who spend their days shopping and playing cards. Into this setup comes Jack Townsend (George Brent),who works for the British Embassy in Hong Kong and very quickly the two are involved in an affair. Walter discovers the truth and to punish Katrin decides to go into China's interior to help fight the cholera epidemic taking her with him in the belief that there at least no man can have her and she will be deprived of her one source of happiness. Because Jack refuses to give up his promising career which he would have to do to marry Katrin, she goes with Walter where in the midst of the crisis the two begin to see the real value in each other. As the crisis worsens Walter is nearly killed by a stab wound inflicted by an angry villager who's house Walter orders burnt to fight the epidemic. Katrin who has been tirelessly nursing the cholera sufferers then rallies to he husband's side and even the reappearance of Jack in the plague stricken area cannot tear her away from her real duty to her husband.

Based on a novel by none other than W. Somerset Maugham, the material at times is a bit thin but still makes compulsive viewing if only to see Garbo's sterling performance as the wayward woman torn between two very different men. Directed with gusto by veteran MGM director Richard Boleslawski he keeps the main action against which the story is set rolling on. As the two male leads Herbert Marshall and George Brent have their work cut out for them against Garbo but come across rather well in their very different characters. Marshall plays his usual upright character but here is injected with just an element of malice to make his playing a little less bland than usual. George Brent used to playing against powerful leading ladies like Bette Davis has just the right element of the cad in his character to breathe a bit of life into what could have been a cardboard character. Being a Garbo vehicle all the MGM expertise are evident on the screen from the superb lighting for all of Garbo's closeups courtesy of William Daniels, her stunning clothes by the legendary MGM designer Adrian, the interesting depiction of China in the last days of the Empire and the quite harrowing scenes of the cholera stricken villages all created within the confines of MGM studios.

I find Greta Garbo always a pleasure to watch on screen and she manages with her unique style to breath life into any story no matter how weak the material. Her absolute understanding of any character she is playing is always very evident and no more so than in "The Painted Veil". I enjoy the real feel of olden times China which is created in this story and find it a terrific romantic drama and to sit back and enjoy. It certainly shows one of MGM's crowning glories in a lavish production created around her where she is showcased to perfection. I recommend the exotic "The Painted Veil", to anyone interested to studying the great mystique of the legendary Greta Garbo.

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Not much of a film but one of Garbo's best performances
Made between "Queen Christina" and "Anna Karenina," I would argue that Greta Garbo gives an even better performance in "The Painted Veil." Katrin (Garbo) marries Dr. Walter Fane (Herbert Marshall) and goes with him to China where his practice keeps him busy and her alone. She meets Jack Townsend (George Brent), a diplomatic attaché, and has an affair with him. Fane finds out and gives Katrin an ultimatum: he is going into the interior to fight a cholera epidemic and she must go with him unless Townsend divorces his wife and marries her. Townsend refuses to give up his career and Katrin accompanies her husband. Eventually Fane changes his mind and gives her the opportunity to leave, but Katrin stays and becomes a tireless working administering to the cholera victims. But when Fane orders a district burned to prevent the spread of the disease he is stabbed by an angry Chinese. As Katrin learns what has happened to her husband, Townsend returns. This 1934 film, directed by Richard Boleslawski, does not have much of a story, even though the script is based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, but this is one of Garbo's finest performances. I think this is because Katrin actually feels guilty because of what she has done. You can see in "The Painted Veil" why Garbo was such a great silent screen star. Her two best scenes have little to do with her voice, first, when she sits in terror at dinner with her husband, not knowing whether or not he has learned about her infidelity, and second, when she waits to be told if her husband has been killed or survive the thrust of the dagger.

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A Classic is a classic is a classic
Where else can you watch Garbo cheat on Herbert Marshall with George Brent...and during the interum meet up with Warner Oland (Charlie Chan) in a bar??? It definietly caught my attention. I would recommend if only for the aesthetics. Check out the bar..very KONTIKI...gotta buy this one..