The Temptress

Robleda and Elena meet at a Parisian costume ball. The masks soon come off and hours later the smitten couple watches the sun rise over the City of Light. Later that day, Robledo visits a friend and business colleague, the Marquis de Torre Bianca, and is stunned to meet the Marquise Elena. Greta Garbo won acclaim as the predatory femme in her U.S. debut The Torrent, so the studio turned to a similar role (and same source novelist) for her next film. A suitor's suicide, rival swains cracking bullwhips, a catastrophic dam collapse -- all are part of the storm swirling around Elena as the story leaps from Paris to South America and back again. Garbo did not welcome the role's typecasting. But see the powerful finale and understand how she could take a part and make it heartendingly real.