A Woman of Affairs
About A Woman of Affairs
Diana Merrick and Neville Holderness have loved each other since childhood, but his father, Sir Morton, refuses the match and sends Neville to Egypt. After two years Diana marries their friend David Furness. On the honeymoon David kills himself. Diana will say only that he died for decency. Years later Neville comes home to marry Constance. Diana's brother Jeffry is dying; Diana and Neville spend a night together, and Neville still goes through with the wedding. When Sir Morton calls Diana dishonorable, Neville tells him David had embezzled and that Diana had quietly repaid the victims. She sends Neville back to Constance and drives her car into the tree where she and Neville once swore to be faithful.
Cast & crew
More about A Woman of Affairs
Bess Meredyth adapted Michael Arlen's 1924 novel The Green Hat, which he had also turned into a 1925 play. The title and the characters' names were changed, and references to heroin, homosexuality, and syphilis were cut. The Hays office replaced syphilis as the cause of David's suicide with embezzlement. Irving Thalberg produced. Photography began on July 31, 1928. Adrian designed the gowns and Cedric Gibbons was art director. Marian Ainslee and Ruth Cummings wrote the titles.
Themes
Background
Arlen's novel was a bestseller, and American censors would not pass it under its own name. The film opened in the season when MGM was still releasing large silent dramas with synchronized scores.
Making
Clarence Brown directed Garbo and Gilbert with Lewis Stone as Dr. Hugh Trevelyan, Johnny Mack Brown as David, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Jeffry, Hobart Bosworth as Sir Morton, and Dorothy Sebastian as Constance. Hugh Wynn edited.
Reviews
Variety on January 23, 1929, said Garbo's playing was the best she had done and that Gilbert's part was "utterly blah." Mordaunt Hall's notice in The New York Times on January 21, 1929, praised her as the "sad lady" and Brown's staging, while noting the changes made for censors. Pare Lorentz, writing in Judge, mocked the swap of "purity" for "decency" and of syphilis for embezzlement, and said he respected Garbo's performance for the first time.
Audiences
It placed among the twenty highest-grossing films of 1929. Variety, covering the second Saturday show, wrote that groups of women in the audience said aloud that they were unhappy with Gilbert's part.
Look
William H. Daniels was director of photography. Hall wrote that the scenes were beautifully photographed, and he noted Brown's flashes of symbolism.
Technique
MGM released it as a synchronized sound film, with music and effects on both disc and film, and also supplied silent prints.
Music
William Axt, uncredited on many prints, prepared the synchronized score. The theme song is "Love's First Kiss," by Axt and David Mendoza.
Preservation
Surviving prints differ in length. MGM/UA put it in the Silent Classics laserdisc series on October 12, 1992. Warner Archive released a DVD on March 5, 2019.
Notes
- Prints are reported at 91, 92, and 98 minutes. The AFI catalog lists the length as 8,319 feet.
- William Axt and David Mendoza wrote the song "Love's First Kiss," with words by Raymond Klages.
- It was issued with a Movietone score and effects and also in a silent version. There is no spoken dialogue.
- MGM remade the novel in 1934 as Outcast Lady, with Constance Bennett and Herbert Marshall.
- U.S. receipts were $850,000 and foreign receipts $520,000.
Scenes
- David kills himself on the honeymoon, and Diana refuses any explanation but decency.
- Neville tells Sir Morton that Diana repaid the people David had cheated.
- Her car is found wrecked against the tree where she and Neville had promised fidelity.
Influenced by
- Michael Arlen's novel The Green Hat (1924) and his 1925 play
Influenced
- Outcast Lady (1934)
Also available
- Warner Archive Collection DVD (March 5, 2019)
Quotes
He died for decency.
