Wild Orchids
About Wild Orchids
John Sterling takes his young wife Lillie to Java to look at tea plantations and pays her little attention on the ship. She sees Prince de Gace strike a servant. John, impressed by the prince's talk of the tea market, introduces them. The prince kisses Lillie against her will. At his estate she kisses him back, and John sees the kiss as a shadow on a screen, then finds her necklace out of place. On a tiger hunt the prince is hurt. John means to sail home alone. Lillie tells him she loves him.
Cast & crew
More about Wild Orchids
Sidney Franklin directed. The script is by Hanns Kräly, Ruth Cummings, Willis Goldbeck, and Richard Schayer, from John Colton's novel Heat. William Daniels photographed it. MGM released it on February 23, 1929. The reported take was $1,165,000, of which $622,000 came from the United States and $543,000 from abroad.
Themes
Making
MGM sent Garbo, Stone, and Asther through a Java story without leaving the studio's idea of the East: the prince's estate, the hunt, and the screened kiss.
Reviews
The New York Times of 1929 called it a pleasingly imaginative picturization of John Colton's story and wrote that Garbo's acting was well-timed and subtle in a role that was not easy.
Look
William Daniels photographed Garbo, including the kiss John sees only as a shadow.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A complete film. Warner Archive issued it on DVD in 2009. It also appeared on a laserdisc with other Garbo silents.
Notes
- Greta Garbo plays Lillie Sterling, Lewis Stone plays John Sterling, and Nils Asther plays Prince de Gace.
- Dick Sutherland has an uncredited part.
- The New York Times called Asther 'capital as the Prince' and wrote that Stone, 'the villain of The Trial of Mary Dugan,' did splendidly as the short-sighted husband.
- Warner Archive released a DVD on July 1, 2009. An earlier laserdisc grouped it with Love, The Torrent, and the surviving piece of The Divine Woman.
Scenes
- Lillie watches the prince hit his servant, then has to be introduced to him by her husband.
- John sees the kiss as a shadow on a screen and confirms it by the necklace.
- The prince is hurt on the tiger hunt, and Lillie tells John she wants him, not the prince.
Influenced by
- Heat (John Colton)
Also available
- Warner Archive Collection DVD (July 1, 2009)
