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Clarence Brown, MGM, 1926, from Hermann Sudermann. John Gilbert and Greta Garbo meet at a railway; he is an officer, she is another man’s wife. The affair is public enough that a duel follows, then exile, then a return. William Daniels photographed the close-ups that made the pair a fan-magazine fact; they were involved off screen as well. It was Garbo’s first real American stardom after The Torrent. Brown keeps the lake and the smoke. The title is the studio’s. The film is about looking too long in a two-shot.
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Garbo turns the chalice to drink where Gilbert's lips were, and MGM had found what it was selling. The two were involved off screen, and Daniels lit them as if he knew. A duel, exile, a return. Watch who pays: the friend, and then the lake.
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