Wild Orchids (1929)

A young wife (Greta Garbo) accompanies her much older husband (Lewis Stone) to Java where he hopes to invest in a tea plantation. Her husband neglects her so when a violent Prince (Nils Asther) is attracted to her and pursues her, she fights the temptation to be seduced. Based on the novel HEAT by John Colton and directed by Sidney Franklin (THE GOOD EARTH). One of Garbo's last silent films (she would make her talkie debut in ANNA CHRISTIE the following year), this overheated melodrama is way too long. Since neither man is worthy of her, we're not invested in the romantic triangle entanglements. As the husband, Stone is clueless and cold. As the lover, Asther is more creepy than romantic. He gives off the aroma of a sexual predator. I was hoping she'd dump them both and go off on her own! Five years later, Garbo would star in a similarly themed but much better film along the same lines, THE PAINTED VEIL. Audiences lapped this up and the movie turned a nice profit for MGM. For Garbo fans only.