The Single Standard (1929)

A San Francisco socialite (Greta Garbo)  wants the freedom that men have, to take or leave love where they find it. She causes a scandal in her social circle when she runs off to the South Seas with a boxer turned artist (Nils Asther). When she returns, her reputation is ruined but not to the man (Johnny Mack Brown) who loves her. Based on the novel by Adela Rogers St. John and directed by John S. Robertson (DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE). I'm a fan of Garbo and her work in silent cinema but this one is one of her weakest vehicles. Boy, does this one creak! Not even her magnetism can hold it together. The film was a huge box office hit but its pre feminist doctrine of equality between the sexes caves in by the movie's finale with motherhood and fidelity winning the day. With Dorothy Sebastian and Lane Chandler.