Reviewer
Thomas |
Build-up |
Kissing |
Love scenes |
Movie overall
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(From IMDb):
In Austria, Katrin is lonely after her sister's marriage and she agrees to marry her father's research associate Dr. Walter Fane. Fane takes her to China but constantly ignors her in favour of his medical research. Lonely Katrin has an affair with Jack Townsend of the British Embassy. When it is discovered by Walter he becomes very bitter. Fane travels to fight a cholera epidemic and Katrin goes with him and helps. They grow closer together than ever before but Walter is knifed in a riot incited by the burning of a cholera infested town. Now their new found happiness will depend on Walter's survival.
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Actresses:
Greta Garbo & Cecilia Parker
See below..
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According to IMDb, this is the first film Garbo
made under the new American censorship rules, which
were meant to clean Hollwood from anything that could
be even remotely considered sexual... So, obviously,
there is no lesbian content in this film whatsoever.
It would have been totally impossible for Garbo to,
say, kiss a woman. But she could kiss her sister
farewell on her weddingday, right? - And how she does
it! Also, it would have been totally impossible for
her to undress another woman - but she can sure help
her sister dress... Garbo must have loved this scene,
and she is probably still laughing in her grave about
the stupid censors, who just didn't get it. She kisses
the lovely Cecilia Parker not once, but 4 times, and it is
the most intense kissing between two women in a
mainstream film in the era of black/white movies, as
far as I can tell.
The lesbian subtext is not even
subtle: Garbo plays a woman who has not married
because she despises men. Of course, she then does get
married, and it all goes down. The scene is very much
about the tragedy of the two women being forced apart.
Cecilia Parker, the "sister", is only for this scene
in the film and never appears again. It's based on a
novel by Maugham, who was quite gay himself, like
Garbo.
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