The Garden of Eden follows aspiring vocalist Toni LeBrun (Corrine Griffith) as she leaves her loving family in Budapest to answer the call of an opera house in France called the Palais de Paris. Little does Toni know that her dreams of overnight stardom will takes many nights of hard work, the kind that she's not accustomed to, like wearing revealing outfits that accentuate her physical attributes instead of her vocal talent. Having realized that the Palais de Paris is nothing but a lurid cabaret, Toni's mood still doesn't improve when the delightfully decadent and suggestively androgynous owner Madame Bauer (Maude George) pushes her onto the wily cabaret's patron, Baron Henri D'Avril (Lowell Sherman). But she escapes from his forceful advances and agrees to go to Monte Carlo with the cabaret's recently fired seamstress, Rosa (Louise Dresser). Upon arrival at the Hotel Eden, Rosa reveals that she is actually the widow of a baron who died in the Great War, and has some money on which to live it up in Monte Carlo, if only for a little while. Rosa adopts Toni as her own daughter and gives her the faux title of baroness, so that she too can have a richer experience hobnobbing with the Monte Carlo elite. While at the hotel, Toni, now called "Antoinette," catches the eye of musician and songwriter Richard Dupont (Charles Ray), one of the Monte Carlo regulars. He and Antoinette begin a courtship that goes through the expected romantic comedy obstacles.
The Garden of Eden is marked by highly proficient technical advances, like John Arnold's dynamic camerawork (the same kind of fluid motion that director Lewis Milestone would bring to his anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930). There is also an expert process shot of Toni appearing in a leering, wolfish Henri's binocular eyeglasses, and fine art direction by the legendary William Cameron Menzies and interior decoration by Casey Roberts. The exterior design of the Hotel Eden is one fine example. But aside from behind-the-camera work, it is the charming and witty repartee between Corinne Griffith and Charles Ray that makes the film work. Both actors made this film at crucial junctures in their careers. Because silent screen stardom often benefited from descriptive monickers, Griffith was known as the "Orchid Lady," a name that promoted her as a paragon of beauty. But Griffith was more than just a pretty face. Griffith is a natural comedienne for the camera. She doesn't overact and push the comedy into crude slapstick. Griffith is enough of a pro to trust her director and the camera. While not the most memorable face, Ray Charles recalls a slightly stockier William Haines with a mischievious grin and easy-going manner.
The DVD's image quality is outstanding, as is the supplementary materials. Included are extensive text excerpts, lobby cards and other promotional material from the original 1928 press book for the film. Flicker Alley even left the blank in the text to show where the name of the press writer's local theater would be showing The Garden of Eden. Aside from the promotional material, there is also production stills from the estate of director Lewis Milestone, as well as an exploration of the now-lost Technicolor sequence from the film. Flicker Alley has also included two short subject films that were also released late in the silent era. The first and the best is a 10 minute short called Hollywood the Unusual (1927), a previously unknown travelogue of Los Angeles that tours the city's more unusual architectural landmarks, such as the famous and long-gone Brown Derby restaurant and the still-standing Graumann's Chinese Theater. It is a fascinating glimpse at Hollywood's early influence on pop culture. The other short is a nine minute "Tiffany Color Symphony" called The Toy Shop (1928).
This title is currently unavailable.
by Scott McGee
