The Painted Veil *** (1934, Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall, George Brent) – Classic Movie Review 5,319

The 1934 romantic drama film The Painted Veil stars the great Greta Garbo, who luminously graces this plush, soapy drama based on W Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel.

Director Richard Boleslawski’s 1934 romantic drama film The Painted Veil stars the great Greta Garbo, unique Thirties superstar, who graces this plush but soapy drama with her lustrous presence in a lesser but still fascinating vehicle from her best period (between Queen Christina and Anna Karenina).

Her trusted real-life close friend Salka Viertel helps to adapt the old-fashioned story in W Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel, in which Garbo’s Katrin Koerber Fane is a lonely Austrian wife in Java who must choose between dull, dependable husband Dr Walter Fane (Herbert Marshall drawing the short straw again) and smoulderingly sexy Jack Townsend (George Brent, astonishingly cast against type as the torrid lover), a man from the British Embassy.

The title comes from the start of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet: ‘Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life.’

The performances are fine, with the luminous Garbo good, Brent solid and Marshall outstanding, but the screenplay is none too credible and unfocused, and the handling is jittery and meandering. It definitely merits being checked out, though, by Garbo and Maugham fans.

The message is clear – at least to anybody who has read the poster – ‘Do not pass love by… It may never come again!’

It co-stars Warner Oland as General Yu, Jean Hersholt as Herr Koerber, Bodil Rosing as Frau Koerber, Cecilia Parker as Olga, Keye Luke, Katharine Alexander as Mrs Townsend, Soo Yong as Amah and Forrester Harvey as Waddington.

Swedish-American actor Warner Oland playing several Chinese and Chinese-American characters: Fu Manchu, Henry Chang in Shanghai Express, and Charlie Chan in 16 films.

It is the uncredited film debut of Keye Luke (June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991), who went on to success as Lee Chan in the Charlie Chan film series, Kato in the Green Hornet film shorts, and Mr Wing in Gremlins and Gremlins 2. He was the first Chinese-American contract player to be signed by RKO, Universal Pictures, 20th Century-Fox and MGM.

Austrian actress and Hollywood screenwriter Salka Viertel was under contract with MGM from 1933 to 1937 and co-wrote the scripts for many films, notably those starring Greta Garbo, including Queen Christina (1933) and Anna Karenina (1935). She acted with Garbo in MGM’s German-language version of Anna Christie (1930).

After much nervous MGM studio tampering, Beulah Bondi, Walter Brennan, Robert Adair, Maidena Armstrong, Gus Leonard, Mary MacLaren, Phil Ormsby, Delmar Watson, Billy Bevan and Mariska Aldrich’s scenes were deleted, reducing the running time to a mere 85 minutes.

Also in the cast are Ricca Allen, Alice Cooke, Jack Don, Herbert Farjeon, Mary Forbes, Ethel Griffies, Jeffrey Halse, Olaf Hytten, Colin Kenny, Jane Kerr, Laura Lau, Lillian Lawrence, George Lee, Margaret Mann, Leo McCabe, Toshia Mori, Henry Mowbray, Leonard Mudie, Louie Oui, Susanne Ransom, Camille Rovelle, Terry Spencer, Lee Tinn, James Wang, Harry Wilson, and Hans von Morhart.

Bodil Rosing replaced Beulah Bondi in the retakes and Hans von Morhart replaced Billy Bevan.

Also appearing are 20 Meglin Kiddies, children from the American troupe of acting, music and dance performers. The troupe was started in 1928 by Ethel Meglin, a Ziegfeld girl in films. Shirley Temple and Judy Garland were Meglin Kiddies. Meglin retired along with her studio and dance troupe in 1962.

The Painted Veil is directed by Richard Boleslawski, runs 85 minutes, is made by MGM, is released by Loew’s Inc, is written by John Meehan, Salka Viertel and Edith Fitzgerald, based on W Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel, is shot in black and white by Garbo’s personal lensman William H Daniels, is produced by Hunt Stromberg, is scored by Herbert J Stothart and is set designed by Cedric Gibbons, with costume design by Adrian.

The film cost $947,000 and earned $1,658,000 at the box office, making MGM a profit of $138,000.

It was remade under a different title as The Seventh Sin by Ronald Neame in 1957, with Eleanor Parker, no doubt because sins were more popular than veils by this time.

It was remade again as The Painted Veil in 2006 with Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, and Liev Schreiber, veils being back in fashion, no doubt.

The cast 

The cast are Greta Garbo as Katrin Koerber Fane, Herbert Marshall as Dr Walter Fane, George Brent as Jack Townsend, Warner Oland as General Yu, Jean Hersholt as Herr Koerber, Bodil Rosing as Frau Koerber, Katherine Alexander as Mrs Townsend, Cecilia Parker as Olga Koerber, Soo Yong as Amah Forrester Harvey as Waddington, Ricca Allen, Alice Cooke, Jack Don, Herbert Farjeon, Mary Forbes, Ethel Griffies, Jeffrey Halse, Olaf Hytten, Colin Kenny, Jane Kerr, Laura Lau, Lillian Lawrence, George Lee, Margaret Mann, Leo McCabe, Toshia Mori, Henry Mowbray, Leonard Mudie, Louie Oui, Susanne Ransom, Camille Rovelle, Terry Spencer, Lee Tinn, James Wang, Harry Wilson, and Hans von Morhart.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,319

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