lugonian SUSAN LENOX, HER FALL AND RISE (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1931), directed by Robert Z. Leonard, stars Greta Garbo once again playing a woman of troubled destiny. Assuming many title characters during her motion picture career, ANNA Christie (1930), MATA HARI (1931) and ANNA KARENINA (1935) as prime examples of her fine work, her SUSAN LENOX, bearing an extended subtitle as noted above, is not so well known as initially intended in both title and story. It is, however, notable to a degree as Garbo's one and only performance opposite the up and coming, pre-mustache Clark Gable. Not quite classic novel material acquired by popular authors of Leo Tolstoy or Fannie Hurst, SUSAN LENOX was in fact adapted from the novel by an obscure novelist by the name of David Graham Phillips. For its basic screen premise, it's showcase material for its basic two stars, Garbo and Gable, and not much else.The narrative begins in the dead of winter where a country doctor (Russell Simpson) braves bitter cold and heavy snow coming to a country home of Swedish farmer, Karl Ohlin (Jean Hersholt). A baby girl is born. The mother dies in childbirth, leaving Karl and his other sister, Astrid (Hilda Vaughn) to raise the child themselves. Because his deceased sister never had a wedding ring, Karl goes with the notion that his illegitimate niece will end up the same way. Raised in unhappy surroundings, Helga (Greta Garbo), now an adult, is set to marry Jed Mondstrum (Alan Hale), the man of her uncle's choice. Almost immediately, the drunken but brutal man forces his intentions on Helga, forcing her to break away into the night. Drenched from a heavy rain storm, Helga comes to a nearby cabin of Rodney Spencer (Clark Gable), a 30-year-old architect accompanied by his German shepherd dog, Major. Finding him to be a decent, clean-cut man, Helga finds there's goodness in men after all. The two fall in love and plan to marry after Rodney returns from his six day business trip. However, fate steps in as Karl and Jed show up, forcing Helga to return home with them. Once again Helga breaks away and takes refuge on a carnival train managed by Burlington (John Miljan). Addressed as "Susie" by Madame Paughamia (Cecil Cunningham), a tattooed lady, Helga, having gone on board the train at Lenoxville, assumes a new identity, becoming "Susan Lenox." Although Burlington hides "Susie" from her uncle and would-be fiancé inside his bungalow, Helga finds he's only doing this for a price. When Rodney arrives at Marquette to reclaim Helga, a series of misunderstandings occur that keeps them apart. As Rodney loses himself somewhere in South America, Susan Lenox gets more than she bargained for as mistress to city politician, Mike Kelly (Hale Hamilton), and millionaire Robert Lane (Ian Keith), hence her fall and rise.Heavily edited with prime scenes to hold interest, SUSAN LENOX is offbeat material. Granted, SUSAN LENOX doesn't fall into the same category as Garbo's other classics, QUEEN Christina (1933) or CAMILLE (1936), but certainly the sort of routinely made melodramas commonly produced at that time. Garbo succeeds well with her transformation from shy lonely farm girl unsure of herself, to an aggressive cigarette smoking woman of the world. Somehow, passages of the screenplay seem to be lacking somewhere, almost as if the writers couldn't make up their minds on how to resolve this. Its second half is somewhat hampered by corny dialog and hokey situations. Considering similar circumstances found between Garbo and Robert Montgomery in the earlier release of INSPIRATION (1931), and Garbo's abusive upbringing leading to prostitution lifted from ANNA Christie (1930) simply indicates how ideas are reworked through repetitive style that certainly hasn't done any harm to Garbo's career.My introduction to SUSAN LENOX happened to be while attending a full house screening at New York City's Museum of Modern Art around 1980. One of the things I noticed is how Garbo, having been retired since 1941, still had an attentive audience. The moment her character appears on screen, the theater is cluttered with loud applause, almost as if Garbo, herself, were there in person. After the film's completion, I was curious to listen to personal comments from those leaving the theater. I found some really enjoyed it, a few did not, while others, like myself, had mixed feelings about it. Though some serious portions were laughable to contemporary viewers, many were in agreement that one scene involving a couple of camera reaction shots from the German shepherd's point of view which, was no doubt, intended to amuse.SUSAN LENOX became a handful of forgotten and prime Garbo titles distributed to home video in the 1990s and much later on DVD through Turner Home Entertainment. The fall and rise of Greta Garbo and her movies can be seen, rediscovered and appreciated whenever broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. (***)

Steffi_P In an era when iconic stars meant more than at any other time, two of the brightest were Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. Although there was some considerable overlap between their periods of stardom, this fairly standard 1931 melodrama was their only movie together. This is not as surprising as it seems, since repeated star pairings were always carefully formed through apparent compatibility. Garbo and Gable however were players of remarkably different style and temperament.Garbo had already been an established – and massively popular – actress in the silent era, and despite the considerable hype around her early talkies, in retrospect her silent features remain her best period. It's not her accent; it's just that her mellifluous, almost operatic manner did not really work when out loud. By contrast, without sound her mesmerising presence remains pure and captivating. She would later adapt for speaking roles, and by the late 30s producers would be actively casting her in parts that suited her ethereal style, notable highlights being Camille (1937) and Ninotchka (1939). As it is, her performance in Susan Lenox is already an improvement upon her at-the-time-celebrated but now very clunky talkie debut in Anna Christie (1930).Gable on the other hand was an up-and-comer at this point. In fact, though he was gaining familiarity as a supporting player in movies such as Night Nurse and A Free Soul (both released earlier the same year) he was thus far getting typecast as a thuggish gangster. The reason his potential as a desirable lead man hadn't fully been realised yet was a simple case of presentation. All it would take was a thin moustache and a few locks of hair drooping over his forehead, but appearing as he does here clean-shaven and hair slicked back, all you see is an ordinary man with a somewhat odd-shaped face. When he makes a few appearances towards the end of Susan Lenox with a few days' stubble, mussed-up hair and rolled-up sleeves, the effect is incredible. I feel it was a big failing on the part of the filmmakers to not make more of this rugged Gable in his earlier appearances and the final scenes.To be fair though, director Robert Z. Leonard is really more interested in favouring Garbo, who was then the better-known and more bankable star. Although this was some time past the period when movies were often shot in both sound and silent versions to cater for places that hadn't yet made the switch, Leonard still sticks to a primarily visual form of storytelling. There are numerous close-ups of hands and feet in action, often used to open a scene and give it context. He allows many of the ideas and feelings of the characters to come through in wordless glances, often relegating the dialogue to the status of embellishment. With such purity he is responsible for staging some haunting and powerful moments, such as the sideshow proprietor's coercing Garbo into bed, the two of them moving closer to the screen without uttering a sound.The differences between Garbo and Gable were not confined to their approaches to the craft; apparently they despised each other offscreen too. Still, it's a testament to the considerable talents of the both of them that there seems to be a decent rapport between them as a fictional couple. Both were after all great screen lovers, at their best when dizzy with passion or locked in an embrace, and a movie like Susan Lenox is bread and butter to them both. They meet here in passing, Garbo (although younger) already past her peak, Gable just rising towards his. And while neither of them is at their ideal, star quality is supreme, and it turns out this is not a bad little movie.

bkoganbing Or was that the publicity line for some other MGM picture with the king of their lot?Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise is taken from the David Graham Phillips novel of the same name and in this 77 minute film hardly any of the story gets to be told. Probably a lot was left on the cutting room floor of MGM and you have to be able to bridge some gaps if you haven't read the book.The book itself was published posthumously in 1917 six years after its author was killed by a disgruntled reader of his work. I'm guessing it was written years earlier because it's attitudes and subject matter were distinctly Victorian. Greta Garbo plays the daughter of Jean Hersholt who wants to sell her in marriage to the local lout played by Alan Hale. One thing that was interesting was seeing both of those players in unlikely unsympathetic parts.She flees Hersholt's farm in the rain and gets taken in by Clark Gable who's renting the cabin on the lake down the road. The romance kindles, but Gable has to make a quick trip to town, meanwhile Hersholt and Hale come looking for Garbo and she flees again.Garbo gets taken by some carnival people including the wolfish owner, John Miljan, whom she submits to. When Gable finds her, his attitude is most Victorian. In fact the rest of the film through their respective ups and downs Gable and Garbo do a lot to hurt each other.Susan Lenox is one heavy handed melodrama and no one would remember it at all today, but for the fact it was the one and only teaming of Gable and Garbo. Being paired with Garbo was a big milestone for Clark Gable. Also he was not paying thugs any longer, charismatic thugs, but thugs nonetheless. He was leading man material after this film.It only gets as much as six stars from me because of the cast.

Maciste_Brother I had to watch SUSAN LENOX - HER FALL AND RISE several times because I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. It's such an odd film, mostly because it was obviously cut here and there, down to a paltry 75 minutes long film, and because what occurs in the movie is such a smorgasborg of melodramatic situations squeezed in in such a brief amount of time, that the film becomes truly surreal.The film starts broodingly enough, with the illegitimate birth of Helga (soon to be Susan Lenox, of Lenoxville) seen in shadows. We see her grow in her miserable life in shadows and the next thing we see is Helga is sent to live/marry a man she doesn't know. She runs away from the creepy ugly man and ends up with Rodney (Clark Gable) and the two fall in love overnight(!). When Rodney leaves for a business trip, Helga comes across her evil family and runs away from town, only to end up in circus, where Helga becomes known as Susan Lenox, is forced to work as a performer (a belly dancer of sorts) and is under the control of the circus boss Burlingham. After an ill-fated meeting with Rodney at the circus, Holga runs away (yes, again) and becomes a socialite in New York. After another ill-fated meeting with Rodney at a party, the two fight and separate again. Holga still goes after him, all the way down to South America(!) where she works in a seedy bar (keeping men company)and where she waits for him.Got that? Anyway, the movie is like one of those action packed serials, but instead of showing a hero going from one pitfall to another, SUSAN LENOX is a melodramatic serial, where our heroine goes from one melodramatic pitfall to another, with very little time to digest one situation from the next.The fast pace and wonky style is actually endearing, keeping the sometimes questionable subject matter light and airy. Notice the scene when Garbo undresses at the circus when she meets Rodney again, with the kooky music, giving a cartoony feel to the whole moment.If there was a theme in SUSAN LENOX, it's how women are constantly used and abused in society. But the film never becomes too depressing because Garbo gives weight and importance to a character that's not easy to play, a character forced to do unpleasant things. Susan is hopelessly naive yet determined, all this beautifully played by Garbo.Gable is good too but his character is a little too dense to be likable. I don't hate Rodney but he should have been a bit more understanding about Susan's circumstances or her background.There are some great bits of dialogue in SUSAN LENOX. My favorite line (and one of my favorite lines in any movie)is uttered by Garbo: "This hurt we have inflicted upon each other. It's become a bound. Nothing can break it. We're just like two cripples. Twisted. Only together can we ever become straight." Brilliant. That lines basically surmises the whole movie: two beautiful losers, miserable in the company of others and only happy with each other, yet they can't seem to be able to live together because of wonky circumstances.And to think that the two only met each other for one night. Arf! Is SUSAN LENOX a great movie? No, it's not. But in its odd way (sorta like Susan and Rodney), it's infinitely watchable and endearing.I'm usually against remakes but I believe they should remake SUSAN LENOX. Obviously, no one can top Garbo as Susan Lenox of Lenoxville, but this odd story, in the hands of a director like David Lynch, would be amazing.(update: I recently read the Taschen book Icon series on Garbo and according to it, this film had 21 writers! No wonder it's so wonky!)