Torrent (1926)
Directed by Monta Bell

Film Review

It was with Torrent that Greta Garbo made her Hollywood debut, elevating a fairly mundane sentimental melodrama with her extraordinary presence and acting skill.  MGM chief executive Louis B. Meyer had taken a massive personal gamble in hiring the Swedish actress who, when he met her, could not speak a word of English and was badly in need of a makeover, but the gamble paid of handsomely.  Torrent was a worldwide hit and secured Garbo's standing as one of the most exciting new film stars of her day.  Still only twenty, Garbo was already on her way to eclipsing all of the other iconic divas in Hollywood, such was her unsurpassed classic beauty and a rare ability to communicate genuine human emotion.

Garbo's role in Torrent - a Spanish girl who finds fame and fortune at the price of true love - hardly stretches her acting skill but it is one that seems appropriate for her.  If someone were to write a film script based on Garbo's own life it would not be that far removed from the script of Torrent.  Her character's trajectory, from sweet Miss Nobody to international star, mirrors her own, and her tragic failure to find lasting love in her life is poignantly echoed in the film.  By no means a masterpiece, Torrent is an engaging crowdpleaser, competently directed by Monta Bell and with strong contributions from the entire supporting cast.  Whilst Garbo's co-star Ricardo Cortez turns in a respectable performance there is no disguising his discomfort in the film; he considered Garbo a non-entity and openly resented having to work with her.  Consequently, there is nothing like the chemistry that ignites Garbo's subsequent films with her real-life lover John Gilbert.  For audiences of the time, Torrent was an hors d'oeuvre for the meatier course that was to come.

Film Synopsis

Under the warm skies of Valencia, Leonora Moreno enjoys an idyllic existence on her father's orange plantation.  She is in love with Don Rafael, the only son of the rich matriarch Dona Bernarda Brull.  One fateful day, Dona Bernarda evicts the Morenos from their farmhouse, allowing Leonora's mother to stay on as a housekeeper.  Leonora heads for Paris with her father, determined to make a name for herself as a singer.  Some years later, Leonora has become a singing sensation under her adopted name, La Brunna.  She returns to her hometown, just as her former lover Don Rafael is about to marry another woman.  One night, as a raging flood threatens to sweep away Leonora's old homestead, Don Rafael comes to her aid, needlessly as it turns out.  It is just the proof of love that Leonora had been hoping for.  She persuades Don Rafael that he must come away with her and start a new life in America, but before they go Don Rafael has a change of heart.  He must choose between the woman he loves and the mother who will surely die if he abandons her...