The Garden of Eden

One of the definitive classics of the American silent film era, The Garden of Eden is a decadent, sumptuous romance adapted from Avery Hopwoods stage production, featuring a typically magnetic performance from silent film siren Corrine Griffith (The Divine Lady) as beautiful Viennese signer Toni Le Brun. When her mysterious benefactor, posing as a wardrobe mistress, turns out to be a wealthy baroness in disguise, Toni must face the unappealing reality that her new lover, and soon to be husband, may be more interested in her inevitable fortune than in winning her heart. This uplifting epic was capably helmed by two-time Oscar winning director Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front, Mutiny on the Bounty), working from a complex and masterful screenplay from Oscar winning scribe Hanns Kraly.