That the dream of becoming an opera singer can take a young woman from Vienna via Budapest to Monte Carlo, and that life holds many revelations in store, is something the main character learns in this charming comedy of errors from Lewis Milestone, later director of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. THE GARDEN EDEN is based on a German stage play, which Lubitsch screenwriter Hanns Kräly adapted for the screen. The set design and the magnificent Art Deco hotel on the Riviera were created by William Cameron Menzies, who later coined the term “production designer” through his work on GONE WITH THE WIND.
The Garden of Eden, made in Hollywood, may look different from the hearty Viennese strudel baked by Bernauer and Österreicher, because the editor, Kräly, gave it a much more delicate flavor with refined essences. From this prepared dough, Lewis Milestone shaped light and airy delicacies for those spoiled by Lubitsch. Corinne Griffith looks stunning once again, and her somewhat casual coquettishness and almost languid movements are enchanting – not just to the men in the film.
If one reveals that the little baker’s maid ends up in an obscure Budapest cabaret instead of at the opera, from where she takes a trip into the big world with a noble wardrobe mistress and finds the man there, then only the outline of the plot is given.
The once again impressive scale of decorative extravagance, the glamour of high society, the wealth of characters from this and the dubious milieu – these are of secondary interest to us – so captivated are we by Griffith’s charms and by what the director effortlessly conjures. And when things get rather saccharine to suit American – and not only American – tastes, a parodic shower immediately follows.
The photography is as well-chosen as the direction.
