Canadian premiere of a new restoration by the San Francisco Film Preserve.
Live accompaniment by Morgan-Paige Melbourne
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Starring: Corinne Griffith, Louise Dresser, Lowell Sherman, Charles Ray, Maude George
This sly, sexy romantic comedy follows wide-eyed Toni (Corinne Griffith), a naïve Viennese pretzel baker whose dreams of becoming an opera singer takes a very leap into the unknown when she answers an ad for an audition. Upon arriving in Budapest, she meets the nightclub madam only to learn that she’s recruiting girls not for the legitimate operatic stage but for more dubious nightclub “entertainments.” Her disastrous debut — complete with a flustered performance, see- through dress and a lecherous aristocrat (Lowell Sherman at his most lecherous) who mistakes her for part of the evening’s amusements — sends her fleeing in comic panic.
She and the wardrobe lady escape to the French Riviera’s Hotel Eden, a playground for the sexual escapades of the rich, famous and infamous. When she meets a charming young fellow, romance blossoms and she hopes for a happily-ever-after. But scandalous pasts are following close behind and it all comes crashing back into view in high screwball comedy fashion.
The film encompasses all the lavishness of production values so inherent of the late 1920s period. Written by Ernst Lubitsch’s frequent collaborator Hanns Kräly and directed by future Oscar®-winner Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front), THE GARDEN OF EDEN 1928 might just be the best Lubitsch film Lubitsch never made. This late silent gem absolutely dazzles in the gorgeous new 4K restoration from the San Francisco Film Preserve.
