A 1928 silent picture, The Garden of Eden, is a non-slapstick comedy adapted from a play. I don’t know the play, but director Lewis Milestone seems to have known exactly what he was doing in filming it.
The source of the film’s success is not really the far-fetched but enticing story, but rather Corinne Griffith‘s performance. The Texas-born actress, now forgotten, was a star, a published author, and an anomaly. In Eden, she displays impressive restraint (not hyperbole) and variation. The good Lowell Sherman is also on hand, and together they almost make this decent movie lovable.
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