
The film where the on-screen chemistry between Greta Garbo and John Gilbert became the most famous love affair in Hollywood — and you can see exactly why. Gilbert plays an Austrian officer whose lifelong friendship with his blood brother is shattered when both fall under the spell of a dangerously alluring woman (Garbo, in full smoldering magnificence). Director Clarence Brown and cinematographer William Daniels photograph Garbo as though she were a force of nature — the communion scene, where she turns the chalice to drink from the same spot as Gilbert, is one of silent cinema's most erotically charged moments. The film's frank sensuality pushed the boundaries of what 1926 audiences were accustomed to, and the passion between the leads is so convincing that it spilled into real life, making Garbo and Gilbert the most talked-about couple in America.
The film where the on-screen chemistry between Greta Garbo and John Gilbert became the most famous love affair in Hollywood — and you can see exactly why. Gilbert plays an Austrian officer whose lifelong friendship with his blood brother is shattered when both fall under the spell of a dangerously alluring woman (Garbo, in full smoldering magnificence). Director Clarence Brown and cinematographer William Daniels photograph Garbo as though she were a force of nature — the communion scene, where she turns the chalice to drink from the same spot as Gilbert, is one of silent cinema's most erotically charged moments. The film's frank sensuality pushed the boundaries of what 1926 audiences were accustomed to, and the passion between the leads is so convincing that it spilled into real life, making Garbo and Gilbert the most talked-about couple in America.

John Gilbert
Leo von Harden

Greta Garbo
Felicitas

Lars Hanson
Ulrich von Eltz

Barbara Kent
Hertha von Eltz

William Orlamond
Uncle Kutowski

George Fawcett
Pastor Voss

Eugenie Besserer
Leo's Mother

Marc McDermott
Count von Rhaden

Marcelle Corday
Minna

Frankie Darro
Boy who dances with Hertha (uncredited)

Philippe De Lacy
Leo as a boy (uncredited)

Virginia Marshall
Hertha as a girl (uncredited)

Maurice Murphy
Ulrich as a boy (uncredited)

Polly Moran
Family Retainer with bouquet (uncredited)
Carl Roup
Train Station Vendor (uncredited)