Inspiration (1931 film)
- Greta Garbo: Yvonne Valbret
- Robert Montgomery: André Montell
- Lewis Stone: Raymond Delval
- Karen Morley: Liane Latour
- Marjorie Rambeau: Lulu
- Beryl Mercer: Martha
Yvonne (OT: Inspiration ) is an American film directed by Clarence Brown with Greta Garbo in the leading role. He was taken to the rental on 6 February 1931. The screenplay is based on the novel of Sappho by Alphonse Daudet
Action
Yvonne Valbret is an artist model. She falls in love Andre Montell, a distinguished diplomat. The two spend idyllic hours, but in the end fails the relationship to their dubious past. Yvonne writes a suicide note and leaves André.
Background
After the success of romance, who had come to theaters in mid-August 1930 put the studio Greta Garbo again as a woman with dubious lifestyle and a dark past. Today we would call the film Romance II because almost the entire technical staff, who had stood by with the previous production, also worked here together again. Not for the last time Garbo was presented as a woman who lives only for and in love and moves outside the prevailing moral beliefs. One of the most famous lines of dialogue all Garbofilme can be found at the beginning of Yvonne. André asks Yvonne who she was. She replies with a smile:
" I am a nice young woman. Not too nice and not too young. "
The studio saw to it that the actress is suffering again with the greatest possible amount of glamor. Gilbert Adrian designed gorgeous costumes and since the film before the entry into force of strict censorship rules of the Production Code was filmed, the cutouts and necklines were correspondingly meaningful. Today, the film mainly because Karen Morley's suicide scene is known. Lewis Stone, who plays the lover of Morley, is tired of her and gives her a check in recognition of services rendered. He leaves the apartment, slowly goes down the stairs. Below, at the door, he finds Morley corpse that has jumped in the meantime from the window.
With Robert Montgomery Greta Garbo was an actor on the side on which the studio had great hopes. Montgomery had come in the early talkie days on the side of Joan Crawford in Untamed and Norma Shearer in Their Own Desire to fame. He was specifically built as a successor of William Haines, who had fallen out of favor with Louis B. Mayer. With Garbo he got along not very good. Barry Paris reported in his biography Garbo, both would have had during the filming of a distant relationship with each other.
Theatrical Release
The production amounted to 438,000 dollars, making the film about the MGM - average expenses were. He was moderately successful at the box office and played in the United States a total of 725,000 U.S. dollars, in the other countries further 402,000 U.S. dollars. In the end, a cumulative box office earnings of U.S. $ 1,127,000 and a profit of 286,000 U.S. dollars. Against the background of ever fiercer global economic crisis, and given the not very original theme that was an acceptable result.
Criticism
In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall wrote on February 9, 1931 benevolent words of the main character:
" Greta Garbo, so appealing as always, is first seen with a ruffled hair, probably in order to clarify the character of Yvonne, but with the course of action in which it is more seriously by the love for André, also changes her hair towards a conservative cut. Miss Garbo looks very good. "