Page "Greta Garbo" Paragraph 14

The success led Irving Thalberg, head of production at MGM, to cast her in a similar role in The Temptress ( 1926 ), based on another Ibáñez novel.

After only one film, she was given top billing, playing opposite Antonio Moreno.

Her mentor Stiller, who had persuaded her to take the part, was assigned to direct.

For both Garbo ( who did not want to play another vamp and did not like the script any more than she did the first one ) and Stiller, The Temptress was a harrowing experience.

Garbo remembered it as a picture associated with doom: on the fourth day of production, she received a telegram from Stockholm informing her of the death of her sister Alva at the age of twenty-three.

MGM did not permit Garbo to return to Sweden for the funeral.

Shortly thereafter, Stiller, who spoke little English, had difficulty adapting to the studio system, and did not get on with Moreno, was replaced by Fred Niblo.

Reshooting The Temptress was expensive.

Even though it became one of the top-grossing films of the 1926 – 27 season, with nearly in receipts, it was, because of its cost, the only Garbo film of the period to lose money.

However, Garbo again got very good reviews, and MGM had a new star.