THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Tit. it.: Eden Palace; Sog.: dall’opera teatrale “Der Garten Eden” di Rudolf Bernauer, Rudolf Österreicher; Scen.: Hanns Kräly, Avery Hopwood; Tit.: George Marion Jr.; F.: John Arnold; M.: John Orlando; Scgf.: William Cameron Menzies; Int.: Corinne Griffith (Toni LeBrun), Louise Dresser (Rosa de Garcer), Lowell Sherman (Henri D’Arvil), Maude George (Madame Bauer), Charles Ray (Richard Spanyi), Edward Martindel (il colonello Dupont), Freeman Wood (il direttore d’orchestra), Hank Mann; Prod.: John W. Considine Jr. per Feature Prods United Artists PAL Digibeta. D.: 78’.
Film Notes
The Garden of Eden, which began life as a German stage play, is an entertaining romantic comedy from 1928, and an important film for both its star, Corinne Griffith, and director, Lewis Milestone. The script by Hanns Kräly, a scenarist of four 1920s Ernst Lubitsch comedies, along with gorgeous production design by William Cameron Menzies, helped give the film an effervescent, “Lubitsch-like” quality. The Garden of Eden was the second film for Milestone working with producer John Considine Jr., who had produced Two Arabian Knights (1927) for Howard Hughes the previous year. Milestone’s Best Director-Comedy Oscar had yet to be bestowed at the time of the film’s release in January, 1928, but he had already managed to establish himself as a solid director of comedy through his previous films at Warner Bros starring Marie Prevost, with whom he would later work on The Racket released in the Fall of 1928.
For many years, The Garden of Eden was available only through a cut down 55 minute “Show At Home” edition. This unique, 78 minute version of the film comes from a 16 mm reduction print that was ordered by film collector John Hampton sometime in the early 1940s.
Jeff Masino