Torrent (Monta Bell, 1926)

Greta Garbo and Ricardo Cortez in Torrent

Cast: Greta Garbo, Ricardo Cortez, Gertrude Olmstead, Edward Connelly, Lucien Littlefield, Martha Mattox, Lucy Beaumont, Tully Marshall, Mack Swain. Screenplay: Dorothy Farnum, based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez; titles by Katherine Hilliker and H.H. Caldwell. Cinematography: William H. Daniels. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons, Merrill Pye. Film editing: Frank Sullivan.

Greta Garbo's first American film gives her the chance to play rich and poor: She's a Spanish peasant girl whose love for the wealthy, dashing Rafael (Ricardo Cortez) is thwarted by his scheming mother (Martha Mattox), so she goes to Paris where her singing voice earns her wealth and fame but not true love, as the on-again off-again relationship with Rafael takes its course over the years. Garbo and Cortez strike no sparks, but the film was a hit anyway, launching her fabulous career.