This silent film has the famous lovers John Gilbert and Greta Garbo as Captain Count Alexei Vronsky and Anna Karenina, respectively. The two meet during a blizzard. Anna's carriage is detained because of it, and she has to stay the night in a nearby inn, with her travel there assisted by Count Vronsky. Her face has been covered up because of the blizzard, but once inside the inn she uncovers her face and Vronsky is instantly smitten. Even the maid at the inn feels the chemistry between the two and places Vronsky's and Anna's things in the same room, believing them to be married. There is one impediment to the pair's happiness though - Anna is married to a senator and has a son by him. Any spark that was ever there has gone out of the marriage, but Anna feels a duty to her station in life and above all, her son. Vronsky and Anna keep running into each other at government functions until they can no longer stop themselves, ultimately running off to Italy together. However, Anna has had to leave her son behind at the insistence of her husband, and soon she finds herself missing him. Once back in Russia, Vronsky's superior officer visits Anna and tells her that Vronsky will be thrown out of the service if the affair continues. She agrees to leave him if it will save Vronsky's career. There are two endings that were released with this film - a happy ending in America, and a sad one abroad. Here you are getting the happy ending.There is only one way to see this film, and that is the Warner Archive DVD-R, and I describe that product here because you might not like what you get. The visual quality of the film is good, even if it is a bit soft looking. However, the deal breaker is probably the soundtrack. The score was recorded at a live performance, and the music chosen is good enough. However, the music was recorded at a college showing of this film. In any audience you would probably hear the occasional coughing in the background. Here, though, you'll hear loud laughter whenever the crowd finds something funny, and they apparently find something funny quite often and at the most inappropriate times, such as the first time Vronsky sees Anna's face and smiles at her. It just ruins the mood of the whole film. The audience was probably filled with teenagers with nothing better to do on this particular night.I would highly recommend the film, but the score and the "sound effects" will probably leave you feeling taken if you buy the actual Warner Archive product.

Anyone who thinks silent movies can't convey the realistic passion of love should see this pairing of Garbo and John Gilbert.Their chemistry is palpable and the loss Garbo suffers in terms of her son is believable without plunging into bathos.I was fortunate to see a version of this film on TCM that provided both endings -- the puerile have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too version for American audiences and the bleak, moralistic one that that was distributed for more adult viewers internationally.It's shocking that Americans were believed to require such pabulum. But when you think about it we remain a childish, head-in-the-sand society in many ways. It's just rare to have the us-vs.-them contrast shoved in one's face like this...The performances in this film are stellar. I'm ashamed to say -- and American enough to admit -- that I haven't read "Anna Karenina." Now at least I wish to.I love when movies help to bring my own life into clearer focus. And this one has. Vronsky: "To see you and not touch you...to love you and not have you...No, we'll never see each other again..." This film brings out a terrible truth in life, as acted out by the cold and passionless Karenin. "You two will destroy each other." He needn't have dirtied his hands or mussed his hair and he knew it. Powerful!

LOVE is the perfect title for this hacked-down adaptation of Tolstoy's mammoth novel ANNA KARENINA. It was made to cash in on the popularity of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, fresh from their box office triumph in FLESH AND THE DEVIL earlier the same year. Like virtually all of Garbo's silent films, much of the screen time is devoted to watching the great tormented Swede abandon herself to love, suffer for love, contemplate love, lose love, die. It is interesting to compare this version of the novel with the one made eight years later in which Garbo played opposite Fredric March who, while less dashing and handsome than Gilbert, did give a fine performance as the impetuous and essentially cruel Count Vronsky. In the latter film Garbo is less attractive due to the clash between the curly coiffure she is given and the strong planes and features of her face. She even looks like a male in drag in some scenes. But in LOVE she is beautiful and feminine throughout. The clinging 1920's-style dresses help, even if they detract from the authenticity of a story that is supposed to be set in 1870's Russia. Gilbert was one of the best actors of his era and the talent shows here. He is also a magnetic screen presence and one can understand why audiences in 1927 flocked to see these two together. The scenes of mother-son tenderness between Garbo and Philippe deLacy do indeed seem incestuous as others have pointed out, but so do the scenes between Garbo and Freddie Bartholomew in the 1935 version. I think it was just Garbo's way of expressing love on screen; you see her perform the same kind of nuzzling in other movies, whether the attentions are being given to a man, a woman or a child. I disliked both endings, but at least Garbo was ravishing in the happy one. And remember, Garbo was just shy of 22 when she filmed this, yet she is believable as an older woman. She had a face that could express any age. This movie cries out for a re-scoring. The print shown on TCM is marred by what sounds like muffled applause from time to time.

The soundtrack is a live orchestral performance from UCLA and there is some inappropriate laughter during the love scenes, but despite this, I found the live audience to be good company, and a pleasing added dimension to the film. I despise canned laughter, but this was very different, and added life to a silent movie. The enthusiastic applause at the final scene was lovely and moving. Even better would be this kind of audial environment added to a silent comedy or adventure picture (e.g. a Keaton film, or the Fairbanks Thief of Baghdad).