The Temptress

The Temptress
"She had added another to her list of victims"
Directed by	Fred Niblo
Produced by	Irving Thalberg
Written by	Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Dorothy Farnum
Starring	Greta Garbo Antonio Moreno Lionel Barrymore
Music by	Michael Picton
Cinematography	William H. Daniels Tony Gaudio
Edited by	Lloyd Nosler
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	October 10, 1926
Running time	117 minutes
Country	USA
Language	Silent film English intertitles
Budget	$669,000, estimated.

The Temptress (1926) is an American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore and Roy D'Arcy it premiered on October 10, 1926. The film melodrama was based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez adapted for the screen by Dorothy Farnum.

In her fourth film and only second film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Garbo plays the title role, a vamp who inadvertently destroys many men who come in contact with her. The film was released on DVD in 2005 with a new score, written by Michael Picton, who won Turner Classic Movies’s fifth annual Young Film Composers competition.

The story opens in Paris at a masquerade ball where the unhappy Elena (Garbo) meets Manuel Robledo (Antonio Moreno), an Argentine engineer. After removing their masks, they spend the night together in a park and they fall in love under the stars. They declare their love for one another, with Manuel giving her a ring, before departing.

The next day when he goes to visit his friend, Marques De Torre Bianca (Armand Kaliz), Manuel is stunned to learn that his wife happens to be Elena. He is disillusioned and upset. Wanting nothing more to do with her, he leaves.

At a dinner party, Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott), a middle-aged banker permitted by Bianca to have Elena be his mistress in order for them to be financially secure, distracts the guests by making a startling speech around the table on how Elena, the temptress, has ruined his life and blames her for his financial ruin. As he drains his glass he collapses at the table after taking his drink that was evidently filled with poison.