This film was adapted from a novel by Adela Rogers St. John. St. John was the daughter of a famed criminal attorney who practiced at the turn of the 20th century. Her father eventually died of drink, having been a lifetime alcoholic. The film "A Free Soul" was very loosely based on her life. She had very liberal viewpoints for her era, and only before the production code began to be enforced in 1934 could such a work as this come to the screen.
Garbo plays Arden, a society girl who has grown up observing the seemingly inevitable cheating that goes on in the marriages of all her friends by the husbands. Meanwhile, when she takes an innocent drive late at night with the chauffeur, she is subjected to Victorian judgements by the men in the household. This leads her to adopt the "single standard" as her philosophy of love - absolute freedom and equality for both parties. Shortly thereafter she meets Packy Cannon (Nils Asther), an artist, adventurer, and ex-prizefighter. The two have instant chemistry and they sail away together on his boat, the "All Alone". However, after a few perfect months together, Packy returns Arden to her home, saying that their love has been so perfect it must live on forever - but only in their memories.
Once she returns home, Tommy Hewlett (Johnny Mack Brown) tells Arden that he still wants her to marry him, doesn't care about the scandal that her sailing away with Packy has caused among their society crowd, and is not afraid of the possibility that she might leave him if Packy were to ever return. The two do marry, Packy returns for Arden, and Arden and Tommy come to completely different conclusions about how to handle the situation. It is (almost) most unfortunate that they never communicate their individual plans to one another.
This is one of Garbo's last silents, and by this film she has evolved into the woman we recognize in her later talking films. To really appreciate Garbo you must start with her silents and watch her grow from girlhood to womanhood onscreen. Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown didn't have it so good in talking pictures. Nils Asther's accent did impede his career considerably, and by the 1940's he was a truckdriver. Johnny Mack Brown just didn't come across with a commanding presence in talking pictures. He lost his contract at MGM in the early 30's and eventually wound up doing dozens of B Westerns for poverty row Monogram Pictures.
This is a late silent, so a synchronized score is included. The video is quite worn looking, with considerable "cross-hatching" on more than a few scenes, and artifacts so bad on a few of the title cards that it is hard to read them. The DVD version available through the Warner Archives hasn't improved upon these problems .
Garbo plays Arden, a society girl who has grown up observing the seemingly inevitable cheating that goes on in the marriages of all her friends by the husbands. Meanwhile, when she takes an innocent drive late at night with the chauffeur, she is subjected to Victorian judgements by the men in the household. This leads her to adopt the "single standard" as her philosophy of love - absolute freedom and equality for both parties. Shortly thereafter she meets Packy Cannon (Nils Asther), an artist, adventurer, and ex-prizefighter. The two have instant chemistry and they sail away together on his boat, the "All Alone". However, after a few perfect months together, Packy returns Arden to her home, saying that their love has been so perfect it must live on forever - but only in their memories.
Once she returns home, Tommy Hewlett (Johnny Mack Brown) tells Arden that he still wants her to marry him, doesn't care about the scandal that her sailing away with Packy has caused among their society crowd, and is not afraid of the possibility that she might leave him if Packy were to ever return. The two do marry, Packy returns for Arden, and Arden and Tommy come to completely different conclusions about how to handle the situation. It is (almost) most unfortunate that they never communicate their individual plans to one another.
This is one of Garbo's last silents, and by this film she has evolved into the woman we recognize in her later talking films. To really appreciate Garbo you must start with her silents and watch her grow from girlhood to womanhood onscreen. Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown didn't have it so good in talking pictures. Nils Asther's accent did impede his career considerably, and by the 1940's he was a truckdriver. Johnny Mack Brown just didn't come across with a commanding presence in talking pictures. He lost his contract at MGM in the early 30's and eventually wound up doing dozens of B Westerns for poverty row Monogram Pictures.
This is a late silent, so a synchronized score is included. The video is quite worn looking, with considerable "cross-hatching" on more than a few scenes, and artifacts so bad on a few of the title cards that it is hard to read them. The DVD version available through the Warner Archives hasn't improved upon these problems .