Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

JohnHowardReid The Warner Archive print of The Single Standard is not in an immaculate condition, but I'd give it 9/10 nonetheless. This time, Nils Asther has a more complex role, but either he or director John S. Robertson decided that the part should be played with little depth so as not to distract viewers from the Garbo character who rightly occupies center stage. In fact the only actor whose role rivals Asther's is Johnny Mack Brown. Mr. Brown is awful, as usual, but he doesn't come across too badly because Robertson artfully places him in Garbo's shadow, thus diluting his excessive hamming to a point where he often (but not always) seems reasonably tolerable. All the other roles are small. Third-billed Dorothy Sebastian has such a miniscule part that most viewers would be unaware that she's in the picture at all. Aside from the three leads, the only players who make any impression are Joel McCrea as leader of the opening party-goers, Wade Boteler in an unusual role as an umbrella snatcher and Fred Solm as the hapless chauffeur. This time, the alluring Garbo is photographed by Oliver T. Marsh. In both this films and "Wild Orchids", she is costumed by Adrian. And both films have delightfully atmospheric music scores composed and conducted by William Axt. Oddly, Wild Orchids also has lots of sound effects, but Single Standard, though released later in 1929, has none at all. Not even a lion's roar!

lugonian THE SINGLE STANDARD (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1929), directed by John S. Robertson, stars the legendary Greta Garbo in another one of many love triangle melodramas most associated with her during her reign on the silver screen. Coming at the tail end of the silent film era, for her third of four film 1929 releases (a busy year for Garbo), THE SINGLE STANDARD ranks one of her finer efforts with a familiar theme. Acquiring the support of John Mack Brown (who later achieved fame as a western movie hero through the 1950s) and Nils Asther as her leading men, each having previously appeared opposite Joan Crawford in OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (MGM, 1928), the winning combination for this production happens to be that of Garbo and Asther.The story opens quite amusingly with its introductory inter-title: "For a number of generations, men have done as they pleased - and women have done as men pleased," followed by an opening shot of a group of married men coming out of their cars bidding good night to their lady friends, then returning to their prospective spouses as witnessed by débutante, Arden Stuart (Greta Garbo), one of the guests at the social function. Although Mercedes Stuart (Dorothy Sebastian) loves Tommy Hewlitt (John Mack Brown), his interest is on Arden, a modern day woman not only believes in sexual equality for men and women. but prefers living her life honestly. That evening, Arden goes on a moonlight drive with Anthony Kendall (Robert Castle), a family chauffeur. Upon their return, Kendall is immediately dismissed by his employer regardless of Arden assuming the responsibility. In despair, Kendall takes his own life by speeding out the car of the estate and crashing it into a nearby tree. Three months after the scandalous tragedy, Arden, coming out of the rain, enters a museum where she encounters Packy Cannon (Nils Asther), a prizefighter turned artist, during one of his exhibits in an art gallery. Their courtship and travels on his yacht becomes a romantic and happy one until Packy decides he cannot marry Arden until his work is completed. After sailing out on his venture to the Orient, Arden encounters Tommy once more, this time accepting his marriage proposal. During their three year union, the Hewitt's are blessed with a child (Wally Albright). All goes well until Packy returns to Arden's life, leading jealous husband and former lover to come to terms fighting for her affection with "coffee and pistols for two." Other members of the cast include Lane Chandler (Ding Stuart); Mahlon Hamilton (John Glendenning); Kathryn WIlliams (Mrs. Glendenning); and Zeffie Tilbury (Mrs. Hindley). Those familiar with actor Joel McCrea will easily recognize him as one of the three suitors during the opening sequence.Regardless of THE SINGLE STANDARD being taken from the novel by Adela Rogers St. John, the plot seems to borrow certain structures from Garbo's earlier works and recycling those taken from 1927s LOVE (based on "Anna Karenina") where the Garbo character, with a son she adores, finds herself torn between husband and lover; FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926) where two men consider settling their differences for the woman they love by having a duel; or her most recent WILD ORCHIDS (1929), also featuring Nils Asther, where husband (Lewis Stone) schemes on a hunting trip with wife's lover, hoping for a convenient accident for one of them. Unlike these selected titles, Garbo's character is pitted between two men of equal age status here instead of middle-aged husband versus young lover. With these mixtures involved, THE SINGLE STANDARD survives on its own merits, resulting to a satisfying story equipped with original music score. Had THE SINGLE STANDARD been produced as a talkie, the locale, being San Francisco, might have been changed somewhere in Europe considering its leading players being of Swedish heritage with spoken accents. Their character names, Arden and Packy, unfitting for their personalities, might have served better for American MGM-types as Norma Shearer or Joan Crawford and John Gilbert or Conrad Nagel.It's interesting to note how the word, "Alone" long associated with Garbo's image, turns up here. Many credit the line, "I want to be alone" from her 1932 classic, GRAND HOTEL (1932) as her most famous quote. Yet, in THE SINGLE STANDARD, coming three years earlier, includes an amusing sequence where she finds herself annoyed by a masher (Wade Boteler) while walking in the rain. She ends his persistence by telling him, "I'm walking alone because I like to walk alone." The name of the yacht where Arden and Packy venture alone together is revealed to be "All Alone." The only thing missing is the Irving Berlin song "All Alone" as its underscore.Distributed to home video through MGM/UA in the 1990s, THE SINGLE STANDARD, at 72 minutes, turns up occasionally on Turner Classic Movies.(***)

overseer-3 Greta Garbo, in her second to last silent film, beautifully plays a normal, young, American woman socialite, who longs for excitement and love, though she cannot quite figure out what "love" is. Her character, Arden, who seems to have no parents, and who seems to exist effortlessly and rather detached among the high society set, has a brief romantic fling with her chauffeur, which causes scandal among the posh set, when the driver, fired, takes his own life. Arden next finds "love" with rogue artist Packy Cannon, played passionately, but a little shallowly, by handsome Nils Asther. Nils tempts her to join him spontaneously on a pleasure cruise, and we do get a few hints as to what pleasure Packy is up to with Arden, but really, their passion is quite restrained, considering what modern day films splash on the screen. After Packy has compromised Arden, he callously decides he "loves" Arden too much to continue seeing her, and orders the boat turned around. Arden is heartbroken, deposited back onshore like an old and weathered boat rudder. She next finds "love" with an old admirer, Tommy, played sweetly and sensitively by anything-but-dull, good-looking Johnny Mack Brown. He proposes and, on the rebound from Packy, she accepts. Three years later they have a child together and a very happy marriage. It was nice to see Greta playing a normal woman who eventually puts her marriage first before her old flame, just like most normal American women would do today. There is no compromise here, Arden simply makes the wisest decision for all concerned, which is ultimately based on true love, for true love always endures perfect sacrifice.The print is rather deteriorating in spots and quite scratchy, but really, after you have seen as many silents in poor condition as I have, this one is still above average. It just goes to show how the studios blatantly neglected their silent classics once sound came in, letting them deteriorate or disappear into rust. A tragic and short-sighted waste. It was nice to see other silent film actors like Dorothy Sebastian (Spite Marriage) and Mahlon Hamilton (Little Old New York) in the cast, albeit in small roles. The musical score was the old Vitaphone one but still rather elegant, though I wouldn't say it was beautiful, as the other reviewers here have stated. If you are a Garbo fan or a fan of nicely made silent films, you will enjoy The Single Standard.

www-vitaphone-org Greta Garbo - the lesbian screen star - says farewell to silent movies with this interesting feature. The musical score - which was recorded in 1929 - is beautiful. Be sure to see it with the original Vitaphone score and not one of those cheap modern scores. (Many con-artists have someone tricked the public into believing that their cheap modern scores are somehow better because they are performed live - They couldn't reproduce the beautiful scores of the 1920's and early 1930's if they tried - you need to at least know how to read music to do that.)