Anna Karenine

On the heels of "Flesh and the Devil," MGM naturally teamed up the two highly-publicized romantics once again in an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 1877 novel 'Anna Karenina' with the release of November 1927's "Love." Greta Garbo is married to an old rich sod. When she meets Vronsky (John Gilbert), a captain in the Russian Army, her Anna slowly warms up to and eventually embraces his love. Instead of a duel when her husband finds out about their relationship, he shuts the door on her as well as forbids her to see their son ever again.

"Love," originally with the working title 'Heat' to allow MGM's publicity department to run wild with romantic possibilities, was changed when an adman came out with the advertisement stating "Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in LOVE." There were two alternate endings filmed, one with a European sad conclusion while the American had a more chipper fade out.

Garbo and Gilbert appeared in two additional movies together. "Love," however, was Gilbert's rare opportunity to direct a few scenes in his movie. First Dimitri Buchowetzki, then Edmund Goulding directed a majority of scenes for MGM. Producer Irving Thalberg wasn't happy seeing the roughly-edited movie. Through Garbo's insistence, Thalberg turned to Gilbert and the producer's favorite cameraman, Willian Daniels, to reshoot some of the scenes that he felt needed replacing. Once the Gilbert/Daniels team finished, the re-edited sequences pleased Thalberg and was released to great fanfare, solidifying Garbo's stardom.