One of the most sophisticated of all the late silents, A Woman of Affairs features Garbo in one of her finest performances. Many of Garbo's early films carry a feminist punch (couched in scandal) that was lost altogether in later Hollywood romances. In this "lost generation" story, written by Bess Meredyth based on Michael Arlen's novel The Green Hat, Garbo plays an aristocratic Englishwoman who acts out with calculated recklessness. Arlen's book was so hot that the characters' names, as well as some choice elements of the story, were changed in the film to protect the censors. But the film remains quite complex in its relationships, with John Gilbert as the love interest and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Garbo's wastrel brother.