Greta Garbo than $1 million at the box office, becoming one of the studio's biggest failures of the decade. Garbo's popularity had considerably dropped, and when her contract expired soon thereafter, she returned briefly to Sweden. On 3 May 1938, Garbo was among the many stars—including Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Luise Rainer, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río and others—dubbed to be "Box Office Poison" in an article published by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners of America. After the box office failure of "Conquest", MGM decided a change of pace was needed to
The Love That Purifies tells Bertie he has discovered the true reason for Thos's good conduct: Thos loves the actress Greta Garbo. Later, Bertie sees Thos chasing Sebastian with a bucket of water. Thos tries to splash water onto Sebastian but hits Anstruther instead. Anstruther then angrily chases Thos with a stick. Jeeves explains that he told Sebastian to insult Greta Garbo, and Sebastian eagerly obliged, since he finds her inferior to the actress Clara Bow. Bertie, astonished by the passion of the younger generation, is pleased with Jeeves. He tells Jeeves to return to Bognor, and that he can stay there another fortnight.