While it is merely a curio today, The Green Goddess is still highly entertaining, primarily because of the delightfully hammy performance of George Arliss. Arliss, a pleasure to watch in all his films, reprises the role of the Rajah of Rukh, which he essayed on Broadway. Joining him from the theatrical version is Ivan Simpson as the butler, Watkins. The only actor who comes close to sharing Arliss' spotlight is Alice Joyce as Lucilla Crespin, mainly because she's so perfectly cast as the concerned mother who insists on flying to her children. It's no wonder that both Dr. Traherne (David Powell) and the Rajah himself find her quiet maternal beauty so fascinating. Without Arliss and Joyce this creaky melodrama would have nothing to recommend it, elaborate sets notwithstanding. Arliss' detached humor is especially lively. At the end when Lucilla and Traherne are rescued from a ritual execution, one can almost hear the Rajah's philosophically bemused comment (shown as a title) that Mrs. Crespin -- who he wanted for himself -- "would probably have been a damned nuisance anyhow." Seven years later, filmgoers could hear him say it for real when he, and Joyce, starred in the talkie remake.