The Divine Garbo (1 Viewer)

[Emcee]

Greta Garbo (affectionately referred to as the Divine Garbo) is one of the names made synonymous with classic Hollywood. She has a rags-to-riches tale to stardom. She appeared in a few foreign films as a teenager, before finally being discovered by Swedish director Mauritz Stiller, who cast her in THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING (1924).

The worldwide success of that film brought her to the attention of MGM head Louis B. Mayer. He recruited her to America and changed her name to Greta Garbo. She was given a star makeover, and given a lead role in TORRENT (1926), co-starring Ricardo Cortez. She was immediately catapulted to the forefront of screen goddesses. Over the next few years, she starred in many successful pictures, the more famous being her pairings with John Gilbert. Garbo and Gilbert appeared in three silent films together: FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926), LOVE (1927), and A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS (1928). Her last silent, THE KISS (1929), was also the last silent MGM produced.

Garbo was withheld from talkies longer than any other MGM star. Producers felt that her thick Swedish accent would be too difficult to understand and therefore repel her fan base. Her debut to talkies came with ANNA CHRISTIE (1930), which was cleverly publicized as "Garbo Talks!" Appearing first around sixteen minutes into the film, her first line was "Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy baby!" ANNA CHRISTIE was a critical and box office hit. Her success proved the nervous executives wrong; Garbo's accent only added to her appeal. She was quickly ushered into the films ROMANCE (1930) and INSPIRATION (1931), two lower quality efforts, but hits nonetheless. Garbo was the biggest box office star of the early 1930s. The press-described "Garbo-mania" was perhaps at its peak with the release of GRAND HOTEL, the biggest box office hit of 1932.

The film QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933) marked a turning point in Garbo's career. She began a partnership with screen writer Salka Viertel, who had a "very different view of Garbo than the Garbo that had been very popular in silent movies and early talkies". Her on-screen persona took a more elusive, distant, and sad demeanor. THE PAINTED VEIL (1934) was her first film to suffer a dip in ticket sales at the American box office. Garbo declined independent producer David O. Selznick's offer to star in DARK VICTORY in 1935, to instead make a contemporary version of ANNA KARENINA (1935), which became one of her signature roles. Her next film, CAMILLE (1936), resulted in an Oscar nomination. Her popularity with American audiences soon waned, however, and her film CONQUEST (1937) ending up loosing more than one million dollars at the box office. She was proclaimed "box office poison" in 1938. Her career revived with the comedy NINOTCHKA (1939), which was campaigned under the slogan "Garbo Laughs!" Her next film, TWO-FACED WOMAN (1941), attempted to present her as an ordinary woman. It was a critical and box office failure and ended up being her final film.

Garbo was so popular that other studios often tried to emulate her success. Paramount recruited German actress Marlene Dietrich, while MGM had another German actress named Luise Rainier that they presented in Garbo's image.

Garbo had been out of the limelight for decades when she died in 1990.

 

[bujaki]

I adore Garbo. I've seen all her films, although I long for the complete versions (or as complete as they can be) of Stiller's The Saga of Gosta Berling and Pabst's The Joyless Street.
My favorite MGM silents are A Woman of Affairs (the 35mm print I saw at MoMA was incredible) and The Kiss.
I've even seen Love with both endings.
I prefer the German version of Anna Christie to the English one. Feyder did a better directing job.
My first encounter with her was a 35mm print of Queen Christina. Who could not be entranced? That was followed by 35mm prints of Anna Karenina, Camille and Ninotchka. I was 15. I was forever hooked.

 

[Emcee]

I adore Garbo. I've seen all her films, although I long for the complete versions (or as complete as they can be) of Stiller's The Saga of Gosta Berling and Pabst's The Joyless Street.
My favorite MGM silents are A Woman of Affairs (the 35mm print I saw at MoMA was incredible) and The Kiss.
I've even seen Love with both endings.
I prefer the German version of Anna Christie to the English one. Feyder did a better directing job.
My first encounter with her was a 35mm print of Queen Christina. Who could not be entranced? That was followed by 35mm prints of Anna Karenina, Camille and Ninotchka. I was 15. I was forever hooked.

I've the signature collection of her films. I got it off of Amazon several years ago when it went on sale. Garbo's exquisite in ANNA KARENINA and CAMILLE, two of her signature roles, but I do like a change of pace every once in a while.

I really like her in NINOTCHKA, one of the more delightful comedies of the late 1930s. She's like a breath of fresh air. She breezes through the movie with a sharp and sassy comedic timing. You'd think she was a career comedienne.

I know it isn't generally popular, but one of my favorite Garbo movies is TWO-FACED WOMAN. That film has a nasty reputation, but I caught it on TCM one time and I enjoyed it. It's a mess, rough around the edges, and it's not nearly as good as NINOTCHKA, but I enjoyed it. I thought it was funny, and I liked how Garbo seemed to be playing it tongue-in-cheek.

Or do I like TWO-FACED WOMAN because of Constance Bennett? I adore Constance Bennett. She is one of the most underappreciated actresses of Golden Hollywood.

Either way, I find TWO-FACED WOMAN a misguided gem.

 

[Matt Hough]

I guess Queen Christina is my favorite Garbo movie, but I have watched Anna Karenina, Camille, Grand Hotel, Mata Hari, Ninotchka, and Anna Christie many times.

 

[bujaki]

I'd also like to see a complete version of Mata Hari, cut by the censors upon its re-release. An absurd movie, but still...
And imagine if the The Divine Woman ever showed up, directed by the great Victor Seastrom...That 10-minute excerpt is so beautiful...
I happen to enjoy Two-Faced Woman. Garbo is loose and funny, and Bennett is delightful. It's another absurd film and it opened right after Pearl Harbor. Poor timing. However, in my book, any film that gets a C rating from the Catholic Church is fine with me.

 

[Emcee]

I'd also like to see a complete version of Mata Hari, cut by the censors upon its re-release. An absurd movie, but still...
And imagine if the The Divine Woman ever showed up, directed by the great Victor Seastrom...That 10-minute excerpt is so beautiful...
I happen to enjoy Two-Faced Woman. Garbo is loose and funny, and Bennett is delightful. It's another absurd film and it opened right after Pearl Harbor. Poor timing. However, in my book, any film that gets a C rating from the Catholic Church is fine with me.

I think you are the only other person I've ever come across that enjoys TWO-FACED WOMAN like I do. I find Garbo and Constance Bennett hilarious, and the movie flows pretty well, despite there being some issues with the plot and cuts made to make it "acceptable" for mainstream release.

I often wonder what Garbo would've been had she returned to films after WWII, which was her original intent. She had a few offers, and there were a few times she actually received and accepted scripts. Once she even flew to Europe (I think it was anyway) where she had planned to start filming. She filmed some screen tests, but he investors withdrew their money at the last minute and the film was scrapped. Garbo never accepted another role again.