Rent Greta Garbo Collection: Anna Christie (1930)

Garbo Talks - Greta Garbo Collection: Anna Christie review by PT

Garbo talks was the marketing campaign behind this film, as it was her first talkie.

We first see Garbo when the bell rings at the ladies entrance to the bar. As the barman opens the door Garbo stands there eyeing the place up in a classic shot. In she walks, the Garbo walk, leading with the shoulder and takes a seat. It's 16 minutes in when she utters her first words in talkies, "give me a whisky, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy baby". Her voice a brilliant revelation now, even more so at the time.

She really pours her heart out in this film, about her hard life, abandoned to a terrible upbringing. Especially in the scene where she tells her father and boyfriend, " I am my own boss....." and makes a heart breaking confession. Her acting is phenomenal.

Garbo the silent superstar becomes an even greater icon with the advent of talkies. For me this film is sensational, a milestone in cinematic history. Garbo received an Oscar nomination for this and the film Romance, made later the same year (in them days stars could be nominated for two films for one award). The first talkie for the greatest film star that's ever been is a must see for all film aficionados.

Gritty Garbo - Greta Garbo Collection: Anna Christie review by PE

Its fun to see Garbo upstaged by Marie Dressler as the local dockside soak.

But there's no denying Garbo's star quality. When we first see her entering the local bar she really does seem to have the weight of the world on her shoulders.

And the voice, of course, more fun is to be had listening to her wrap her Nordic accent around American slang. Like listening to Abba rapping.

Social Realism. - Greta Garbo Collection: Anna Christie review by Steve

Gloomy melodrama adapted from Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize winning play which (of course) was a sensation because it was silent star Greta Garbo's debut talking picture. Her first line made headlines: 'Gimme a whisky, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby!' And she's still the main attraction, weary and full of cynicism as a sex worker who goes home to her Swedish immigrant father (George Merion).

The main selling point of the play is the realistic presentation of the working poor, trying to scrape a living off the New York river during the depression- while they palliate their misery with booze. There's nothing to arrest the decline of a woman alone. Garbo starts off well as a defeated no-luck dame who has run out of options. She conveys all the troubles of the world.

But eventually she is defeated by the script as the dialogue get ever more overwrought. The insights into the lives of destitute immigrants are no more wise than a dime novel. There is little narrative; Garbo meets an Irish sailor (Charles Bickford) but is tortured by the shame of her past. All the actors struggle. Marie Dressler comes off best as the old, threadbare wharf rat who represents Greta's future.

There's a trip to Coney Island, but mostly this is a filmed stage play. The lighting of the dockland set brings some atmosphere. But Clarence Brown doesn't have the imagination to challenge the technical limitations of the early sound period. We are shown lives destroyed by poverty and ignorance, but it's not obvious that anyone working on this production cares too much. Maybe not a good fit for MGM.