Queen Christina (1933)

Greta Garbo gives a wonderful performance in this well-made period piece.

Let it be known from the beginning, that this film requires a large suspension of disbelief, because Miss Garbo is mistaken for a man in this film. And she pretty much looks like she does in the picture to the left when the gender confusion occurs. But anyway, Greta Garbo plays Queen Christina, the Queen of Sweden who took over at a very young age after her father was killed in battle. We jump several years into the future and she's a weary ruler, tired of living her life for Sweden. She's being pressured to marry her cousin, who also happens to be a war hero, but she finds her true love when she is horseback riding in the country side and encounters a Spanish envoy (John Gilbert). He mistakes her for a male, but once the boobs have been revealed, all is well and they fall in love.

Of course, their love can never be revealed, because Sweden is having very strained relationships with Spain, after years of warring with each other, so (as they must do in any sort of royalty romance story) Christina must make a choice between her love and her duty as Queen.

Garbo is great here, she exudes strength and power, but she allows her character to be multi-faceted. When she's addressing her subjects or her advisors, she's very hard, very cold, but when she's with someone she's more comfortable with, we get to see her playful side, her light and happy side. She pulls it off expertly.

The rest of the acting is good, but this is really Greta Garbo's film, I mean "Garbo" is twice as big as the actual title of the film on the DVD, so it's her show to allow to her command the screen with her magnificent presence.

The sets and costumes are all well-made and it appears to be a very lavish production for its time, and it shows, making the palace intrigue and romance more believable and easy to watch.

I should also point out one shocking thing about this movie, it portrays Queen Christina as bisexual. Now, I may be wrong in this assumption, but I was shocked when a female "friend" entered Christina bedroom, only for Christina to greet her by holding her head and kissing her on the mouth before talking about going away together in the country for a few days. Not that lesbians freak me out or anything, but when things like that happen when you're in "Old Movie Watching Mode", you can't believe you eyes.

Of the 3 Garbo performances that I've seen (I've made entires on all of them), this is easily her best, it feels more natural and less "acty" than her other two (not that they were bad), and the character of Queen Christina seems to fit Garbo, a strong woman who also longs for love. It's really one to watch.

Grand Hotel (1932)

A Star-Studded cast perform in this melodrama that chronicles the lives of various guests at the famous Grand Hotel in Germany as they interact, fight, and fall in love.

Plot-wise, the film is essentially divided between the stories of these guests, which eventually merge with other stories and take on new stories and so on and so forth. We have Greta Garbo as The Dancer (her real name is kinda weird, and she's listed under both titles in the credits), a depressed, eccentric ballerina who wants to be both alone and in love. Joan Crawford is Flaemmchen, a stenographer for wealthy business man Preysing (Wallace Beery). Lionel Barrymore is Otto Kringelein, a dying man who is having his last hurrah with his life savings, and John Barrymore is The Baron, a down on his luck nobleman who must resort to some drastic measures to pay off his debts. The "main" plot (if there really is one) is the emerging love triangle between both The Baron, The Dancer, and Flaemmchen.

The acting for the most part, is pretty good. Joan Crawford is actually really likable and natural here, which serves as an odd counterpoint for Greta Garbo's performance. Now, I'm not bashing a legend here, but her performance is just so odd, in a sense. She successfully conveys the necessary emotion, so it's not a bad performance, just an odd one. She does a lot of grabbing her hair and wrinkling up her face and acting pretty tired most of the film. Granted, she's a suicidal ballerina, so that's a license to be out there. John Barrymore is charming and romantic, and it's very understandable why the two women would fall for him. Wallace Beery is essentially a brute, which is exactly what he's supposed to be, and Lionel Barrymore is so tragic and heartbreaking as someone who has been downtrodden their entire life only to still be treated poorly on his final stab at life.

The film is a great melodrama (it won Best Picture), well-made with wonderful sets and costumes, and as I mentioned, the acting is on a high level. It's also surprisingly sad in a lot of ways, but everything works out in a way that makes sense.

It's pretty easy to recommend this movie, especially given its classic status. Plus, it's got a great cast, and could be a great entry-level film into getting into Greta Garbos filmography, or Joan Crawford, or either of the Barrymores. So, watch it, it's a good little film.

Anna Christie (1930)

Just so you know, if you watch this movie, prepare to have the volume up and the subtitles on, because the sound quality isn't that great and with the thick accents that every single character seems to possess, it can become difficult to understand what exactly is being said.

Anyway, this is my second Garbo film, and this is actually Garbo's first talkie, so with this movie, her deep husky voice was introduced to the world. Before that she was the queen of silent pictures.

In this film, Garbo plays Anna, a former prostitute who tries to give up that life by finding and living with a father that she has not seen since she was a little girl (though she keeps her past profession a secret). Anna has had a hard life, she had to work with her mother's side of the family once her mother died and they treated her like a slave, which culminated in a her being raped by one of her cousins. Her father, Old Chris, is a fairly simple sailor, played by George F. Marion, who attributes all of his misfortunes to "The Old Devil", the sea. He has forsaken the sailing lifestyle (despite living on a houseboat) and wants Anna to marry a nice, city man. Unfortunately for him, Anna meets Matt (Charles Bickford), a sailor who she saves once his boat wrecks. They fall madly in love, and Anna must decide whether or not to share her life story with a deeply Catholic Matt.

The acting is a bit hard to judge, since it was made in the days when silent films were transitioning to talking pictures, so the acting is almost like a silent film, and by that, I mean over the top. I don't want to bash Greta Garbo, but she's very overdramatic here, constantly clutching her hair and making every emotion play obviously on her face. She's still fascinating to watch, but she is still obviously using her bag of acting tricks from her silent movie days. And the character of Anna is written to be almost borderline bipolar. She'll be happy with her father in one scene and suddenly she's angry with him and yelling at him in another. It's very odd. Other than that, the acting is good, but the characters are not really given much depth. Matt is a boisterous Irishman, Old Chris is sad and doting. There's another character named Marthy who is Old Chris live-in girlfriend who moves out, but she isn't really given enough screentime to warrant much of a mention.

One issue I have is with the ending (which is fairly predictable) of the film, which (SPOILER ALERT) ends on way too of a happy note. Given everything we've learned up until now, the resolution of Matt suddenly forgiving Anna and he and Old Chris going to work on the same boat while Anna stays home seems a bit too much. I know that Anna is a strong character, but for her to settle for that sort of situation seems a bit weird. (END SPOILER ALERT)

Overall, the film is good enough to warrant a recommendation. Greta Garbo is an actress that I would really like to see more films from (I own Ninotchka, but I've yet to watch it), and this is probably a good introduction into more of her work. If you can forgive the acting issues, then you should be able to enjoy this film.