MovieChat Forums > Anna Christie (1930) Discussion > Garbo's 1st talking picture

Garbo's 1st talking picture

posted 19 years ago by barry-mel45
7 replies | jump to latest

I thoroughly enjoyed this early talkie that marked Greta Garbo's talkie debut!! I've seen it many times over the years when it was on the Daily Matinee on standard TV, then on cable, then VHS, and now I recently bought my 1st DVD and can watch this old antique in clear B&W. The acting is excellent even though stagey....old Marie Dressler almost steals the film from Garbo with her excellent portrayal of an old "Sea Hag" who loves the bottle more than she does "Old Chris" the sea captain of a barge!! The interplay between the two is really fun to watch. Charles Bickford as the sailor comes on strong and macho and he really swings his weight around, especially with Garbo and her father. Even the interplay between Bickford, Garbo and her father is so enjoyable and sometimes funny to watch, and then dips to anger and sadness towards the end. But all is fine towards the conclusion...and then Chris repeats often in the movie(which becomes haunting & remorseful)..."that all devil sea, that old devil sea...he knows....he knows. I really love this old movie in so many ways and I love those old performances from those long dead actors, What a treat to bring these old gems out of the closet and now to DVD!! We can certainly learn from our past from those great actors who did it so well!! Today's actors...do they know how to act?? I don't think so....thank God we still have the theatre!!!

[–] Cienna 19 years ago

Hi! I recently bought the Garbo signature collection. I am working my way from the silents to the latest release. What joy.

Anyway, have you seen the German version of this film as well? I'm fascinated that they made two complete versions of the same film with different casts (except for Garbo) and different directors. And why one in German?

Renée Zellweger Best Actress Oscar 2006.

[–] spikedude61 18 years ago

The German version was made prior to the time when dubbing a foreign language to the English print was the practice of the movie industry. Many films were made this way in the early days of "talkies". Two examples come to mind. Buster Keaton made foreign language versions of his early "talkie" comedies. Also the dvd copy of Dracula (1931) has both the English version with Bela Lugosi and the Spanish language version (different actors but filmed on the same set at night after the English speaking cast left for the day). Greta was multi lingual and a big star. It would be natural for her to star in the German version as well as the English version.

[–] PillowRock 17 years ago

Why German?

Because it was both a major market segment in Europe and a language that Garbo spoke.

As the previous poster mentioned, for just a couple years at the beginning of talkies it was fairly common to make a couple versions of a movie in different languages. How much the cast overlapped depended on the languitic abilities of their main actors. The Blue Angel was a German movie where an English version was also made with much of the same cast (general consensus is that the German version is better because they were more natural / fluant in German). The Threepenny Opera was made in both German and French with different casts. This was made in English and German with just the one above-the-title level star (who spoke both languages) in both versions. As mentioned, Dracula was made with separate English and Spanish speaking casts. Maurice Chavelier and Jennette MacDonald made a couple movies together in both English and French versions (that would be in each lead's native language, which the other lead also spoke) with different supporting casts.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ppicking 16 years ago

At the Hal Roach studios they made quite a few foreign language films. It's interesting to see Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang (Little Rascals), Charley Chase, and Harry Langdon speak in the Spanish, French, German, Italian foreign language versions. Not all of these films exist any more, but some of them do. You can look them in IMDB.

[–] pauline49 12 years ago

"Anna Christie" was made in German as well as English, as Garbo was very popular there. She hit the big time in Germany, before she was brought over to the States. Also, like most Swedes, Garbo spoke German. English only came later.
To an earlier poster, Garbo was not multilingual on her arrival to the USA.

[–] mdonln 10 years ago

I had never given it much thought but I can see how the advent of sound in movies (dialogue) caused the movie industry to explode. In the silent days they could get away with using the same movie. All they had to do was change the dialogue cards that explained the action. That probably took a handful of people to translate and redo the cards but that was about it.

Talkies in a foreign language required an entire new movie. That meant different actors and after a while different crew members and everyone else associated with the movie.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]