Greta Garbo

[ClassyCo]

The documentary BOMBSHELL is excellent. It did nothing to improve my opinion of her as an actress or film star, but it gave me an an appreciation and admiration for a brilliant, difficult, complex woman who never quite seemed to find her path.

Some suggestions were made about Lamarr being indifferent to her film career. That might explain why she appeared to apathetic on screen, but not why she plugged away at it for more than a decade. She was also a bad judge of scripts; she reportedly turned down GASLIGHT, CASABLANCA and ARCH OF TRIUMPH -- all of which became good films for Ingrid Bergman.

I caught a little of Bombshell while it was on Netflix. Is it still there? I'm not even sure. It was a very well-produced documentary from what I remember of it, and I'd certainly agree that she was a troubled individual that never found her true place in life. Her life had purpose, but seemed to lack focus. She was an actress, inventor, producer. Her life was cluttered, but without anything with any considerable depth.

Discussions about her film career are always spotty. She seemed destined for stardom, based solely on her looks, but her body of work is overtly unremarkable. I have a Leading Ladies book that says Louis B. Mayer was baffled once he found out that Lamarr, his "new Garbo", was fool's gold. It speaks of her awkwardness and her mismanagement of her own career in turning down major roles in Gaslight and Casablanca, two career-defining roles that went to Ingrid Bergman. Mayer was said to have lost interest in Lamarr once she proved "too hard to please", and he therefore shoved her into less rewarding films that typified the vast majority of her career.

Of course, I know all this is one author's opinion, but it certainly seems valid one viewed in context of her career. She evidently misjudged what scripts were presented to her, and therefore spent most of her time playing basically mediocre parts.

 

[ginnyfan]

As already stated, Garbo is the prime example of a movie star with all the classic Hollywood, black and white magic epithets. No one photographed like her, that's a fact. She didn't even have to be a good actress (and she was very good), she could just stand there and be filmed and create movie magic.

The ending of Queen Christina is one example of it. Just Garbo, looking into the distance with the camera slowly zooming out. Magic!



Then there's that Grand Hotel scene of her in the ballerina outfit, in her room, on the floor, taking of her shoes. It's mesmerizing, the way she moves, visual poetry.

Garbo's rebranding worked at first, with her brilliant turn in Ninotchka. Sadly her next movie was to be her last, I haven't seen Two-Faced Woman, but I've read and heard some terrible reviews. Hope to see it eventually. I can't really imagine Garbo in the 1940s. Where would she fit? A suffering mother during the war a la Mrs Miniver? Perhaps some biography like Madame Curie? Not sure, Garbo was just too glamorous for any of it.

As for her post Hollywood life, even though there's this whole legend of a recluse wandering the streets of NY, I don't think it was really like that. From what I've read she led a very active social life, throwing dinner parties at her luxurious apartment for her close circle of friends. George Cukor talked about it in one of his later interviews, apparently Garbo's dinner parties where the place to be. She was also quite rich, one of the few Hollywood stars who made some good investments while she was earning big which made it possible for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life. Smart woman.

 

[ClassyCo]

I think the image of Garbo wanting to be alone has blurred our perception of what he post-Hollywood life was actually like. She walked out on Hollywood and show business in general, but she didn't drop off the face of the planet. All the rather dreary images of her sipping her drink and masquerading as a bag lady while window-shopping is fueled by our misconception of her legend.

We often seem to forget that she had no intention on retiring in 1942. She had every intention on returning to MGM to make films following the conclusion of the Second World War, but it never bore fruition. She was offered a few projects throughout the 1940s, but the slightest incident caused her to back out. After a while, she eventually stopped accepting any of the offers, and she sometimes wouldn't even respond to them. And naturally the offers eventually stopped coming once producers finally got the hint that she wasn't interested in a comeback.

Garbo just simply didn't want to live the Hollywood lifestyle anymore, even though she hadn't ever really lived to start with. She withdrew to her New York apartment, and gave parties made up solely of her closest friends, some in show business, while others were not. She used the alias Harriet Brown to travel with hassle during her post-Hollywood years, which she apparently did a lot. Socially, she was probably more active than she had been when she was the Queen of Hollywood in the 1930s, when she rebelled against any notion of public notoriety. Her investments, which I've read she kept rolling until she died, kept her living comfortably for the rest of her life. She enjoyed the company of those she knew she could trust and held dear to her, but she was just fed up with the Hollywood rubbish.

She didn't want to be alone, she wanted to be let alone. There is all the difference.

 

[ClassyCo]

@Crimson do you have specific opinions on Garbo herself, and what about you @Snarky Oracle ?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

All the golden age icons seemed unanimously impressed with Garbo. Even Kate Hepburn described her as "very sweet." Someone (I forget who) who witnessed Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich meet described Garbo as being very cold to an effusive Marlene, but Greta probably recognized a real ho when she saw one.

One wonders what a film with Dietrich and Garbo might have been like.

 

[Crimson]

Someone (I forget who) who witnessed Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich meet described Garbo as being very cold to an effusive Marlene

Through the years, I've read numerous accounts of a Garbo / Dietrich encounter, or lack thereof. In interviews, Dietrich claimed they never met; but then she was about as unreliable a source as one could find. In her book, Dietrich's daughter also claimed the two never met. Since Maria turned up even the tiniest shred of any gossip in her book, I give that some credibility. Various other biographies of the two have offered scenarios in which the two interacted, ranging from polite wariness to lesbian affairs. So much of Old Hollywood lore is fan fiction and on this in particular I've never come across one version that is compellingly more believable than the others.

 

[Crimson]

As for Garbo, I'm a bit indifferent. Her screen magnetism and slightly unusual beauty are undeniable; I can understand why she was such a huge star. She just doesn't do much for me personally. Most of her roles and movies are too glum for my taste. I like melodrama, but her movies are downright depressing. Plus, like a few other actors of that early Hollywood era, I find her acting looks very dated. Anytime I've watched GRAND HOTEL, my takeaway was that Crawford was the only one whose acting didn't look ancient. Garbo was still doing Silent-era grand swooning and Barrymore's acting was even mustier.

NINOTCHKA is the only of Garbo's films I enjoy. I don't think she demonstrated much flair for comedy there; the movie is funny around her, while she's its droll center. But at least she was joyous for some of the movie, rather than appearing on the verge of suicide which seemed to be her norm.

 

[ClassyCo]

Garbo's image as a screen actress seems to be built around her work in a handful of films: GRAND HOTEL, ANNA KARENINA, CAMILLE, and NINOTCHKA. In the first three, she plays reclusive, dying, or suicidal women. Her form of sacrificial melodrama wasn't necessarily popular with average American moviegoers of the 1930s. Garbo had been the biggest film star on the planet in the late 1920s and early 1930s. ANNA CHRISTIE, her first talkie, was one of the biggest hits MGM had in 1930. Her husky and accented voice only added to her reputation as the "Mysterious Lady" (which, ironically enough, served as the title for one of her silent hits in 1928).

Garbo's friendship with screenwriter Salka Viertel shifted her on-screen image. Viertel had an idea of Garbo that was vastly different from the Garbo that had proven very popular in silent movies and early talkies. Viertel pushed her towards projects like the 1933 hit QUEEN CHRISTINA, which is basically the turning point in Garbo's career towards her playing more sad, tragic characters in her films. MGM even got worried as Garbo's popularity with the public tapered off in the late-'30s. CONQUEST was a big flop in 1937, and theater owners branded Garbo "box office poison" as a result. I've heard that the powers-that-be at the studio orchestrated a new contract for Garbo around this time, with a considerable drop in her salary. NINOTCHKA briefly changed her image in 1939, but once the studio tried to go "all the way" with Americanizing Garbo in TWO-FACED WOMAN in 1941, her audience completely abandoned her. It pushed her towards an early retirement, and it made her fearful of tackling another movie thereafter.

I like Garbo. I must admit that I'm not a major fan, but there are times that I wouldn't mind dusting off my copies of GRAND HOTEL or NINOTCHKA to watch them. She was certainly beautiful, and it is quite easy to see why she was the huge star she was. I personally like the film TWO-FACED WOMAN, even though I can admit that it has big flaws and plot holes. George Cukor practically takes the bad wrap for making that movie bad, but it was Garbo's career that stopped because of it. Rumors has it, she told MGM she'd return when WWII was over, but she never gained the courage to do so. In hindsight, I seriously doubt Garbo missed acting at all. She preferred being alone, and spent the rest of her years walking the streets of New York, avoiding "Garbo watchers".
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