Greta Garbo

  • Clarence Brown – Inspiration (1931)

    1931-1940Clarence BrownClassicsDramaUSA

    Inspiration is a 1931 English language film adapted from the Alphonse Daudet short novel Sappho (1884). It was adapted by Gene Markey, directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Irving Thalberg. The cinematography was by William H. Daniels, the art direction by Cedric Gibbons and the costume design by Adrian.Read More »

  • George Fitzmaurice – As You Desire Me (1932)

    George Fitzmaurice1931-1940ClassicsDramaUSA

    An officer tries to convince an amnesiac bar entertainer that she is his long-lost lover.Read More »

  • Clarence Brown – A Woman of Affairs (1928)

    1921-1930Clarence BrownDramaSilentUSA

    Synopsis:
    Greta Garbo is the misunderstood heroine of this silent classic based on the controversial novel THE GREEN HAT by Michael Arlen. Diana Merrick is a free-spirited and wealthy socialite who loses Neville (John Gilbert), her one true love, because of the disapproval of his stubborn father (Hobart Bosworth). Heartbroken, Diana reluctantly weds David (John Mack Brown), a longtime admirer and best friend of her brother, Jeffry (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.).Read More »

  • Sidney Franklin – Wild Orchids (1929)

    1921-1930DramaRomanceSidney FranklinUSA

    Plot: Lillie Sterling comes with her husband, John, on a business trip to Java, expecting a second honeymoon. On the ship, she witnesses Javanese Prince De Gace mercilessly whipping a servant and shrinks in horror from the sight. When John is befriended by the Prince, who is very attracted to Lillie, she tries to have little to do with him. During a conversation in their room, John is called away to answer a wire, and the Prince steals a kiss in his absence, for which she slaps him. So she is understandably upset when John accepts the Prince’s invitation to stay at his plantation in Java when he promised to arrange a tiger hunt. She tries to dissuade John from going, but John says he always wanted to shoot a tiger and she is being unreasonable.Read More »

  • Richard Boleslawski – The Painted Veil (1934)

    1931-1940DramaRichard BoleslawskiRomanceUSA

    Synopsis:
    In Austria, Katrin is lonely after her sister’s marriage and she agrees to marry her father’s research associate Dr. Walter Fane. Fane takes her to China but constantly ignors her in favour of his medical research. Lonely Katrin has an affair with Jack Townsend of the British Embassy. When it is discovered by Walter he becomes very bitter. Fane travels to fight a cholera epidemic and Katrin goes with him and helps. They grow closer together than ever before but Walter is knifed in a riot incited by the burning of a cholera infested town. Now their new found happiness will depend on Walter’s survival.Read More »

  • Robert Gottlieb – Garbo (2021)

    2021-2030BooksRobert GottliebUSA

    “Countless books have been written about Greta Garbo since her self-imposed exile in the 1940s, yet this comprehensive biography may be the final word. Gottlieb’s research is so complete and his style so engaging that this book almost reads like an oral biography told through a singular voice… This is a brilliantly written and constructed portrait of a true icon of the cinema…” (Library Journal)

    “Searching and sensitive … A lengthy “Garbo reader” full of excerpts and articles about her rounds out Gottlieb’s perfectly paced account and the wealth of photos is a plus. The result is a masterful look at an elusive Hollywood giant….” (Publishers’ Weekly)Read More »

  • Georg Wilhelm Pabst – Die freudlose Gasse AKA The Joyless Street (1925)

    1921-1930DramaGeorg Wilhelm PabstGermanyWeimar Republic cinema

    Vienna in the biggest depression, directly after WW1. In a slum, Lila Leid, the wife of lawyer Leid is murdered, Egon, secretary of one of Leid’s clients is arrested. He was with her, and had her necklace, because he needed some money for his own stock exchange deals. The same deal brings poverty to ex-government official Rumfort, his daughter Greta, who also has lost her job, tries to get some money to get food. She rents a room of the flat she, her young sister and her father are living in to an American Red Cross official, who pays $60 rent, but the money is taken by some of her father’s creditors. But their neighbour, shop owner Mrs Greifer knows how to “help”, she and Mrs. Merkel are running a nightclub with a brothel…Read More »

  • Ernst Lubitsch – Ninotchka (1939)

    USA1931-1940ClassicsComedyErnst LubitschScrewball Comedy

    Synopsis:
    Ninotchka is a stern, straightlaced Communist Party member sent to Paris to finish the sale of Grand Duchess Swana’s jewels for the Soviet government. But, while studying the frivolous materialism of Paris, Ninotchka meets Leon, Swana’s lawyer and sometime lover, and the two become enamored with one another — without knowing each other’s identity. The Grand Duchess, in the meantime, is suing the USSR for ownership of the jewels. What follows is a delicate web of intrigue and deception as Swana tries to blackmail Ninotchka into leaving Paris. Soon the two lovers have to overcome political hurdles and cross borders just to be together.Read More »

  • George Cukor – Two-Faced Woman (1941)

    USA1941-1950ComedyGeorge CukorRomance

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    Plot Synopsis by Paul Brenner
    Attempting to Americanize Greta Garbo to appeal to American audiences (since most of the foreign markets for Hollywood product had been cut off due to World War II), M.G.M.’s Two-Faced Woman succeeded in making Garbo angry enough to announce her retirement from the screen. Two-Faced Woman was Garbo’s final screen appearance, as the legendary actress slipped into a reclusive existence that lasted until her death. This George Cukor romantic comedy casts Garbo as ski instructor Karin Borg Blake. She gives lessons to wealthy American playboy Larry Blake (Melvyn Douglas), and the two fall in love and marry even though Larry has a girlfriend named Griselda Vaughn (Constance Bennett) waiting for him back in New York. Returning to New York, Karin fears that Griselda will win Larry back. In an effort to foil Larry’s imagined dalliance, Karin poses as her own twin sister, Katherine, hoping to get Larry to fall in love with her instead of Griselda. Larry is onto the scheme and plays along with her, pretending to fall in love with Katherine. But this infuriates Karin, who can’t believe that her husband would fall in love with her sister, and she storms back to her ski resort..
    Read More »

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