Home » The Voice That Shook the World: Garbo in "Anna Christie"

In 1930, Greta Garbo, the "Silent Era's" unrivaled superstar, received the first of her four Best Actress Oscar nominations for her performance in Francis Marion's adaptation of Eugene O'Neil's Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Anna Christie.  It was her fourteenth film, but her first talkie. MGM studios had delayed casting Garbo in a talking picture because they were afraid how audiences would react to her deep, husky voice and her Swedish accent. Many actors' careers ended when they were unable to make the transition from silent films because their voice did not fit their image. With trepidation, the release of Anna Christie was announced with the headlines "Garbo Talks!"

Anna Christie is a four act play that debuted on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. Eugene O'Neill began writing it early in 1919, under the title Chris Chirstopherson. It was initially performed ‘out-of-town' under that name. O'Neill then did a major re-write, changing Anna from a pure woman in need of protection into a prostitute trying to reform her life and find love. It ran for 177 performances, closing in April of 1923. Alexander Woollcott of the New York Times called it, "a singularly engrossing play," and suggested that "all grown-up playgoers should jot down in their notebooks the name Anna Christie as that of a play they really ought to see."

Anna Christie played world wide, including at the Royal Dramatic Theatre Academy in Stockholm, while Greta Lovisa Gustafson (Garbo) was a student there. At school, except in the circle of her closest friends, Greta was known as a shy, inhibited girl. She had difficulty preparing herself to go on stage. She said of her audition to be accepted at the Academy, "I approached the ordeal with mixed feelings-heavenly bliss and extreme panic….My knees almost caved in. I hardly remember my entrance… [I] recited my piece like one in a trance. I collapsed in the wings, and then just ran off."

Her inhibition and often debilitating reticence were noticed by other students and her instructors. Actor Niles Asther said she was "always shy." When life-long friend Mimi Pollack arranged for her to perform in a small recital at the high school in her home town when Greta was visiting on holiday, she was terrified. She dreaded having to perform, was nervous to the point of being ill. She said it "spoiled the holidays," even thought the local newspaper critic praised her performance, and her voice.

Maria Schildknecht, an instructor at the Academy, noted that Greta always seemed very repressed in front of others. Some attributed the shyness to her lack of formal education and her economic status, which was much lower than most of her classmates. She is said to have frequently shown apathy and disinterest in performances and productions. But, Schildknecht said, when Anna Christie played, Greta was looking on from the wings during every performance. She was enthralled by the part. At school from then on, she "acted the sailor's girl, with hoarse voice and cigarettes."  Greta enthusiastically said of the character, Anna, "I should like to play that."

Greta Gustafson's shyness did not distract film makers from her talent and beauty. Erik Petschler cast her in her first real film role in Peter the Tramp when she was 16 (1922). He said: "Greta was quite shy in front of the camera, especially when she felt people were looking at her." Garbo's mentor, Mauritz Stiller, had to address studio personnel's doubts when, in 1923, he cast her in The Saga of Gosta Berling.  He explained, "That's because she's so shy. When you look at her, she goes quite rigid."  It was, however, Greta's insecurity and sense of deprivation that caused her acting to be so internal and so powerfully affective.

Within five years Gustafson was Garbo, the greatest film actress and the top box office star in the world. But she was still shy. She performed many scenes, and all romantic scenes behind black curtains with only the director and cameraman watching. "If I am by myself my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise," she explained. She attended no premieres and avoided fans and reporters like the plague. Not because she was arrogant or aloof, but because she was timid. She strived to live a quiet, peaceful life amid the glitter and debauchery of Hollywood in the Roaring Twenties.

The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927, is recognized at the first talkie feature film. It was a major hit and talkies soon became the standard in the film industry. Garbo's English was "charming," yet she lacked comprehensive command. In silent films, it didn't matter, but now English was the standard language of the movies. An accent could limit an actor's roles and self-consciousness about it or about fluency could affect performances.

The prospect of sound did not intimidate Garbo. She said: "If they want me to talk, I'll talk. I'd love to act in a talking picture when they are better, but the ones I've seen are awful." It did, however, intimidate MGM. They had seen too many major stars fall, such as John Gilbert, Corinne Griffith and Vilma Banky. They anticipated that Garbo, their biggest ‘cash cow,' would fall next. Rumors circulated that she was expecting failure and was making arraignments to close up her house in Los Angeles and return to Sweden.

In 1927, sound was considered for the Garbo/Gilbert film Flesh and the Devil, but was rejected as being too dangerous for both actors (and the studio). By 1930, MGM, though apprehensive, realized that sound was the future and they must fall in line with all of their productions. Another problem was: "Garbo's present contract is still a ‘silent' one, as she has never signed an agreement to talk," a studio memorandum indicated. She was their only actor who had not contracted to do sound, claiming she was shy about her "lack of proficiency in the English tongue." She did finally agree to ‘talk,' though.

The studio wanted her to play Joan of Arc for her first talking role, but they were unable to get George Bernard Shaw to sell the rights to Saint Joan. Instead, considering that the characters spoke with a Swedish accents, as did MGM's most valuable property-Garbo--the studio spent $570,000 to obtain the rights to Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie. It had been done on film once before, silently, in 1923. Garbo was elated. She would finally make the transition to talkies in one of roles she "should like to play."

Anna Christie opened to record box office receipts across the country. Garbo did not appear until almost 16 minutes into the film, heightening the anticipation even more. Finally, the door buzzer sounded and the proprietor let her in at the "Ladies" entrance to a New York City waterfront saloon. Carrying a suitcase, she glared at him briefly then looked speculatively about the room. In her familiar shoulder leading, slouch-walk she sauntered across the room to an empty table, dropped her bag on the floor with a thud, sat down on a hard, straight backed wooden chair and uttered one of the most anticipated, and now immortal, lines in filmdom history: "Gif me a viskey, chin-chur ale on da side-and don't be stingy, baby." The bartender snidely responded, "Well, shall I serve it in a pail?" Garbo said. "Ah, that suits me, down to the ground."

The world was shaken. Audiences swooned. It was perfect, exactly what they wanted and expected to hear. Her voice was deep and resonant, clear and alluring. It was rich, sexy and naturally low. Her accent was gorgeous. Rumor is that she had to do several retakes because it was not strongly enough Swedish. The familiar facial expressions and body language that had gained her millions of fans were still there, but on top of that, Garbo talked! When the ‘viskey and chin-chur ale' was delivered (in glasses), she paused, contemplating it for an instant, ‘shot' it down and said, "Gee, I needed that bad, all right, all right."

             

                          Garbo as Anna Christie (The Whiskey Scene)

Garbo was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress for her performance as Anna Christie. The critics agreed with Marie Dressler, who played Marthy and shared the ‘whiskey scene' with her: "An actor must put forth every last ounce of effort every minute of his working time, or his role will fall short miserably in comparison to Greta's uniformly splendid work. No one I ever worked with in pictures has made me work so hard." Many felt that Dressler's performance was so good it ‘stole the show,' but she retorted, "Nobody could steal a show from Garbo!"

Garbo was lauded by Anna Christie director, Clarence Brown, for her skill as an actress and for her understanding of the art of cinema. He said, "Her judgment on matters affecting screen technique is excellent. So highly do I regard it that often…I adopted Garbo's ideas rather than my own. [It] made Garbo one of the greatest talking picture stars, and it placed my name among the ten best directors of the year…I believe I have been justified in having done the picture Garbo's way."

Little more could be written about her looks and her acting, so reviews focused on Garbo's voice. Richard Watts of the NY Herald Tribune said she had "…the voice of a Viking's daughter, inherited from generations of seamen who spoke against the roar of the sea, and made themselves heard…. [her voice is] a deep, husky, throaty contralto with fabulous poetic glamour." An unnamed critic said, "Some of the strange mystery of the woman (you never visualize Garbo as saying words, and it is a breathless sort of shock when she speaks), is gone, but the new Garbo is a greater actress than the old." Norbert Lusk of Picture Play declared that, in Anna Christie, Garbo unveiled "The voice that shook the world!"

Anna Christie was an unprecedented success.  During its first week at the Capitol Theatre in New York it broke the house record by $10,000. Huge crowds besieged the theatre, even for the midnight shows. Garbo, if it was possible, became even more popular. She was no longer just a silent film actress, a two dimensional image on the silver screen. She was alive, she was a real woman, who walked and breathed and…talked. Many thought her star would fade in the talkie era, but it had not yet approached zenith.

Garbo, contrary to her common practice, actually went to see the film in a theatre. She was at her friend, Howard Geer's, dress shop when a model said "I'm going downtown in a few minutes to see Anna Christie." Garbo said, "How would you like me to go with you?" They went to the early show, where Garbo was not recognized and could quietly judge the film for herself. Exposing the self diminutive, repressed shyness she suffered from all of her life, Garbo responded to one of the best films of the year, and to her Oscar nominated performance typically. In a letter to former classmate and friend Mimi Pollack, the now incomparable superstar of the film industry said of Anna Christie, "Isn't it terrible? Who ever saw Swedes act like that?"

Garbo's next film, Romance, was not nearly as good as Anna Christie, but her performance was.  She received a second Oscar nomination that year for it. She conquered the talkies in the same way she'd conquered the ‘silents.' Five years later she was still Hollywood's biggest star, receiving almost twice the salary per film as her closest competitor. Her career could very well have ended in 1930, but her voice proved to be ‘satisfactory,' and her dominance of the industry continued until her retirement in 1941.