"Look at That Girl!" Louis B. Mayer's Gambit for Garbo
Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
Legend has it that Louis B. Mayer wanted renowned Swedish film director Mauritz Stiller under contract with his studio. After the international success of Stiller's film The Saga of Gosta Berling (1924), Mayer actively pursued him. The two met in Berlin in November of 1924 to negotiate. Stiller, noted for being difficult to bargain with, finally did agree to sign with MGM, but only if the studio also hired his budding starlet, Greta Garbo. Mayer, allegedly, was very reluctant to make the concession. He finally relented, but only on the condition that Garbo, who had only one major film role to her credit, learned English and lost weight.
Greta Lovisa Gustafson (Garbo), was seventeen when Stiller cast her in Gosta Berling against the better judgment of studio executives. Most people thought she was not very pretty. She had bad teeth and was overweight. She had very little acting experience and suffered from almost debilitating stage fright. But, in the past, Stiller had proven to have a sixth sense, an intuition about undeveloped talent. He saw something in the Gustafson girl. It was in her face and in her eyes. It was not visible ‘live,' but when watched on film; deep intense emotions and a psychological complexity flowed from her like water from a fountain. Under proper lighting she became stunningly beautiful. Her face and mannerisms exuded alluring mystery and eroticism.
Stiller was a notorious ‘beast' on the set. To ‘get the best out of' his actors he loudly and publicly derided them and belittled their performances. He did the same to Garbo. Though the filming of Gosta Berling was, according to a stage assistant, "torture for her," she permitted Stiller to assume complete control over her life. Stiller said, "She is like wax in my hands." When others suggested that she was "just a shy, mediocre novice," he insisted, "Greta will be all right. I believe in her." Stiller constantly preached instructions to her. She listened and learned. He had an almost hypnotic power over her and was able to get her to do incredible things in front of his cameras.
Stiller was, allegedly, homosexual. Though not attracted to women he had a strong image of the feminine ideal and was obsessed with finding it. In Garbo, he believed he'd finally gotten the "super sensual, spiritual and mystic" characteristics he sought. His goal was to mold her into the ‘ultimate woman of the screen' he dreamed of. He was a psychological tyrant and dominated the teenaged girl as he strived to achieve that goal. She could not help but adopt some of his phobias, for the press, for example, and his almost neurotic perfectionism.
There could be no arguing about the results Stiller's got from his new ‘leading lady.' Gosta Berling, was a tremendous success. In Germany alone it earned over 750,000 marks. The rights had been purchased for only 100,000. Stiller, of course, emphasized her presence with his direction, but in all of her scenes, Garbo's performance was spectacular. Her deepest inner thoughts could clearly be read in her eyes. The special talent that Stiller had recognized in her emerged on the screen. Some critics called her performance, "captivating." Stiller had taken a big risk giving the important role to an inexperienced new comer, but was greatly rewarded.
Two people who would become instrumental in Garbo's rise to superstardom were awe-struck by her performance. One was German filmmaker Georg W. Pabst, who was looking for an actress to play a major role in his film The Joyless Street. When he saw Garbo in Gosta Berling, he was stunned. He insisted, "That is the right girl! We have to use her in our picture!" The other was MGM vice-president, Louis B. Mayer. One of his top actresses, Lillian Gish, insisted that he watch the film because she wanted him to hire Stiller. When Mayer saw Garbo on the screen, his breath was taken away. He said, "Look at that girl! Stiller's fine, but the girl, look at the girl!"
In 1924, riding the wave of success from Gosta Berling, Stiller had several ‘irons in the fire.' He was a schemer and a less than trustworthy businessman. He retained his connections to his Swedish film company, was contracted by a German company to do a film in Istanbul, was working on the formation of an international film company in Europe and was being courted, as were several Swedish directors, by American studios. His intention was to ‘wait and see' which venture might prove to be the most profitable before exclusively committing to any, but signed contracts with them all. Of course, Garbo was at his side.
Louis Mayer and his family traveled to Europe in the fall of 1924. He was the vice president and general manager of the film studio recently formed by the merger of Marcus Lowe's Metro Pictures and Samuel Goldwin's company. He was there to address crises that had developed in the production of the film Ben-Hur, which MGM had inherited from Goldwin. He was also interested in looking for new talent. Swedish director Victor Seastrom (Sjostrom), who was already working in Hollywood, suggested that Mayer go to Berlin and talk to Mauritz Stiller.
Irene Mayer Selznick, Louis's daughter, told Garbo biographer, Barry Paris, about the trip to Berlin many decades later. Prior to meeting Stiller a viewing of Gosta Berling was quickly arranged. She remembered her father telling his associates, "This director is wonderful, but we really ought to look at the girl." Until then, no one suspected that Mayer had seen the film before. Selznick said that her father couldn't stop talking about Garbo during the showing. He compared her to Norma Talmadge. He said, "The thing that made Talmadge a star was the look in her eyes," and Garbo had it, too. He said that both women gave the viewer a feeling of "a womanly heart and a gentleness you rarely saw in an actress."
Mayer did not want Stiller to know that he had previously seen Gosta Berling. He wanted to be very careful in his negotiations, to be tactful and sly. He could not let his enthusiasm for Garbo show. He confessed that if he had to choose, he would pass on Stiller. "I'll take her without him, or I'll take them both. Number one is the girl!" Selznick told Paris: "He was hell bent (oh having Garbo). He said it had nothing to do with beauty. It was what she conveyed and the expression that emanated from her eyes." A meeting with Garbo…and Stiller…was arranged for that same day.
At his motel suite, Mayer and Stiller had been talking for quite a while before Garbo arrived. The couple stayed for dinner with the family. Selznick said that Garbo, now 19, was "shy but not bashful…She was contained-charming, reasonably poised." She wore dark cloths and no make-up. "She didn't look like an actress." Irene was more interested in Stiller who she said was an "enormous," "frightening looking man."
Garbo, speaking to a Swedish reporter several years later, said of the negotiations: "Not much was said about me. Mr. Mayer hardly looked at me the first time we met. He put a contract before me. I asked Stiller if I should sign… [He] told me to sign, and I did. I was to get $100 a week for forty weeks the first year, $600 the second year and $750 the third." The following day, November 27, 1924, Mayer dictated a separate letter of agreement for Stiller to sign. He was to be paid $1,000 per week. He and Garbo were to sail for America no later than May 1, 1925. Mayer had successfully pulled off his coup. He had "That Girl" under contract separate from her mentor, and he'd gotten her at a bargain price.
Over the winter of '24/'25, Stiller's business deals in Europe began to crumble. He'd lavishly squandered the ‘up-front' money for the German film he was making in Istanbul. When the Trianon film company faced bankruptcy and could forward no more, the crew limped back to Berlin on train tickets the Swedish embassy purchased to get them out of Turkey. Stiller still had his pan-European film corporation in the works, but it was progressing slowly. He owed everybody money, yet continued to ‘keep up appearances' with a first class lifestyle.
Georg W. Pabst, one of "the big three" of German cinema, with F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, came to their rescue. He "had to have Garbo" for his next film. Stiller, sensing Pabst's infatuation with her, said that he doubted if she would consider it for less than $4,000 (she was paid $600 for Gosta Berling). It was an exorbitant salary for an actress with one film behind her, but Pabst agreed. His assistant, Marc Sorkin said, "We had to pay Garbo the same amount we paid Asta Nielsen," who was one of the biggest stars in Europe. People thought Pabst was crazy.
Pabst style of film making lent itself to Garbo's style of acting. He was a contemplator of the human soul. He did detached, amoral psychological examinations in his films. He was a proponent of the New Objectivity form of art which was rising in opposition to Expressionism that dominated the industry. Pabst eschewed the Expressionistic exaggerated outward action to expose the inner life. He said "As I have noticed life in its dramatic climaxes [people] try to hide their emotions….The only effective acting [is] discrete acting: restrained movements, calm and expressive faces, eloquent eyes, and dignified naturalness of bearing." He was describing Garbo.
Pabst's style of direction was the opposite of Stiller's. He welcomed input from anyone on the crew, down to the lowly property man. If the idea was good, he'd try it. He nurtured his actors, stroking them, massaging the best performance from them. In important scenes he held the camera in close up on the actors' eyes. He told them that "the audience must see it in the eyes." He put his actors at ease enabling them to release their personality and express themselves to the camera, through subtle intense psychological effort. With the director playing directly to her innate style Garbo blossomed.
The Joyless Street was a tremendous success across Europe. Because of her inexperience, the special film and lighting needed, and the delicate handling she required because of her intense stage fright, the cast and crew ‘screamed' for Pabst to get rid of Garbo throughout the filming. He stuck with her. As did Stiller and Mayer, he knew she was destined for greatness. Audiences raved about her performance. She had a restraint and fragilness to her acting that was startling for the time. The emotion she exuded, with her eyes, wrenched hearts and took viewer's breath away. Before she and Stiller even considered leaving for America, after only two major films, Greta Garbo had emerged as one of the world's greatest actresses. She was not yet twenty. And, Louis B. Mayer had her under contract for $100 per week.
Garbo and Stiller finally arrived in New York City on July 6, 1925. MGM kept them waiting. Stiller's character and business practices preceded him, and most of the media saw nothing special in Garbo. Reporters had to be begged to do interviews, and interpreters had to be provided. Studio executives thought Mayer had made a big mistake with both of them. They might consider taking a chance on Stiller, he had a track record, but they had no interest in Garbo.
Stiller became so frustrated while 'cooling his heels' in NYC that he tried to get out of the deal. The Mayer would not release him, though. He knew he'd take Garbo home with him. When a legal problem arose because Garbo was still a minor when she signed the contract, Stiller insisted on a 400% pay increase as part of her revised agreement. Mayer was angry that Stiller had 'gotten over' on him, but he was not losing "That Girl" now and agreed.
When a set of photographs taken by NY photographer Arnold Genthe were sent to MGM, things changed. Genthe has seen something in Garbo. She resisted the impromptu session, "Look at my dress-and I don't like my hair." He said, "Never mind that. I am more interested in your eyes and in what is behind that extraordinary forehead." The "Thing" Garbo had could only be seen through a camera lens. When the studio executives saw her haunting sensuality and disturbing beauty in the photographs, she and Stiller were immediately called to Hollywood.
Stiller lasted only a year before MGM grew tired of him and his behavior. He returned to Sweden. By the time her mentor died in 1928, Greta Garbo was considered the best actress in the world and was the biggest movie star the industry had ever produced. She went on to dominate Hollywood for fifteen years. A decade after Louis B. Mayer offered Garbo $4,000 per year, he was gladly paying her $500,000 for each film she was gracious enough to make for his studio.
Garbo in The Saga of Gosta Berling
This Article has been viewed 368 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Jack, I love this stuff-keep it coming. They say that the camera lens always distorts the way we see an image in real life. Most often the lens image is skewed and odd looking. Sometimes a face and personality are magnified in a magical way, different from how the human eye sees things. Garbo must have had that dynamic. You look at her in person and see a person, you look through the lens and you see...magic.
Thanks for writing!Thanks, Bing--yes, I love Garbo
What a tome. There is so much information here, this could be called a "booklet". Strong detail and powerful descriptions and just plain old good writing.Thanks so much for reading and the nice comment.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.