Anna Christie

Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion

It's one of the most highly anticipated entrances in movie history: Greta Garbo slinking into a sleazy waterfront bar and ordering whiskey. Well, "visky." A huge silent star, Garbo was speaking her f...( read more  read more... )irst lines in her first talking picture, Anna Christie, and audiences were breathless with anticipation. As The New York Times put it, "The low enunciation of her initial lines, with a packed theater waiting expectantly to hear her first utterance, came somewhat as a surprise yesterday afternoon in the Capitol, for her delivery is almost masculine." Her sultry tones were nevertheless a hit, and anyway the Swedish accent fit the character.

Anna Christie was adapted by Frances Marion from Eugene O'Neill's play, a piece of gloom about prostitute Anna returning to her seafaring father (George F. Marion) and falling for a sailor (Charles Bickford). The movie's fascination as a Garbo milestone and slice of early-sound Hollywood easily outstrip its actual value as a work of art, for it has not aged especially well. Under the direction of Garbo regular Clarence Brown, the dialogue tends to fall on long, dead pauses and creak with early-sound-era uncertainty. But the print for the DVD release looks very good, and despite her sometimes dodgy approach to English, it's still Garbo--odd, sexy, uncategorizable. The DVD also includes the German-language version, directed by Jacques Feyder, with Garbo and a German cast; the print quality is not as felicitous as the American version but it's an intriguing contrast, and Garbo looks slightly more comfortable in speaking. --Robert Horton

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60% liked it

Unrated, 175 min.

Directed by: Clarence Brown

Released: January 22, 1930

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DVD Released: September 6, 2005

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Top Flixster Reviews


  • October 19, 2007
    the first garbo sound flick adapted from eugene o'nell's cynical story about a prostitute. garbo plays low-life women in the burgeoning period of her sound stage such as susan leonix: her rise and fall, later she's got more polished into those roles of tragic divine creatures suc... ...( read more )
  • October 28, 2008
    garbo's sound film debut came with the 1930 adaptation of o'neill's play about a swedish prostitute trying to reform her life. garbo would also film an all german version of this property.
  • July 8, 2008
    Uneventful, completely unlikeable characters and lacks any kind of pace, but I'd watch Garbo in anything so I guess it's OK. Marie Dressler was genius too.
  • March 28, 2007
    For Garbo fans and for those interested in Pre-Code movies and in the Silent-Talkie transition. Very interesting movie and memorable scene with the "I vant a visky and ginger ale!" great great greta!
  • April 1, 2006
    It's a highly-regarded movie, I believe, but it didn't hold my attention - perhaps because of the sound quality?

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