Silent Superstars: The Enigmatic Greta Garbo
Of the many talented and charismatic 1920s female stars, there were perhaps few who inspired such rapturous fan magazine articles as Greta Garbo. Motion Picture Magazine once declared: “Everyone feels, without being able to explain the fact, that this slim girl is one of the children of Destiny–as definitely precious as a piece of pale green jade.” Picture-Play Magazine likewise gushed: “Her first appearance on the screen struck lightning into the public’s heart.” And one particularly insightful Screenland essay said: “Her appeal is not direct, like that of an Anita Page or a Mary Pickford; it is subtle, evasive, often unexpected…Most actresses have what we might call one face. Greta Garbo is a woman of a thousand faces.”
And there were perhaps even fewer actresses who became full-fledged icons as quickly and as decisively as Garbo. Even today it’s not hard to see why: amid all the flappers, ingenues, and motherly types filling the screens, suddenly here was this sleek woman of mystery with almost ridiculously perfect Nordic features. And if that weren’t enough for the public, talkies soon revealed a husky voice with a thrillingly heavy accent.
Garbo was born Greta Gustafsson (a very common Swedish surname) in Stockholm, Sweden in 1905. Her family lived in a dreary working-class neighborhood and her father worked various low-paying jobs until passing away from the Spanish flu in 1920. Young Greta disliked school and decided not to attend highschool, working jobs at a barber shop and a department store instead.
Her natural beauty and experience as a shop girl led to modelling hats and clothes for mail-order catalogues, and she also started appearing in commercial films. Greta had loved acting from a young age, so after playing a part in the comedy short Peter the Tramp (1922) she decided to quit her job and join the Royal Dramatic Theatre Academy in Stockholm.
During her time at the school she was spotted by acclaimed Swedish director Maurice Stiller, who invited her to do a screen test for The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924). He quickly cast her as one of the leads–her first featured role–and she signed a contract with Svensk Filmindustri. It was around this time that Stiller also suggested that Greta change her name to something “modern and elegant and international.” While stories behind its creation differ, “Greta Garbo” was the catchy result.
Stiller’s lofty reputation led to a contract offer from MGM, which he accepted, bringing Garbo along. While Stiller tussled with MGM over which picture to make, Garbo acted opposite Ricardo Cortez in Torrent (1926). Her performance won a lot of praise, leading to her second starring Hollywood role in The Temptress (1926), initially directed by Stiller. Stiller did not adapt well to MGM’s production methods, however, and was let go. But Garbo stayed on, and when The Temptress hit theaters the delicately expressive actress with an air of mystery was quickly deemed MGM’s newest star.
For the next few years Garbo would star in hit after hit, starting with the sumptuous romantic drama Flesh and the Devil (1926) co-starring fellow MGM star John Gilbert. Garbo warmed to the handsome, charming Gilbert right away and the two struck up a real-life romance during the filming. Their love scenes on the screen are still smouldering today, their charisma practically jumping off the screen. Garbo’s cool, alluring performance made Photoplay enthuse: “Greta Garbo has established herself on the screen in more sensational fashion than any other player since Rudolph Valentino blazed out of The Four Horsemen.”
Despite Garbo’s status as a top box office draw, MGM was nervous to put her in talkies and delayed it as long as possible. They finally mustered up the courage to star her in the talkie Anna Christie (1930), going heavy on the “Garbo Talks!” advertising angle. Her deep, accented voice divided viewers at first, but in time it would become as iconic as her face–especially when she delivered her iconic line from Grand Hotel (1932): “I want to be alone…”
In real life, that iconic line could’ve been Garbo’s personal slogan. Her air of mystery wasn’t mere posturing for the screen–not for nothing did writers dub her “The Swedish Sphinx.” As a child she had often preferred to play alone, and as a world-famous adult her desire for privacy only seemed to deepen. She shunned movie premieres and award ceremonies, rarely gave interviews, and didn’t seek the attention of fans. Even her personal style was lowkey, favoring mannish shoes and trousers, trench coats, and slouch fedora hats, which in time were dubbed “Garbo hats.”
For much of the 1930s Garbo continued to star in hit films, some of her biggest successes being Mata Hari (1931), Queen Christina (1933) and Camille (1936). But after the box office failure of the historical drama Conquest (1937), MGM tried a new tack and starred her in the comedy Ninotchka (1939), with ads proclaiming “Garbo Laughs!” While Ninotchka did significantly better, the followup film Two-Faced Woman (1941) received scathing reviews. While Garbo intended to make more pictures the projects that interested her kept falling through. As it turned out, Two-Faced Woman was her final film.
After retirement Garbo would retreat to the privacy and solitude she had so consistently preferred. She sometimes enjoyed the company of close friends, but she never married or had children (although she came close to going to the altar with John Gilbert). After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1951 she moved into an elegant Manhattan apartment with views of the East River, where she lived until her death in 1990. Her legacy as one of Hollywood’s greatest stars remains unshakeable–and so does her mystique.
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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
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