Rent Greta Garbo Collection: Queen Christina (1933)
3.8 of 5 from 85 ratings
1h 37min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- To escape the burdens of rule, Sweden's Queen Christina (Greta Garbo) rides into the countryside disguised as a boy. There she meets and secretly falls for a dashing Spanish envoy on his way to the royal court. Imagine the envoy's delighted surprise when he and the young "nobleman" must share a bed at an overcrowded inn.
- Actors:
- Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, Elizabeth Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen, Georges Renavent, David Torrence, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Ferdinand Munier, Richard Alexander, Hooper Atchley, Barbara Barondess, Wade Boteler, James Burke, Cora Sue Collins, Carrie Daumery, Muriel Evans, Edward Gargan
- Directors:
- Rouben Mamoulian
- Producers:
- Rouben Mamoulian, Walter Wanger
- Writers:
- H.M. Harwood, Salka Viertel, Margaret P. Levino, S.N. Behrman, Harvey Gates, Ben Hecht, Rouben Mamoulian, Ernest Vajda, Claudine West
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
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Reviews (2) of Greta Garbo Collection: Queen Christina
Everyone Else Is Furniture - Greta Garbo Collection: Queen Christina review by griggs
Garbo runs the whole show here, and honestly that’s all this needed to be. Christina’s a queen who’d rather hand back the crown than give up the man she loves, and I bought it completely, even when the plot’s just idling around her.
The supporting cast mostly fades into the wallpaper. John Gilbert holds his own without doing much else — knowing this was their last film together, and that his career was already sliding, you can feel it in him without him ever reaching for it.
What’s properly cheeky is how much this got away with before the censors clamped down. Christina kisses one of her ladies-in-waiting square on the mouth and nobody bats an eye. She spends half the film dressed as a man and shares a bed with a stranger at a snowbound inn before either of them knows who the other is. The morning after, she wanders the room memorising every detail like she’s just had the best night of her life. By the standards of practically any decade that followed, this is downright filthy — and it wears that without flinching.
That last shot, though — Garbo’s face at the ship’s prow, giving away nothing — is the bit that actually stays with you.
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Historical Melodrama. - Greta Garbo Collection: Queen Christina review by Steve
The quintessential Greta Garbo talkie. MGM solved the problem of what to do with her Swedish accent by casting her as the 17th century queen of Sweden. Though this is Hollywood history. Garbo is said to have been bisexual, but Christina's homosexuality is in such soft focus that you won't see it unless you know. The star does wear male clothing almost throughout.
But this isn't really precode exotica, it's history as romantic melodrama. Garbo plays the enlightened monarch who came to the throne as a child, but on maturity falls in love with a Spanish ambassador (John Gilbert) and abdicates. There isn't a realistic impression of the period. The wonderful sets and costumes are extravagant rather than authentic.
Any film directed by Rouben Mamoulian is worth seeing, but the quality of this one depends on Garbo's performance. As a silent actor she is sublime. That flawless visage in close up is peerless. The final image as she sails into an uncertain future is so famous it's difficult to live up to its reputation. But it's still stunning. Yet her voice is inflexible and lacks resonance.
And she is adorable as a lover, but unimpressive as a politician. There are contrasting moods: the complex dialogue is tangled with commentary; the unsubtle comedy resorts to thigh slapping kitsch, yet the scene when Garbo- incognito as a man- and Gilbert share a room, could be from Lubitsch. It's the great Garbo who brings it all together with her gravity and class.
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