Anna Christie

Anna Christie (1930) *** 1/2 (out of 4) A former prostitute (Greta Garbo) goes to see her father (Hans Junkermann) for the first time in fifteen years so she can escape her past but she ends up falling in love with a sailor (Theo Shall) who isn't aware of her secret. While I haven't seen the American version, which was filmed at the same time, I have a hard time believing the subject matter would be treated more seriously or openly as what's on display here. The only problem I had with the film is that some of the direction is weak in terms of the camera just standing still and not adding too much to the film. Other than that this is a very open and hard hitting little love story that works wonders and packs a terrific punch due to the three leads performances. Garbo brings her typical beauty to the screen and perfectly captures her character's tortured soul. The love scenes with Shall are very good and you can't help but cheer for things to work out well.

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Trailer—Anna Christie

source: Anna Christie

This is Garbo's first ever talking role but she acts as if she has done nothing else before. What makes the movie however hard and also sort of unpleasant to watch is it's storytelling. The movie is set up like a stage-play, so most of the time the characters just sit around and talk. All we see in the first 30 minutes for instance are characters being drunk and complaining a lot about life. The movie is of course also based on a stage-play, so no great wonder that the storytelling in this movie also feels like one. But if I want to watch something like this I would to to the theater. There are of course some good stage-play to movies translations but I guess that back in 1930 they didn't had a real good idea yet or the experience to translate a stage-play well to the silver-screen. The movie is now instead a sort of a bore in parts, since its obviously dragging at moments. The movie is also of course very limited in its settings and the movie often jumps from the one setting to the other, as if the curtain had dropped and a new set had been build-up during the break. The movie just never really feels as one big whole and it instead feels as if it consists out of different acts. It's a very static movie. It's not just only a hard movie to follow because of its storytelling and settings but also because of all of the heavy accents of the actors. On top of that, the sound recording quality of course wasn't that good yet back in 1930 so not everything that is being said is understandable. Also the picture quality of the movie isn't that good anymore. Time hasn't been kind on it. The image is sort of fuzzy in parts and the movie is perhaps more gray than truly black & white. It is definitely true that the movie gets better and better when it heads toward its ending but it didn't made me forget it's way weaker first 30 minutes and disjointed storytelling in the movie overall. 6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Anna Christie (Greta Garbo) returns to see her father Chris (George F Marion) after 15 years. He is the skipper of a boat and she stays to travel with him. During this time, she meets Matt (Charles Bickford) and they fall in love. Matt and Chris don't see eye to eye and Anna has a secret to confess..................... What a boring story......it starts badly with George F Marion and Marie Dressler playing drunks in a bar. The scene goes on forever and they are both terrible. Its also hard to understand them. In fact, its difficult to understand the whole cast. I missed whole sections of dialogue between Bickford, Marion and Garbo because it is incomprehensible! Garbo is obviously something special as you are drawn to her every time that she is on screen and her presence gives this film the 4 stars that I have given to it. But nothing really happens - its a boring story with atrocious accents. You'll do well to stay awake.

Garbo's first speaking line, and it must have been thrilling to have such a tremendous foreign star able to make that transition from silent to sound. The movie is "Annie Christie," the year is 1930, and it is an adaptation of the play by Eugene O'Neill. It concerns a young farm woman, Anna, from Minnesota who comes to New York to find her father, whom she hasn't seen in 15 years. Molested some time earlier, she hates men and has prostituted herself. Her father takes her on his barge, and she comes to love the sea. One day, they rescue a young man (Charles Bickford), and he and Anna fall in love. However, neither he nor her father know anything of her past. Garbo is very beautiful and her command of English is amazing. You can tell that she understands every word she is saying, just as you can tell when some actors have learned their role by rote. She acquits herself very well. Marie Dressler as Marthy, a friend of her father's whom Anna meets in a bar, is marvelous, playing each scene as a drunk. And you really think she is. As someone wrote, you can smell the alcohol on her breath. That's the good news. The bad news is that this is a very difficult film to watch. Sound and dealing with the camera when you have sound was all very new. The camera didn't move around so it is a very static movie. The actors have several scenes where they all talk at once. An acting teacher once said, "Eugene O'Neill was our greatest novelist." The actors don't just talk at once, they talk incessantly. There is no action to be had. I love Eugene O'Neill, I have seen his plays on stage. This film is 85 years old, and it shows. Definitely worth seeing, however. After all, "Garbo talks!"

I'm glad this was not the first Garbo film I had seen. Camille, Ninotchka, and Grand Hotel are better vehicles for her talent. I found myself waiting for Anna Christie to end. The mellowdramatic dialogue, especially between Garbo and Bickford, makes it difficult to take them seriously. In fact, I was annoyed with Bickford's style throughout, not sure if it's him or the direction he was given. Marie Dressler, always wonderful, is the saving grace in the film. Too bad Supporting Actress Oscars were not given out in 1930. She was wonderful but unfortunately, she couldn't keep Anna Christie afloat. Rating: 5/10

The magnificent Greta Garbo is in top form in this, her first talkie. She gets fine support from the rest of the cast which includes Charles Bickford the rugged sailor who captures her heart. Ms. Garbo gives a great performance as she usually does as the estranged daughter of a sea captain who returns after fifteen years. Also in the cast is that great actress Marie Dressler. A great movie!

This early sound era adaptation of O'Neill's "Anna Christie" would be a decent movie worth seeing on its own, but it is Greta Garbo that makes it particularly worthwhile. The rest of the production is solid, and for the most part, its limitations are common to many other sound movies made in 1930. Garbo herself rises well above the level of the rest of the production, and Marie Dressler is also memorable and effective in her smaller role. It's easy enough to see why a story like this was chosen for Garbo's first "talking" role. It provides a female central character who offers a ready-made opportunity for an actress like Garbo to demonstrate a good range of abilities, from strength to tenderness, from coarseness to elegance. She has good scenes with several of the other characters. Dressler's raucous performance works well, and she has some very good moments. George Marion is very believable as Garbo's father. The story itself is an interesting one, with some worthwhile themes, though it does not necessarily lend itself that well to cinema. There are a few times when it might as well just be a filmed stage play, but then there are also a number of times when the camera picks up some good atmospheric details, such as the dockside setting or the New York skyline, that make a good complement to the emotional story.