Anna Christie

Filmed by MGM on the same sets as the English version, but in German, Garbo's second portrayal of "Anna Christie" benefited from practice and her apparent ease with German dialog. Garbo appears more relaxed and natural under Jacques Feyder's direction than under Clarence Brown's, and her silent movie mannerisms have all but disappeared, which made her transition to sound complete. The strength she brought to the character remains here, although it has been softened, and Garbo reveals more of Anna's vulnerability. The entire cast, with the exception of Garbo, is different from the previous version of the film, and Garbo benefits from not having to compete with Marie Dressler, who stole every scene she was in during the English-language version. In Feyder's film, Garbo holds the center of attention throughout, although the three supporting players, particularly the father, gave excellent performances.

Feyder's direction was more assured than Clarence Brown's, and his use of the camera and editing techniques did not seem as constrained by the new sound process as did those of Brown. The film moves with more fluidity than the English language adaptation, and the static nature of the first film has been replaced with a flow that maintains viewer interest. Even William Daniels cinematography seems improved over his filming of the Brown version. He captured Garbo's luminescence and the atmospherics of the docks with style. Also, the screenplay adaptation for the European audience made Anna's profession quite clear from the start, and the explicitness clarifies for viewers who were unfamiliar with the play as to what was only implied in the Brown filming. However, the film was made before the Production Code was introduced, which made the censorship puzzling.

Garbo's Oscar nomination for "Anna Christie" was always somewhat mystifying, and I suspected that the nod was given more in recognition of her relatively smooth transition to sound films than for her performance. However, some of the Academy voters may have seen the German-language version of the film, and they realized, as will contemporary viewers, that her "Anna Christie" under Feyder's direction was definitely Oscar worthy.

It's sort of crazy, but I taped from TCM both, this german version of MGM's "Anna Christie", and the english one...but I got to see this one first, 'cos I'd heard that many people thought it was better than the english version.

Without having seen the other one, I cannot compare them, but anyway this is an excellent early talkie, with a straight-from-the-heart performance by Garbo. She looks very beautiful in this film, her face shines throughout, especially when Cameraman William Daniels, gets those gorgeous close-ups of her.

The atmosphere of the film seems different from the regular MGM stuff made on that era, it looks very similar to french or german expressionistic films from the thirties, well it was directed by a great french director, Monsieur Jacques Feyder, who had directed Garbo in 1929 in "The Kiss".

Theo Shall is excellent and gives an absolutelly believable performance as Anna's sweetheart, the hard-boiled, tough, sailor, who's just a kid in man's body. Also Hans Junkermann gives a very fine performance, as Anna's alcoholic father and Salka Viertel too, as a good-hearted old cheap floozie.

In all quite an experience, because it's the only film were you can listen to Garbo speak in a foreign language...'cos all the other films she did in either Sweden or Germany, were during the Silent Era.

Serious Flick.

I have seen this film a few times on TCM, but it is now part of the Garbo signature DVD collection and is double-billed with the English version and it's an interesting option to view them back to back.

The biggest advantage that the English language version has, is the wonderful Marie Dressler as Martha. Salka Viertel just doesn't have the warmth that makes the characterization so effective. Martha has more poignancy in English because of Dressler. The rest of the German actors seems actually better cast than the other film. Theo Shall makes a much better romantic choice for Garbo than Charles Bickford.

Surprisingly-considering her coterie of German friends in Hollywood-Garbo herself is also verbally more expressive in the English version than in German. Her emphasis on German syllables is off, but she is perfectly understandable nonetheless. This euro-audience oriented film also makes an odd choice in over-stating her first costume and telegraphing the character's problem far less subtly than the American version.

In general, it may not be the superior version, after all. But it is a really good one.

In New York, the alcoholic skipper of a coal barge Chris Christofferson (Hans Junkermann) receives a letter from his estranged twenty year old daughter Anna "Christie" Christofferson (Greta Garbo) telling that she will leave Minnesota to stay with him. Chris left Anna fifteen years ago to the countryside to be raised by relatives in a farm in St. Paul and he has never visited his daughter.

Anna Christie arrives and she is a wounded woman with a hidden dishonorable past since she had worked for two years in a brothel to survive. She moves to the barge to live with her father and one night, Chris rescues the sailor Matt (Theo Shall) and two other fainted sailors from the sea. Soon Anna and Matt fall in love with each other and Anna has the best days of her life. But when Matt proposes to marry her, she is reluctant and also haunted by her past. Matt insists and Anna opens her heart to Matt and to her father disclosing the darks secrets of her past.

"Anna Christie" is the first talkie of Greta Garbo and a heartbreaking story of a young woman that finds redemption through love. I bought the DVD with both versions of 1930 and 1931, and Jacques Feyder's version in German is better than Clarence Brown's. The German version is not restored. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Anna Christie"

The German version of this early work by Eugene O'Neill is just as good, if not better, than the US version. I prefer Marie Dressler in the American version, but Garbo seems a bit more at ease in German than in English. She is hot and interesting in both languages. Her performance is believable and her co-actors also do a very good job. I preferred Bickford in the American version, but that is just my personal taste. The American version is, at times, a bit talky, but the German version seems to flow a bit more naturally. So, these differences tend to balance each other and the end results are about the same.