Anna Christie

This version is much better than the English-language version: brisker pacing (although very, very slow by modern standards), generally better performances, and even Eugene O'Neill's somewhat ponderous dialog is rendered more believable in the subtitles. While Marie Dressler's performance in the English version is fabulous, Salka Viertel's in the German version is also very, very good, just different. Garbo seems more natural in the German version, perhaps because she was at that time more comfortable speaking German than speaking English. Garbo's acting style may have been a bit old-fashioned, but she was never dull in any film. A true star.

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.

It has long been rumored that MGM was not too unhappy when Greta Garbo retired in 1941. She was a truly international star and a lot of her box office appeal was in the European market which after 12/7/41 was closed off for the foreseeable future to American films. Even the past two years hadn't been easy for Garbo's or anyone else's films to be seen there.

But early in the sound era it was the tradition of several studios to make foreign language versions of their films. Garbo's sound debut in Anna Christie was accompanied by a German language version with an entirely different cast of players. All were imported from Europe. Playing Charles Bickford's part is Theo Shall and playing George Marion's role is Hans Junkermann. I noted that both had substantial careers in the German cinema. It must have been at some expense for MGM to import these people to America, but MGM had a lot invested in Garbo and they wanted her career in sound to last.

Salka Viertel better known as a writer played Marie Dressler's role and she stayed in America. Her credit in Anna Christie is under her maiden name of Salka Steuerman and she was of left wing persuasion, enough to be blacklisted. But that was way in the future.

These folks were quite up to their English language counterparts. Garbo of course is eternal and so is Eugene O'Neill in the themes he writes about. Watching the German language version is further proof of the care that MGM took with Garbo's career.

She was in fact one of a kind.

Anna Christie (1931)

On its own terms, this version of Garbo's Anna Christie, shot a year later in German with a whole new cast, is just toned down and refined enough to work better than the English version (both are American MGM productions). Garbo is if anything more commanding (or more beautiful as a screen presence) and her acting is more restrained. And she seems frankly more at ease, probably for a lot of reasons, but we can speculate that she was no longer making her first talking picture, so had adjusted quickly.

Without comparing always one film to the other, this Anna Christie is still the same O'Neill play with too many words. His themes of a woman wanting love without losing her independence are here, but it comes off as oddly old fashioned anyway. There are some scenes missing--the Coney Island section is shortened and isn't as good--but overall it's a direct echo of the first film. The director, Jacques Feyder (Belgian-French), is simply redoing what was done already, which I assume must be a frustrating experience.

It's interesting to see both films in succession because they are blocked out exactly the same way (not only the sets, but the shots, are all the same). There is an occasional scene lifted from the earlier film--some of the storm, understandably, but also a brief scene where Marie Dressler (from the English language version) is walking with her friend on a plank over a canal, drunk as can be. But they are just silhouettes, and when the next scene shows their faces, we see the German actors taking their parts. There is no replacing Dressler, for sure, but for me the German father is more believable and honest in his performance.

Clearly the themes--immigration, wayward fathers, daughters turning to prostitution, and the troubles of finding true love--have strong currents back then, especially with European threads. Garbo, appropriately, plays a Swedish young woman. A pleasure.

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.