Queen Christina ***** (1933, Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone) – Classic Movie Review 1980

Rouben Mamoulian’s lush and glossily romantic 1933 film Queen Christina is a jewel in the crown of Greta Garbo, then reigning Queen of Hollywood. 

‘I’m tired of being a symbol, Chancellor. I long to be a human being! This longing I cannot suppress!’

Director Rouben Mamoulian’s lush and glossily romantic 1933 historical romance film Queen Christina is a jewel in the crown of its great Swedish star, Greta Garbo, then the reigning Queen of Hollywood.

Garbo stars in one of her choicest, tailor-made roles and gives one of her finest performances as the popular 17th-century Swedish monarch Queen Christina. She is loyal to her country but accidentally and secretly falls in love with a visiting Spanish diplomat, the envoy Don Antonio De Pimentel (John Gilbert).

[Spoiler alert] She finds herself forced to choose between her throne and the man she loves – and decides to take the plunge for personal happiness and abdicate after they share an erotic night at an inn that includes the sexy eating of grapes together.

The glowing Garbo is magnificent and her friend, the fallen silent movie star Gilbert, scores strongly in loyal support, fully repaying her faith in him after she had Laurence Olivier removed from the role. Garbo had asked that Olivier play her co-star, but in rehearsals they had no chemistry, and he was fired and Gilbert hired at Garbo’s request. Unfortunately though, the film did not help to re-establish Gilbert as a box-office star.

There are several breath-catching moments in the movie: the couple’s love scenes together, Christina travelling across Sweden dressed as a man, kissing one of her servant girls on the mouth, trying to memorise the objects in the inn room where she has made love, and the famous long final close-up standing at the bow of the ship as she sails away alone. [Mamoulian told Garbo: ‘I want your face to be a blank sheet of paper. I want the writing to be done by every member of the audience.’ And that’s what she does.]

Garbo may have had difficulty smiling on screen but she is very evidently happy here, surrounded as she is by her some of her favourite collaborators. Garbo is photographed by her trusted cinematographer William H Daniels, the score is by Robert Stothart and Alexander Toluboff designs the sets.

The screenplay is by Salka Viertel, H M Harwood and S N Behrman, taking some of the known true facts (her coronation in 1632 and her desire for peace and an end to the Thirty Years War) and turning them into a background for a wholly fictional romance since, inconveniently, Queen Christina did not actually abdicate for love. 

A German friend who had known her back in Sweden, Viertel was Garbo’s greatest confidante and manipulated her in relationships (particularly with that of lesbian Mercedes de Acosta), film choices and her way of life. Throughout her MGM career, Garbo insisted that Daniels was her cinematographer. 

MGM sends in a huge roster of excellent supporting players, including Ian Keith (as Magnus), Lewis Stone (as Oxenstierna), C Aubrey Smith (as Aage), Reginald Owen, Elizabeth Young (as Ebba), Gustav von Seyffertitz (as the General), Georges Renavent (the French Ambassador), David Torrence, Ferdinand Munier, Richard Alexander, Wade Botelier, Cora Sue Collins, Akim Tamiroff, Edward Norris, Fred Kohler, Paul Hurst, Sam Harris, Lawrence Grant, Edward Gargan and C Montague Shaw.

Costing $1,114,000, Queen Christina did underwhelming business in the US but was a huge hit in Europe, taking twice its budget in the UK alone. Garbo’s salary was $250,000, though she earned double that for Camille in 1936.

In real life, Garbo left Gilbert standing at the altar in 1927 when she got cold feet about marrying him.

Garbo was labelled box office poison in 1938, leading her to make a comedy and have a hit with Ninotchka (1939), but after the failure of Two-Faced Woman (1941), she retired aged 35, after 28 films.

Garbo (Greta Lovisa Gustafsson,18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) lived the last few years of her life in seclusion, though she still took daily walks through Central Park with close friends. She said: ‘I never said, “I want to be alone”. I only said, “I want to be left alone”. There is a whole world of difference.’

Garbo was Adolf Hitler’s favourite actress but she helped Britain during World War Two by identifying influential Nazi sympathisers in Stockholm and by providing introductions and carrying messages for British agents.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1980

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/