Anna Christie *** (1923, Blanche Sweet, William Russell, George F Marion, Eugénie Besserer) – Classic Movie Review 10,679

‘I Think I’ll be Killin’ you Now!’

Director John Griffith Wray’s 1923 Anna Christie is the greatly admired silent movie version of Nobel prize-winner Eugene O’Neill’s hard-going 1921 play about the romance of the seaside prostitute Anna Christie (Blanche Sweet) and the brutish, muscular Irish sailor Matt Burke (William Russell) who falls in love with her after she comes to live with her estranged father on the New York waterfront, provoking a clash between the two men.

The beautiful Thomas H Ince production received the author’s seal of approval and the film is still affecting for patient audiences, with Sweet giving a notable silent movie performance.

Greta Garbo stars in the 1930 sound remake, Anna Christie, her first talkie, with George F Marion Sr re-creating his role as the seaman father Chris Christopherson. George F Marion Sr also played the role in the original Broadway play, which opened on 2 November 1921 at the Vanderbilt Theatre in New York and ran for 177 performances, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Anna Christie is produced by Thomas H Ince for Associated First National Pictures, who paid a then-astronomical $35,000 for the screen rights to the play, which is adapted for the screen by Bradley King.

It has survived, though only just. The sole remaining print was discovered in Europe in the 1970s. Naturally, it can be found on the Internet.

The cast are Blanche Sweet as Anna Christie, William Russell as Matt Burke George F Marion as Chris Christopherson, Eugénie Besserer as Marthy, Chester Conklin as Tommy, George Siegmann as Anna’s uncle, and Ralph Yearsley as The Brutal Cousin, with Fred Kohler, Victor Potel, Matthew Betz and Irving Bacon in minor roles.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,679

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