Anna Christie

The cover picture is a photo of Greta Garbo in the role of Anna Christie in the 1930 movie of the same name.

I enjoyed watching the German version, more for its historical interest and to see a great actress at work than for the story itself, which is a cliché of its time (1930). It is a screen adaptation of a play by Eugene O'Neill.

If you'd like to jump to a comparison between the English and German versions of the movie Anna Christie or the March 15, 1930 review of it by NY Times film critic Mordaunt Hall, choose from the links below.

Anna Christie: German vs. English version

Anna Christie: NY Times Review, March 15, 1930

Background
As a child, Anna's mother dies and she is abandoned by her father Chris, a seaman, who leaves her with relatives on a farm in Minnesota. As a girl, she is raped by one of her father's nephews. She leaves the farm and becomes a prostitute in a city in the Midwest. Her father, who has never communicated with his daughter, has since become a barge captain in New York harbor. He lives on the barge with his girlfriend Marthy. Typical of their milieu, they are both heavy drinkers and shiftless. Chris, not having a permanent address, gets his mail sent to a bar he and Marthy frequent on the New York waterfront.

Synopsis

The letter arrives.

The film opens with Chris and Marthy, both drunk, leaving the barge via a makeshift gangplank to go to the bar. In the bar, the bartender gives Chris a letter that has come for him. The letter is from Anna. She writes that she is coming to see him, but gives no arrival date.

Anna arrives at the bar looking for her father.

In fact, she arrives that very evening.

In the ensuing reunion, she says she wants to stay with her father for a while. After learning that he lives on a barge, and not knowing that Marthy has been living there with him, she reluctantly agrees to stay with him. Marthy leaves the barge before Anna goes aboard.

After several trips, she begins to enjoy the life. One stormy night, while the barge is underway, they come across some shipwrecked sailors whom they are able to rescue. One of them is Matt, a tough, handsome, womanizing sailor.

Go to the devil, both of you!

Matt falls in love with Anna. Anna attempts to discourage him and her father, knowing the life of a sailor, forbids Matt to marry her. Matt will not accept Anna's refusal and gets violent with her father. In this dramatic scene, Anna herself gets tough with Matt and pushes him into a chair. Then, in an anger towards both Matt and her father that is fueled by her previously suppressed hatred of men, she dominates the scene and tells her story.

Matt and Chris are shattered by the revelation of her descent into prostitution and Matt leaves the barge. Her father is overcome with remorse at having abandoned his daughter to the fate that befell her.

Presumably to escape the sight of Anna, who is tangible evidence of their respective as well as their common guilt, the two men decide to ship out.

In the final scene, Matt forgives Anna her past and the two men, discovering that they have signed onto the same ship, become friends.

Sound test for Garbo's first talkie, with director Clarence Brown on the set of Anna Christie.

Historical Footnote
William Sorenson, a close associate of Garbo, has given us an interesting eyewitness account of her transition from silent to sound movies. Garbo telephoned Sorension at 2 AM of the day she was to have her studio voice test for the English version of Anna Christie. He writes:

We sat in the living room and talked about trivial matters. Then, before either of us had realized it, the clock had struck six and a few minutes later the two of us were on our way to the studio. Suddenly it occurred to me she must have stage fright, though she didn't betray herself with a word. I did not say anything either, but just stared straight ahead. Then I heard a voice [sounding as if it were coming] from underneath the rug beside me in the car. Instead of a rich, deep timbre, I heard the moving plaint of a little girl. 'Oh, Soren, I feel like an unborn child just now.'

… Awaiting Garbo in her dressing room were Alma, her coloured maid, and Billy, her beauty expert. …their faces showed acute apprehension. Garbo would have none of this Doomsday atmosphere. Her manner had again changed and now she was gay and light-hearted about the whole thing. 'You must go now Soren,' she told me. 'But please stay in the studio, so we can have lunch together later on.'

Just before noon Garbo called me up to her dressing-room. … 'Well, it wasn't really so bad,' she said, 'though I became a little scared when I heard my own voice… I almost jumped out [of] my chair when I heard those lines played back to me… but you should have seen how the others reacted. Alma makes a dramatic gesture towards her forehead and appeals to the Lord. Billy gets hysterics and runs out. Some of those tough boys on the set start clearing their throats. [Clarence] Brown [who directed the 'English' Anna Christie] comes up, gives me a big kiss and says, "Wonderful, Greta!". After the sound engineer signaled to the mixing-room "OK for sound". [This quote is from William Sorenson, Sunday Express 5 June 1955 which appears in the book Garbo, A Portrait by Alexander Walker, MacMillan Publishing Co., NY, 1980.]

For a comparison between the English and German versions of the movie Anna Christie or the March 15, 1930 review of it by NY Times film critic Mordaunt Hall, choose from the links below.

Anna Christie: German vs. English version

Anna Christie: NY Times Review, March 15, 1930