Anna Christie | |
---|---|
Directed by | Clarence Brown |
Screenplay by | Frances Marion |
Based on | Anna Christie 1921 play by Eugene O'Neill |
Produced by | Clarence Brown Paul Bern Irving Thalberg |
Starring | Greta Garbo Charles Bickford George F. Marion Marie Dressler |
Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
Edited by | Hugh Wynn |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $376,000 [1] |
Box office | $1,499,000 [1] |
Anna Christie is a 1930 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pre-Code film adaptation of the 1921 play of the same name by Eugene O'Neill. It was adapted by Frances Marion, produced and directed by Clarence Brown with Paul Bern and Irving Thalberg as co-producers. The cinematography was by William H. Daniels, the art direction by Cedric Gibbons and the costume design by Adrian.
The film stars Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, and Marie Dressler. It was marketed using the slogan "Garbo Talks!", as it was her first sound film. Of all its stars, Garbo was the one that MGM kept out of talking films the longest for fear that one of their bigger stars, like so many others, would not succeed in them. Her famous first line is: "Gimme a whisky, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby!" [2]
In fact, Garbo's English was so good by the time she appeared in this film, she had to add an accent in several retakes to sound more like the Swedish Anna. [3] In addition to the English and German-language version of this film, a silent version with titles was also made. [4] George F. Marion performed the role of Anna's father in the original Broadway production and in both the 1923 and 1930 film adaptations.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Actress (Greta Garbo) and Best Cinematography. [5]
Chris Christofferson (George F. Marion), the alcoholic skipper of a coal barge in New York, receives a letter from his estranged twenty-year-old daughter Anna "Christie" Christofferson (Greta Garbo), telling him that she'll be leaving Minnesota to stay with him. Chris left Anna to be raised by relatives on a St. Paul farm 15 years before, and hasn't seen her since.
Anna arrives an emotionally wounded woman with a dishonorable, hidden past: she has worked in a brothel for two years. One night, Chris rescues Matt (Charles Bickford) and two other displaced sailors from the sea. Anna and Matt soon fall in love and Anna has the best days of her life. But when Matt proposes to her, she is reluctant and haunted by her recent past. Matt insists and compels Anna to tell him the truth. She opens her heart to Matt and her father, disclosing her dark secrets.
Anna Christie was one of highest-grossing films of 1930 and received the following Academy Award nominations: [6]
In the early years of sound films, Hollywood studios produced foreign-language versions of some of their films using the same sets and sometimes the same costumes. Native speakers of the language usually replaced some or all of the original cast. While many of those versions no longer exist, the German-language version of Anna Christie survives. Directed by Jacques Feyder and filmed at MGM in July and August 1930 (the English-language version had been filmed in October and November 1929), [7] it also stars Garbo as Anna, but with Theo Shall, Hans Junkermann and Salka Viertel playing Matt, Chris and Marthy. Garbo's famous first line became "Whisky – aber nicht zu knapp!" ("Whiskey, but not too short"). The English and German-language versions grossed a combined total of $1,499,000. Both versions are available on a double-sided DVD released in the US in 2005, but the German version is sourced from an inferior subtitled print; a much better print without subtitles exists. [8]
The film grossed $1,499,000, it made $1,013,000 in the United States and Canada and $486,000 elsewhere, with a profit of $576,000. [1]
Reviews from critics were also positive. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times remarked that Garbo was "even more interesting through being heard than she was in her mute portrayals. She reveals no nervousness before the microphone and her careful interpretation of Anna can scarcely be disputed." [9] Variety reported that it was "in all departments a wow picture" and "another marker along the line of cinematic progress." [10] Film Daily called it "a wow for sophisticated audiences" and wrote that Garbo's performance was "superb". [11] Although John Mosher of The New Yorker thought it "implausible that a woman so markedly beautiful should have such an extraordinarily difficult time", he called Garbo's performance "effective" and wrote that Bickford and Marion were "both excellent", concluding that it was "a picture of his play that Eugene O'Neill, I should think, would approve." [12]
Contemporaneous reviews also expressed surprise at the low pitch of Garbo's voice. Hall wrote that "although the low-toned voice is not what is expected from the alluring actress, one becomes accustomed to it, for it is a voice undeniably suited to the unfortunate Anna." [9] Variety said that "La Garbo's accent is nicely edged with a Norse "yah", but once the ear gets the pitch it's okay and the spectator is under the spell of her performance." [10] Mosher called it "a boy's voice, really, rather flat, rather toneless, yet growing more attractive as the picture advances and you become somewhat accustomed to it." [12]
In 1962, film historian Richard Schickel reviewed the film negatively, describing it as "dull", with Marie Dressler providing "the only vitality in an otherwise static and ludicrous" film. [13]
Garbo's opening line was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
Though the English-language version of Anna Christie has been released numerous times worldwide on DVD, the German version is only available on a subtitled US DVD. [14]
Clarence Leon Brown was an American film director.
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The Hollywood Revue of 1929, or simply The Hollywood Revue, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of their earliest sound films. Produced by Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg and directed by Charles Reisner, it features nearly all of MGM's stars in a two-hour revue that includes three segments in Technicolor. The masters of ceremonies are Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny.
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Greta Garbo was a Swedish-American actress and a premiere star during Hollywood's silent and early golden eras. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather production staff, and make profitable films, including Grand Hotel, China Seas, A Night at the Opera, Mutiny on the Bounty, Camille and The Good Earth. His films carved out an international market, "projecting a seductive image of American life brimming with vitality and rooted in democracy and personal freedom", states biographer Roland Flamini.
Anna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According to historian Paul Avrich, the original of Anna Christie was Christine Ell, an anarchist cook in Greenwich Village, who was the lover of Edward Mylius, a Belgian-born radical living in England who libeled the British king George V.
Leila Marie Koerber, known by her stage name Marie Dressler, was a Canadian stage and screen actress, comedian, and early silent film and Depression-era film star.
Charles Ambrose Bickford was an American actor known for supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Farmer's Daughter (1947) and Johnny Belinda (1948). His other roles include Whirlpool (1950), A Star Is Born (1954) and The Big Country (1958).
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Anna Christie is a 1923 American silent drama film based on the 1921 play by Eugene O'Neill and starring Blanche Sweet and William Russell.
Anna Christie is a 1930 German-language film adapted from the 1921 Eugene O'Neill play of the same title and filmed following the release of the English-language original version of the same adaptation earlier the same year. Both versions feature leading actress Greta Garbo. In the early years of sound films, Hollywood studios produced foreign-language versions of some of their films using the same sets and sometimes the same costumes, with native speakers of the language usually replacing some or all of the original cast. The German-language version of Anna Christie is one of the few that survives.
Anna Christie is a 1921 play by Eugene O'Neill.
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