Review of Anna Christie (1930) by Les E — 26 Oct 2009

"Garbo Talks!" This was Greta Garbo's first talkie, much anticipated as she'd already become a huge star in silent films and audiences wondered if she could make the transition. As it was she did so with ease.

The near 16 minute wait for her first line became legendary and worked well for the film. Garbo has great presence in the film and makes it an interesting viewing experience, and some of the character actors in the film are quite memorable, but the actual adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize winning play is a little shaky, the director and production crew seemingly still wet behind the ears with talkies, leaving a lot of awkward long pauses in between the dialogue.

Overall it's an uneven effort, doing more justice to Garbo than O'Neill's play, but for its time (1930 is not a good year in film history) it's decent.