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Pretty Good

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely Fantastic

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It's the early 1600s and Sweden is embroiled in the Thirty Years War. Queen Christina (Garbo) is consulting with her advisers. Garbo goes over the records of losses and says sternly: "These wars are expensive." The Treasurer replies: "The Parliament clamors for war." Plus ça change...She's pretty enough and she acts about as well as any other mainstream actress of the early thirties. Her delivery tends to be emphatic, with the subtlety of a traffic signal, but so did that of many other actresses of the period, like Mae West. But I've never understood how she was able to hold a generation in thrall. No -- more than a generation. When she went into seclusion, reporters and fans looked for her on the streets of New York for decades. Truman Capote somehow managed to wangle his way into the vestibule of her apartment and was able to make the shocking observation that one of the abstract paintings was hung upside down. The man she falls in love with in this film is John Gilbert. The meme is that Gilbert was a great star of the silver screen when there was no sound other than the theater organ playing. But he was doomed by his high, squeaky voice. That's not the case. His voice is no different from anyone else's in the film. His performance is animated and with his dark hair and pencil mustache he looks rather dashing. Somebody upstairs didn't like him.The dialog is not at all bad. It joins the personal life of the queen and the historical background in a tidy manner. It has a touch of elegance in it, just enough to suggest a time long past. The whole production is studio bound but that's not always a disadvantage. Hollywood set dressers and art designers could make a place look like the essence of what it stood for. An inn with its walls, furniture, and staircases hewn roughly from wood really LOOKS better that the original probably did.The plot? It's a tragedy. Garbo is the queen but to get away from the pressures of the court he disguises herself as a young man and visits an inn. There she meets Gilbert, the Spanish ambassador on his way to the palace in Stockholm. Of course he doesn't recognize her, since he's never met the queen, nor does he recognize her sex. He must be pretty stupid because Garbo is wearing lipstick, eye shadow or whatever it's called, and false eyelashes the size of industrial brooms.It's only when they are forced to share the same room and the same bed that he discovers what she reveals. Neither of them seems particularly displeased. Next morning, he gazes at her while she spends a musical five minutes exploring and memorizing the features of the room -- caressing the spinning wheel, kissing the pillow.However, she's torn between love and duty. We've seen it before. "Roman Holiday," "Mary Queen of Scots," "Elizabeth and Essex." It never ended happily and it doesn't end happily here.

The actress who starred in Camille and Ninotchka only acted in twenty eight films and retired at the age of thirty five, and this is one of her most quintessential and famous roles, from director Rouben Mamoulian (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Basically, set in the 17th Century, in Sweden in the year 1632 during the Thirty Years' War six year old Christina ascends the throne, and growing into an adult Christina (Greta Garbo) often dresses as a man for a more authoritarian appearance, and has a love for literature and the arts. Massive casualties on both sides of the war are happening as it rages on, and despite the Swedish side seemingly winning, the Queen would rather have peace, and at the same time her loyal subjects have her love life on their minds and know that there should be an heir to ensure longevity of the nation. Christina is believed and seemingly assured that she will marry the hero of the battles in the war Prince Charles Gustavus (Reginald Owen), but the Lord Treasurer Count Magnus (Ian Keith) makes the mistake in the believing he can have the queen, but she is not pursuing love to pay attention to fighting the war. But she changes her mind the visiting Spanish envoy Antonio (John Gilbert) who works for King Philip of Spain, they meet in a snowbound inn, and with their forced time together they fall in love, but he has no idea who she is. When he does find out they have to decide if their relationship can work within the constraints of their duties, and the troubles for him and Christina increase when Count Magnus, who wants the Queen for himself, gets the public on his side to uprise against her love interest in the name of patriotism. Also starring Lewis Stone as Chancellor Oxenstierna, Elizabeth Young as Ebba Sparre, C. Aubrey Smith as Aage, Georges Renavent as French Ambassador, Gustav Von Seyffertitz as General and David Torrence as Archbishop. I will be honest and say that I drifted in a few moments, especially with all the political stuff, and I agree with the critics it is a bit of a slow pace throughout, but the love story going on is interesting, Garbo is of course the biggest reason to see this film, to see her looking beautiful and being all noble and dignified, overall it still a worthwhile historical romantic drama. Very good!

There were great beauties in Hollywood prior to this, and good actresses, but Garbo was the one with both: a perfect face, at once impassive yet exquisitely expressive. Her reported reluctance to enter the sound era proves groundless; her voice is pleasant, low, accented just enough to give her a touch of mystery and worldliness. With Dietrich, the illusion is part and parcel of the package; change a light or a camera angle and there is not a lot of there there. Garbo is substance writ large on a flawless surface. Her charisma is so great that even the creaky script – the first few minutes, before she appears, signal a movie every bit as old-fashioned as Orphans of the Storm – comes to life. She holds her gazes exactly the right amount of time, and exudes a restless individuality with an unrushed exterior. She's a glory of contradictions, and you simply don't want to look away from her or miss a second of her complexity.Read more at Cinema 1001. This movie is #76 in the Schneider list of 1001 Movies.

This film follows the reign of 17th century Swedish monarch Queen Christina, from her ascent to the throne at age six to her abdication twenty-two years later. The screenwriters take wild liberties with history in order to turn the film into a romantic epic but that's beside the point.Greta Garbo is the unquestioned star of the picture and she gives a standout performance, successfully portraying the queen as formidable yet feminine. The rest of the cast is consistently capable though no-one really stands out from the crowd.Rouben Mamoulian's direction is well-handled and the film in general shows good production values. To wit, the film boasts nice work from future Oscar winners William H. Daniels (cinematography) and Herbert Stothart (score).All in all, "Queen Christina" is a well-constructed romantic drama with a historical background. While it may depart quite a bit from fact it nevertheless makes for a compelling story.