Greta Garbo Movie:

		List Price: $99.98		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 18869 Released: September 6, 2005
		Our Price: $58.00
		Used Price: $53.49
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Includes the best known films from a timeless and alluring actress of the 1920s and 1930s whose enigmatic beauty in a series of MGM silent films catapulted her to international movie stardom.System Requirements: Running TimeFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC Rating: NR UPC: 012569673946

Description of Greta Garbo - The Signature Collection (Anna Christie / Mata Hari / Grand Hotel / Queen Christina / Anna Karenina / Camille / Ninotchka / Garbo Silents):
Who was Greta Garbo? For a while the greatest of all movie stars, then a celebrated recluse, always "the mysterious lady," Garbo purred, "I want to be alone," and people took her at her word. Of course, the real Garbo is actually the "reel" Garbo, the silvery, suffering creature on the movie screen--the way the light caught her eyes, and the way she slithered around in silk. There are other Garbo films to be seen, but Garbo: The Signature Collection is the essential Garbo, the alpha and omega for fans and beginners. This 10-disc package collects seven of her MGM sound pictures, three silents, and the Turner Classic Movies documentary Garbo, which gives a good career overview and warm testimony from friends and relatives (although more critical perspective on her talent would have been welcome). Some extras and commentaries are mixed in.

The Garbo Silents disc features Flesh and the Devil, one of her sizzling box-office duets with John Gilbert; The Temptress, a wild number with Garbo as a man-killer who follows Antonio Moreno to the plains of Argentina; and The Mysterious Lady, a tight spy picture with Garbo as a Russian agent seducing the susceptible Conrad Nagel. When Garbo finally talked it was headline news, and if Anna Christie has aged a bit, the star's sultry enunciation of "Gimme a visky" retains its historic punch. (The disc includes a German-language version of the film shot at the same time.)

Mata Hari continues the exotic storytelling of Garbo's silent years, as she does an eye-popping turn as the famous German spy. Grand Hotel casts her as a tired, tired ballet dancer, in a star-studded MGM project that played on her public image as aloof and mysterious. The movie was a box-office smash and took the Best Picture Oscar for 1932, and still stands as a glittery gem of the studio system. Under the sympathetic direction of Rouben Mamoulian in Queen Christina, Garbo flourishes in a tale of a Swedish royal who escapes the grind by disguising herself as a boy. She insisted that John Gilbert--his career in tatters and his life near its end--be her leading man. Garbo rarely seemed more spot-on, and the film's final grand adoration of her is justifiably famous.

Anna Karenina is Garbo's second crack at the Tolstoy heroine, after the silent Love. It's a throbbing performance, even if the movie itself is one of those MGM productions that seems to doze under all its finery and respectability. Camille is scrumptious costume tragedy, with Robert Taylor as co-star and George Cukor as director. Finally, Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (you know--"Garbo Laughs") is a bubbly comedy of frosty Sovietism meeting the champagne pleasures of Paris. Garbo retired two years, ending her reign but keeping the enigma intact. --Robert Horton

Greta Garbo - The Signature Collection (Anna Christie / Mata Hari / Grand Hotel / Queen Christina / Anna Karenina / Camille / Ninotchka / Garbo Silents) Reviews:
Garbo the Greatest
2008-08-29 - Everything about this boxset is great. Watching Garbo's mannerisms, her machismo, her feminism, hearing her speak, seeing her expressions, and listening to her convey unmatchable dry wit, moves me like few women can. I love her long legs. Her gait. Her walk. Her eyes. Her cheekbones. Her style. Her choice of script. To me, this is a woman. If you enjoy classics. If you enjoy strong women. If you want to spend a long weekend with Garbo, I say, buy this box-set, and enjoy. Oh yeah, the biography is great too. If I could have only met her.

Good collection but spotty extras and some poor prints
2007-09-08 - This collection of Garbo films is an economical way of obtaining these films if you want them but it is a little disappointing as a package. The positives are obvious - a good selection of Garbo's best films, a good documentary about her career and some excellent commentaries on the Silents. In fact, the Garbo Silents disk shows the loving attention of the best TCM DVDs which leads to the disappointing aspect of the collection. Most of the prints of the talkies are poor. "Queen Christina", "Camille" and "Ninotchka", maybe her best films, warrant restoration. "Anna Karenina" does not even contain a complete print. There are no commentaries, a few theatrical trailers and "Grand Hotel" has an interesting newsreel of the premiere. These films deserve better.

big collection but a lot of unnecessary shelf space
2007-07-22 - This is an impressive set, by far the most economical way to get all of these movies in one place. Since Garbo made so few films in her career, this is an excellent way to get a survey of her filmography, from her first silent MGM films to her later talkies.

My only real complaint is that he contents are not as filling as the overwhelming size of this giant cube of a package would imply. Aside from the movies, we only get commentaries on the silent films; on Camille, we get the original silent version starring Nazimova and Valentino; Anna Christie includes the German language version, and Grand Hotel has the most extras on a disc. Queen Christina, Anna Karenina, Mata Hari, and Ninotchka have nothing more than a trailer for extra features, and the Garbo documentary takes up a whole disc by itself. Not that I expect Warner to load each DVD with unrelated content (although i have no objections to their "night at the movies" features), but what's really surprising is what's missing from each DVD that could have been included. After all, it's not like Garbo hadn't already made a silent version of Anna Karenina with John Gilbert called Love that could have been included on that disc.

In summary, the movies and features just seem to be spread thin across 9 discs, the result is a set that takes up more space than is really necessary. To put into perspective, the TCM Lon Chaney Collection also included 3 films with commentaries, as well as a documentary; this set could have easily consolidated those discs just the same.

With no other historical context, it would not be recommended to buy these DVDs separate from this set, especially if one was unfamiliar with Greta Garbo.

Garbo movie collection
2007-07-19 - It was a present for my wife who just loved the gift. What more can I say. The shipping was fast and it arrived in perfect condition.

at last.... here she is - in full splendour:-)
2007-02-18 - I`ve grown up with Garbo... Ever since I was a child, Swedish television has indeed appreciated her legacy and I`ve witnessed all the sound films mentioned here:

To my mind, what makes Garbo great is her wonderful sphinx face... and her melancholy, sad remarks... When called upon hysterics and outburts, she is painfully amateurish...

That goes for ANNA CHRISTIE, GRAND HOTEL, CONQUEST, AS YOU DESIRE ME.... In CAMILLE, NINOTCHKA and TWO-FACED WOMAN she shows us the actress, a girl who DID posseess nuances... method acting....

And never more so that in the silent FLESH AND THE DEVIL 1926.
In it she is a man-eater, a sultress, a she-devil and she she in only limited when call upon a confrontation scene with Lars Hanson`s sister...

The film has wonderful closeups of its three stars and the subject remains as fresh as it did in 1926. The scenes in the snow and how she seduces John Gilbert is quite good and I must say - FLESH AND THE DEVIL is still quite watchable even today.

To me the friendship between Gilbert and Hanson is a homosexual one and when Garbo falls through the ice - the men are seen embracing each other - and free of that devil Felicitas.

Their intense friendship fools no one in 2007, but 80 years ago it must have...

Garbo is only 21 in the film, but shows a mature display of acting and womanhood - no wonder the world fell for her and the same goes for the sound MATA HARI...