GREAT TRAGEDIENNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

GREAT TRAGEDIENNE.

GRETA GARBO'S TRIUMPH. MATURITY OF THE EMOTIONS. Claiming that Greta Garbo, the Swedish tragedienne, is the most dominant figure in the screen world to-day, Mr. Richard Watts, the screen critic of the New York Herald-Tribune, says that in her latest film, " Susan Lenox " (recently seen in Auckland), she provides the most mature and generally brilliant performance of her ■ illustrious career—a portrayal which belongs among the distinguished acting achievements of our time. 1 am prejudiced enough to feel that Miss Garbo has never vet given a bad performance, Mr. Watts adds. In the ancient days of pantomime she was entirely superb in such dramas as " A Woman of Affairs," " The Torrent," and even that amorous atrocity "Flesh and the Devil. ' But she was, I think, equally fine in her audible vehicles, " Anna Christie," " Romance " and the unhappy "Inspiration." In all 1 of them she was lyric and real, direct and subtle, powerful and simple, artless, and yet enormously artful. In depicting the sad adventures of the unhappy Susan Lenox, however,' all-of those qualities that have made her'th e most celebrated'actress of our day have reached a climax. There is a maturity of the emotions in her Work which in the past she always has suggested but sometimes has not altogether achieved. There is an increased resourcefulness, too, as well as an added suggestion of that greatest quality of hers, the ability to make the woman she is impersonating both a mystical, romantic figure, of sheer poetry and legend, and a very real, very credible and very human person. Her accomplishments are obviously the result of both personality and acting ability. To portray Susan Lenox, and for that matter Anna Christie, with the honest and straightforward dramatic power Miss Garbo has revealed, must certainly be a sign of histrionic as well as personal distinction. In her audible impersonations the enigmatic Swede has provided at least one quality which was not to be found in her silent photoplays. That is, of course, her very genuine talent as a comedienne.

In the days of " Flesh and the Devil," and even her finest pantomimic drama, " A Woman of Affairs," there was no sign of any inherent feeling for humour. Then she was all tears and sorrows. In both " Romance " and " Susan Lenox " she has suddenly revealed an ability for playing her lighter scenes with a quiet, whimsical, gentle gayety, which has a smiling quaintness about it, but, thank heaven, no suggestion of the coy. Then, too, she is able to manage that suggestion of the tear behind the smile which, as you know, is imperative in any emotional performer who is going in for humour. It is curious to discover that there are still people who are a trifle doubtful about the deep, throaty quality of the Garbo voice. I suppose that the two most thrilling voices on the American stage ore those of Katherine Cornell and Ethel Barrymore, Mr. Watts says. It seems to me that, in the very simplicity of her tones, in the poetic harshness of her delivery—which combines in itself all of the qualities of the lyric and the realistic that are the secret of her power —Miss Garbo is at least their peer.