“BEAUTY AND THE BEAST”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20784, 20 July 1937, Page 10

“BEAUTY AND THE BEAST”

GARBO’S FIRST DIRECTOR In the 14 years of her motion picture life only one of Greta Garbo’s pictures was a failure. That was “Gosta Borling.” her first featured film appearance. To determine the drawing power of Garbo’s name in lights over the theatre marquees, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer recently reviewed all of her 21 pictures filmed by M-G-M. All were bo:: office successes. The survey was extended to Europe. There it was discovered that Garbo ranks first among all feminine film stars and that all of her made-ln-America pictures likewise were successes.

But in Europe one picture was found that was not successful—“Gosta Berling” It was directed by Maurltz Stiller in 1923 at Filmstad, the Hollywood of Sweden. It was made in the year that Stiller took possession of Greta Gustaffson, an unknown manicurist, and strangely enough there was no Greta Garbo in the picture, for the name of Garbo had not yet been born. Instead, Lila Ketl appeared in “Gosta Berling." It was Garbo’s first screen name. In Sweden Up to 1923 the picture was the most pretentious film play ever attempted in Filmstad. The story played a very important part in Sweden’s literature, a modern saga of the simple folk of Sweden under the crushing wheels of tlie oncoming machine age. For writing the novel Dr Selma Lagerlof, the author was awarded the Nobel prize, and in the picture Garbo played only a secondary part, a woman who was loved by the hero to the point of her own undoing. The picture released, critics failed to acclaim Garbo, says a writer in The Toronto Star Weekly. Stiller who was in love with Garbo, made no comment. However, he believed he ’ had found the makings of the greatest film artist of the era.

Stiller was jealous of his new find He and Garbo became known as “Beauty and the Beast,” and as “Svengali and Trilby.” Always he was teaching and preaching, and Garbo listening and learning. Garbo’s heart broke when Stiller died. After that she had only one heart interest, Jack Gilbert, her leading man in Hollywood films, who also is dead. For a recent revival of ‘Gosta Berling’’ in Sweden, the old silent picture had been refurbished with sound. It was this ancient film that M-G-M representatives saw recently in Sweden and learned why it was a failure. It was a curiosity and little more. The sound was a hodge-podge of silent and sound pictures, with printed titles struggling with interpolated songs and music.

The picture itself was a jerky galloping piece, outmoded and totally outside the idiom of modern pictures. As the picture was made almost exclusively for Scandinavian distribution, “Gosta Berling” failed in other European cities.