QUEEN CHRISTINA

QUEEN CHRISTINA
(USA 1933)
ALTERNATE TITLES
Königin Christine (GERMANY) La Reine Christine (FRANCE & BELGIUM) Drottning Christina (SWEDEN) Christina (SWEDEN) La Regina Cristina (ITALY) Królowa Krystyna (POLAND) Rainha Christina (BRAZIL) Dronning Christina (DENMARK) Kuningatar Kristiina (FINLAND) Ha Malka Christina (ISRAEL) Raínha Cristina (PORTUGAL) La Reina Cristina de Suecia (SPAIN) La Reina Cristina (VENEZUELA)
FILM SCENES

COMPANY
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) MGM Production: 688
CREDITS
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Produced by Walter Wanger. Screenplay by H.M. Harwood and Salka Viertel, from the original story by S.Viertel & Margaret P. Levino. Dialogue by S.N. Behrman. Photographed by William Daniels. Edited by Blanche Sewell. Musical score by Herbert Stothart. Recording supervised by Douglas Shearer. Arc Direction by Alexander Toluboff. Interior decorations by Edwin B. Willis. Gowns by Adrian.
TECHNICAL SPECS
97 Minutes
CAST
Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, Elizabeth Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen, Georges Renavent, David Torrence, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Ferdinand Munier, Lawrence Grant, Akim Tamiroff, Cora Sue Collins, Muriel Evans, Sarah Padden, Paul Hurst, Eddie Gargan, Edward Norris, Barbara Barondess, Tiny Sanford, Fred Kohler...
GARBO'S CHARACTER
Queen Christina of Sweden
FILM POSTER
More HERE!
SYNOPSIS
Queen Christina of Sweden (Greta Garbo) is to marry Prince Charles (Reginald Owen), hero of the armies. Her former lover, Magnus (Ian Keith), wants the marriage arranged. Knowing Christina does not love Charles. Christina, however, declines. Saying she is not yet ready for marriage. Christina learns that an ambassador from Spain Don Antonio (John Gilbert) is to arrive. She dons boy's clothes and goes to an inn where he will stop. When Antonio learns there is no vacancy, he shares a room with Christina, thinking she is a boy. He soon realizes she is a woman, and in the next few days they fall in love. She wants to marry him and go to Spain, but he discovers she is the Queen and tells her that he has been sent to arrange a marriage between her and the King of Spain. When Don Antonio later meets her officially and sees her often, Magnus stirs up the populace against him. Christina sends Don Antonio away and then abdicates. When she arrives at the place where she is to meet him, she finds him dead, killed by Magnus. She leaves for Spain with his body, never to return.
QUOTES FROM THE FILM
Queen Christina: "I have been memorizing this room. In the future, in my memory, I shall live a great deal in this room."
AUDIO-FILE
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MOVIE PROGRAM
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MOVIE ADVERTISMENTS
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PREMIERED/RELEASED
Premiered in USA: December 26, 1933 (Astor Theatre in New York) Release Date in Germany: 24.10.1934 / Sept. 1951. – TV : 07.12.1968 / 25.03.1972 (ZDF). Austria: 1934 Germany: 1934 Finland: 11 March 1934 Denmark: 17 August 1934 Japan: 16 November 1934 Finland: 23 April 1965 (re-release) Greece: 6 July 2006 (re-release)
LOBBYCARDS
See HERE!
PRODUCTION
Production dates: August–October 1933 Production Location: Hollywood/Los Angeles/USA
MOVIE STILLS
The Stills were made during the production by Milton Brown . 109 Movie Stills were shot. More HERE!
TRIVIA
Queen Christina was Garbo's the first sound movie with John Gilbert. It was Gilberts last film with Garbo. Laurence Olivier was originally signed to play Don Antonio. Gilbert was not successful in sound films and died a few years later, despondent over his career. This film marked Lewis Stone's seventh and last appearance with Greta Garbo. He had made more pictures with her than any other actor. John Barrymoore and Leslie Howard were both suggested to play Garbo's lover in the film. Garbo requested Laurence Olivier after seeing him in Westward Passage. Katharine Hepburn, a big Garbo fan, offered to play an extra in the film, for free, just to be in Garbo film. It's is said that Greta and director Rouben Mamoulian had a Love affair, while filming. Mamoulian claimed that Queen Christina was Mussolinis and Stalins most favorite film. Filmed in 68 days. $250,000 was Greta's salary. Leslie Howard was reportedly Garbo's first choice, but he passed on the opportunity. For the famous closing shot of Greta Garbo at the prow of the ship, director Rouben Mamoulian had wanted the camera to begin with a long shot, and then, in one unbroken take, gradually dolly in on a two thirds close-up of Garbo's face, holding on her at the end of the shot. Unfortunately, with the camera's 48mm lens that close to the human face, pores tend to resemble craters on the surface of the moon. Borrowing on aspects of the magic lantern, Mamoulian devised a large, ruler-shaped, glass filter strip that was clear at one end, becoming increasingly more diffused along its length. With this glass filter mounted in front of the lens, as the camera moved in on Garbo, the glass strip was gradually drawn through the f ilter holder, beginning with the clear end, and ending with the diffused end (close-up), softening Garbo's facial features with more flattering results. The scene where Christina goes around the room at the inn, remember the night she spent with her lover, was choreographed so meticulously that Greta Garbo performed the scene to a metronome. Since John Gilbert was falling out of favor with the majors as a leading man, Greta Garbo was doing him a big favor by requesting him as the male lead. Unfortunately, the film did not help to re-establish Gilbert, and soon after he dropped out of pictures altogether.
THE REAL CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN
Queen Christina (1626–1689), later known as Maria Christina Alexandra and sometimes Count Dohna, was Queen regnant of Sweden from 1632 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolf (the king had already had two sons, one of whom was stillborn and the other lived only one year). As the heiress presumptive, at the age of 6, she succeeded her father to the throne of Sweden upon his death at the Battle of Lützen (1632) during Sweden's intervention in Germany in the Thirty Years' War. After having converted to Catholicism and abdicated her throne, she spent her latter years in France and Rome, where she was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
QUEEN CHRISTINA CARICATURE
More HERE!
BACKGROUND STORY
(in Treatment)
BUSINESS DATA
Budget: 1.144.000 Dollar Gross: USA: 767.000 Dollar; Non-USA: 1.843.000 Dollar; World: 2.610.000 Dollar. Profit: 632.000Dollar. Garbo's Salary: $250,000
PORTRAITS
Clarence Sinclair Bull made the portraits of Garbo for the film on October 25, 1933. More HERE!
REVIEWS
The New Yorker:
The Garbo film of the season, with the lady doing handsomely, though the story of old Sweden sags a bit.
Walter Ramsey for Modern Screen:
Triumph for Garbo! One of the great pictures of the past few years, this historical epic makes a sustained drive for artistry. Besides, we have Garbo and Gilbert, very good indeed. One of the best scenes discloses Garbo, travelling as a man, and stopping at a wayside inn, there to be placed in the same room with a nobleman from Spain (Gilbert) because all other rooms are occupied. (No reason to censor and every reason to try). One does not resent the situation because it is so beautifully handled. The picture is an unending series of exceptional scenes, packed with fine characterizations and good direction. A triumph for Garbo, a come-back for Gilbert, with an orchid for Messrs. Stone and Keith. The production is in a class by itself, so you cannot afford to miss it.
Photoplay:
Garbo, as Sweden's stately sovereign of the seventeenth century! The magnificent Garbo, after an absence of over a year, makes a glorious reappearance on the screen. Garbo, enchanting as ever, is still enveloped by her unfathomable mystery. In the opening scenes, little Cora Sue Collins effectively impersonates Garbo as a child. The supporting cast is equal to every situation–and that's saying a lot when Garbo is creating the situations.
SIMILAR FILMS
(in Treatment)
FAN ART
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QUEEN CHRISTINA WAXFIGURE
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PICTURE FROM THE FILM-SET
Director Cukor and Garbo More HERE!
STORY FROM THE FILM-SET
(in Treatment)
ALTERNATE SCENES
An alternative ending was filmed but never used.
QUEEN CHRISTINA GOWN
A Queen Christina gown. I t is in a Swedish museum today. See more "Garbo Gowns" HERE!
HISTORICAL INACCURACIES
MGM hired a historical adviser, Colonel Einhornung, whose job was to ensure that Swedish royalty would not take offence to the film....this the colonel did, but he was ignored by Mamoulian and company. The colonel had many complaints about the film's historical inaccuracies, among which were the way the Queen is quick to go to bed with a stranger and the fact that the Diet ought not to be seen to clamour for war, as is the case in the early scene of Christina and her fire-eating courtiers. Here are a few more: Garbo is more attractive and feminine than the real Christina was. Queen Christina did not abdicate for love. She is not known to have disguised herself as a man and spent several nights with a lover while queen. She most likely died a virgin, and was always determined never to marry. Pimentel did not die in her arms. Christina is not at this point permanently exiled from Sweden. Catholicism is 'not' referred to, in the film, she renounces the throne not because of Catholicism or unwillingness to marry, but because she wishes "to be a human being" an to marry Don Antonio. Nobles did not wear light-coloured hose and short wigs. Swedens cold climate would not have the abundance of fruits as shown at the inn. Gustavus Adolphus was not old when he died on the battlefield of Lutzen, he was 38.
QUEEN CHRISTINA DOLL
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NICI'S WALLPAPER
More HERE!
DVD/VHS
Available on DVD & VHS. See HERE!
	SOURCE
	Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy – by Mark A. Vieira (Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York 2005). This is the best and most accurate book about Garbo's-Films.
	OTHER SOURCES
	Karen Swenson – A life Apart Barry Paris – Garbo IMDB – International Movie Database plus many other books, magazines and internet sites.


	Film - Introduction