Inspired by his sisters – Sven Gustafson (1898-1967) had set forth in 1929 on a film career of his own. At thirty-one, he had the smashing good looks for it, and certainly the entree, but not the name. That problem he solved by billing himself as “Sven Garbo” in several Swedish and English pictures.

Sven was not greeted warmly by the critics, nor was the name “Sven Garbo” by his sister. She dreaded the embarrassment to both of them in case he failed. Which, of course, he did.

When his film När rosorna slå ut was released in America (retitled The Hole in the Wall), the April 1931 Photoplay notice was brutal: “This Swedish talking picture is reviewed here because Sven Gustafson, brother of Greta Garbo, makes his American debut in it. He's a tall, limp, black-haired boy with a minute moustache, and doesn't bear the faintest resemblance to his famous sister. And he's a punk actor, if this is a sample.”

Swedish film authority Lars Lundstrom maintains that MGM thereafter paid him not to make movies. In any case, Sven's movie career was soon aborted in favour of painting and a series of art-related sojourns  to France, where he studied with the influential painter-teacher Andre Lhôte (1885-1962). On a 1930 London trip, he met an attractive young American named Marguerite Baltzer, whom he married in 1931. Their daughter Gray was born in 1932. Sven Gustafson dearly wanted to come to Hollywood and finally did so a few years later.

Sven Garbo?

Sven went to Paris during the summer of 1928. Soon after, he was entertaining offers from film companies in Sweden, England, and France. In 1929 and 1930, he made three films in Stockholm and Paris – two as Sven Garbo and one as Sven Gustafsson. His name was changed for exploitation purposes without Greta's prior knowledge or consent.

“Garbo was all upset the day she received a letter from her brother saying that the film company for whom he was working [Svensk Filmindustri] wanted to change his name to Garbo,” Gustaf Norin revealed.

She said that she had made the name of Garbo herself, that it was her name, and there should be no one else using it . She sent a cable to her brother asking him to deny the company permission to use the name, but it was too late. It was to be Sven Garbo in Konstgjorda Svensson (Gustaf Edgren, 1929) and Charlotte Löwensköld (Gustaf Molander, 1930).

Sven received his most prominent exposure in När Rosorna slå ut (Edvin Adolphson, 1930), produced by Paramount Pictures in collaboration with Gaumont Studios/Paris. Here he was able to honor his sister's request and was billed as Sven Gustafsson-though he was heavily promoted as Garbo's brother.

Later in the year, Sven wrote Greta suggesting that he would like to come to Hollywood. Harry Edington was against it. So, for the moment, was Greta.

Selma Lagerlöf was a phenomenally successful author in her time, writing many novels that were extremely popular in her native Sweden and elsewhere. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming one of the very first female Nobel laureates. Today, she is remembered primarily for The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, a picaresque children's fantasy that evokes 19th-century Scandinavia very effectively. Charlotte Löwensköld, based on one of Lagerlöf's novels, was filmed in 1930: well past the peak of this author's popularity, but she was still a beloved name at this time. The talking-picture revolution came late to Sweden: this 1930 movie is almost entirely silent, with only brief dialogue sequences and a few sound effects.

Charlotte is a beautiful peasant girl in a Swedish village, in love with the handsome firebrand preacher Karl-Artur. (I regret to confess that, every time I saw the name 'Karl-Artur' in this movie's intertitles, I was reminded of the silent-film comedy team Karl Dane and George K. Arthur.) Although Charlotte is in love with the preacher (and vice versa), she marries Schagerström, the wealthy owner of the iron-forge that employs most of the local peasantry. All the clichés of romantic fiction require that Charlotte must be unhappy in this marriage, living off her cold and emotionless wealthy husband whilst secretly pining for Karl. Surprise! Charlotte and her rich older husband get along just fine. Yumping yiminy! But Karl-Artur's mother Beate is dying, grief-stricken that her only son has no bride. For the sake of Beate, Charlotte and Karl-Artur pretend to reconcile. They become officially betrothed (for Beate's benefit) so that the old woman will die happy. From this point, the plot degenerates into Swedish meatballs. I've read several of Lagerlöf's novels, but I've not read the one that provided the basis for this movie, so I don't know if the script is faithful to Lagerlöf's novel. I do give this film some credit: at several points, its plotline went in unexpected directions that were entirely plausible.

But I didn't much care about these characters. Several of the silent-film title cards make comments about how extremely beautiful Charlotte is, but the actress who plays her (appropriately blonde and Nordic) is only slightly above average in the looks department. Greta Garbo's older brother Sven, whom she loved deeply, plays one of the villagers in this movie, and he shows some resemblance to his famous sister without sharing her acting talent.