Garbo on Set - Part I

Sweden 1924 - Odalisken från Smolna

Garbo in Constantinople. Some location tests were shot for the film that never was.

December 1924 in Constantinople (Istanbul/Turkey). Garbo and director Mauritz Stiller  visited the mosques and tombs, ate in the most elegant restaurants and whiled away the hours sitting in coffee houses, where Stiller looked for characters that might be used in his film. On leisurely shopping expeditions they wandered through the hundreds of den-like stalls of the Grand Bazaar.

Stiller loved to match wits in haggling with the native shopkeepers, and laid in a rather ample supply of Persia carpets. He also took great delight in buying Greta Garbo elaborate Oriental costumes.

The most striking of these, according to Cavallius, was a beautiful Chinese gown of deep red silk lavishly embroidered with gold flowers. She appeared in this at a party given by the Swedish Legation and there gaily danced the Hambo, a boisterous Swedish folk dance, with Cavallius.

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SOURCE
Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy – by Mark A. Vieira