|
Unrealized Projects 1935-1939 |
|
POINT VALAINE (1935)
After The Painted Veil, MGM signed David O. Selznick to do Garbo's next film, Anna Karenina. But Selznick was tired to do another costume film.
He offered Garbo the chance to star in the successful stage production Dark Victory and many other projects. One of them was a new Noel Coward play which was currently a hit on Broadway.
It was about the proprietress of a Caribbean inn and her suicidal headwaiter. Nothing turned out and GG made Anna Karenina.
SOURCE: GARBO book |
| |
AXEL AN DER HIMMELSTÜR (1935)
This Vienna Stage Play (Axel at heaven's door) was inspired by Garbo.
It made Swedish actress/singer, Zarah Leander, a star on stage in Vienna. Written and Produced Max Hansen und Ralph Benatzky.
Hansen later said that it was at first planned to be a film and that it was inspired by Garbo.
SOURCE: Interview by Max Hansen
|
| |
DARK VICTORY (1935)
After The Painted Veil, MGM signed David O. Selznick to do Garbo's next film, Anna Karenina. But Selznick was tired to do another costume film.
He offered Garbo the chance to star in the successful stage production Dark Victory. Selznick also thought that Frederic March would be good for her film partner. He asked Phillip Barry to write a script.
Selznick intended to adopt the character to Garbo, making her the daughter of an american heiress and a european nobleman.
Barry gave his okay to write a script either for The Isadora Duncan Story (which Selznick also considered for Garbo)
or Dark Victory and George Cukor was cosidired to direct. Garbo wasn't interrested and MGM and GG decided to do Anna Karenina.
But MGM and Garbo decided to do Anna Karenina.
Dark Victory was made in 1939 by Warner Brothers. It starred Bette Davis.
SOURCE: GARBO book |
| |
THE ISADORA DUNCAN STORY (1935)
A biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan. She was the 1920s dancer who forever changed people's ideas of ballet. Isadora or Dark Victory was planned to be her follow up film after The Painted Veil.
Both would be produced by David O. Selznick and scripted by Phillip Barry. It was going to be based on Duncan's autobiography My life.
But Cukor was going to direct the film and Salka Viertel, also signed a deal to write the scripts for Greta's next film.
Viertel was working on Anna Karenina and Marie Walewska and that maybe was the reason why Garbo preferred to do Anna Karenina or Marie Walewska next .
The Isadora film was never made.
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Isadora
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MARIE WALEWSKA (1935)
The story of Marie Walewska was suggested to be filmed straight after Garbo's next film The Painted Veil.
Salka Viertel wrote the screenplay, based on the novel Pani Walewska but MGM decided to do Camille as Garbo's next feature film.
The film was released with Greta in 1937 under the title Conquest.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1935)
Selznick again offered Greta Garbo the lead role, in his Garden of Allah. The film was David Selznick's, second independent production. The Garden of Allah was a Technicolor romance set in the desert.
Garbo declined the part (again) and Selznick considered Joan Crawford or Marlene Dietrich (and others).
Both may have declined too and so he signed new-comer Merle Oberon but some time later after Marlene gave her "Okay" to make the film, Merle was quickly dropped.
One day while filming the movie Dietrich told dialogue director Joshua Logan what she thought of the script .
“Garbo wouldn't play this part,” said Dietrich. “They offered it to Garbo and she said she didn't believe the girl would send the boy back to the monastery. She is a very clever woman, Garbo! She has the primitive instincts those peasants have, you know.”
The film was released in 1936 with limited success.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
ARROW OF GOLD (1935)
Stage writer Phillip Barry offered Selznick and MGM to write a movie script for Garbo. He suggested Arrow of Gold, based on the classic Joseph Conrad novel.
Clark Gable was considered as Garbo's leading man.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
TENDER IS THE NIGHT (1935)
Stage writer Phillip Barry offered Selznick and MGM to write a movie script for Garbo. He suggested Tender is the night, based on the classic Scott Fitzgerald novel.
Tender Is the Night is an English language novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in Scribner's Magazine between January-April, 1934 in four issues.
It is ranked #28 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century.
The story is about the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young psychoanalyst and his wife, Nicole, who is also one of his patients.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MY ANTONIA (1935)
Stage writer Phillip Barry offered Selznick and MGM to write a movie script for Garbo. He suggested My Antonia, based on the classic Willa Cather novel.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
SONG OF THE LARK (1935)
Stage writer Phillip Barry offered Selznick and MGM to write a movie script for Garbo. He suggested Song of the Lark, based on the classic Willa Cather novel.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
GOLDEN BOWL (1935)
Stage writer Phillip Barry offered Selznick and MGM to write a movie script for Garbo. He suggested Golden Bowl, based on the classic Henry James novel.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
THE FLAME WITHIN (1935)
David O. Selznick kept the door open for a last-minute replacement of Anna Karenina, a film he wasn't so keen on to do for Garbo.
He searched for other projects and Edmund Goulding submitted a three-page treatment of a story he called The Flame Within.
It was about a female psychiatrist falling in love with one of her patients. Garbo declined. MGM later made the film with Ann Harding.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
THE PARADINE CASE (1935)
In 1935 David O. Selznick had real plans to start filming the story with Garbo for MGM but Greta hated the story.
MGM didn't make the film and sold the film rights to Selznick who still wanted to do the film with Garbo in the mid 1940s.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
TOVARICH (1935)
Eager to give light comedy a try, Garbo supposedly asked MGM's top brass to purchase the rights to this Broadway hit.
Warner Brothers snapped up the property before MGM got their hands on it and made a film with Claudette Colbert.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1935)
David O. Selznick and some of his co-workers suggested this Shakespear play to Garbo as a possible new movie project. They saw Greta as Beatrice and Clark Gable and Benedick.
SOURCE: GARBO book |
| |
BELOVED (1936)
MGM suggested this idea as Greta's next film after Anna Karenina.
It was based on the rumoured love story of Tchaikowsky and Madame of Meck.
MGM wanted Bernard H. Hymanto produce the film but Greta decided to make Camille instead. A similar German film was made starring Zarah Leander.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MANON LESCAUT (1936)
Thalberg suggested George Cukor the novels Manon Lesacut and The Lady of Camilles as possible Garbo movies after Anna Karenina.
Cukor preferred to make Camille.
A Manon Lescaut film was made in 1940 starring A. Valdi.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
WOMAN OF SPAIN (1936)
Based on Scott O'Dell's Woman of Spain: A Story of Old California.
The novel was bought for Garbo just before filming Camille. It is unknown what happened with the project.
Another source claims that Salka Viertel suggested MGM the story as a possible Garbo film in 1940.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MODERN FILM STORY (1937)
In 1936 MGM planned a modern film story for Garbo. The studio felt that she was becoming identified too closely with costumery.
She has made two costume pictures, Anna Karenina and Camille, and her schedule calls next for a screen story of the love of Napoleon for the Polish Marie Walewska with Charles Boyer.
The word is that Miss Garbo may be asked to make an up-to-date film in between Camille and Maria Walewska.
The film turned out to be Ninotchka in 1939 but it unknown what other modern stories MGM offfered or suggested for Miss G.
SOURCES: News magazine |
| |
CARMEN (1937/1938)
Another project GG was interested in was the story of the wild gypsy bandit Carmen. It was based on the famous opera without the music, of course.
This was considered before or after Conquest was made.
SOURCE: French Magazine
|
| |
SCORCHED EARTH (1938)
This story was suggested for Garbo as a project after Conquest.
It was a story of an American conductor visiting the Russian village and a Soviet girl. The Russian village was the place were Tchaikovsky composed most of his symphonies and Salka Viertel was certain that this project was based on Garbo's well-publicized romance with Leopold Stokowski.
MGM hoped that the screenplay capitalize on Garbo's mystery quotient and on her highly publicized romance with Leopold Stokowski.
Scorched Earth (re-titled Song of Russia) was made years later and Garbo was again considered for the female lead.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MADAME CURIE (1938)
In 1938, MGM announced that Garbo's next picture will be a film about Marie Curie, the female scientist who discovered radioactivity.
The story of the Nobel Prize – winning husband-and-wife research team of Pierre and Marie Curie was based the 1936 biography - Madame Curie, by their daughter, Eve. The story was originally purchased for Irene Dunne but Garbo's interest would make the project hers.
Bernie Hyman (producer of Conquest) “moved heaven and earth” to secure the film rights for MGM. Salka Viertel wrote the script and even travelled to Paris to meet Curie's daughter who couldn't see Garbo as her mother in a bio-pic film.
George Cukor was set to direct but decided to concentrate his talents rather on Gone with the wind. Garbo's co-star was going to be Spencer Tracy. Tracy was going to portrait Pierre Curie.
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Marie Curie
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MARIE CURIE (1939)
Ernst Lubitsch was also asked to direct Marie Curie with Greta. He also considered actor Robert Donat as Pierre Curie.
But than they decided to rather make a comedy with Greta and some time later Ninotchka was born.
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Madame Curie
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1938) - FICTION
The fictitious book "The Greta Garbo Murder Case" wrote that Greta has said that she would have loved to play the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. “I would have loved to play the part of the Wicked Witch of Oz but Mayer would have gotten a heart attack when I would have told him! I even would have done it for free!” she was quoted.
This is just made up by the writer but when the pre-production started in 1938 for Wizard of OZ, the image of the Wicked Witch was beautiful and glamorous.
MGM casted Gale Sondergaard but when the producers decided to make the Wicked Witch look “ugly”, Sondergaard turned down the part.
It is possible that Garbo thought about the part when the film went into pre-production. The film is an ultimate classic.
SOURCE: The Greta Garbo Murder Case
|
| |
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE (1938)
Leopold Stokowski suggested Garbo his idea of doing a film together. His specific artistic aim reportedly was to pair himself with Garbo in Tristan and Isolde. He also wanted to produce the film, do the music and work on the script.
The voices would have had to be dubbed, since Garbo's was throaty and low and the maestro's closer to a falsetto.
Unfortunately, the project never got off the ground.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
GEORGE SAND AND CHOPIN (1938)
Leopold Stokowski also suggested Garbo the idea of making a film about the love story between George Sand and Chopin.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
RICHARD WAGNER AND COSIMA (1938)
Leopold Stokowski also suggested Garbo the idea of making a film about the love story between Richard Wagner und Cosima.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
IDIOT'S DELIGHT (1938)
Idiot's Delight is based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood. Sherwood also wrote Tovarich. The film version was offered to Greta and Clarence Brown was considered to direct.
No more details are known. Norma Shearer got the part.
SOURCE: GARBO book
|
| |
MADAME BOVARY (1938) - FICTION
The fictitious book "The Greta Garbo Murder Case" wrote that, Erich Von Stroheim wanted to direct Garbo in a film.
The writer wrote Stroheim, asked Léon Gaumont ( the french producer) to let him direct a Madame Bovary film. He suggested Greta for the part.
I doubt that is this is true.
SOURCE: The Greta Garbo Murder Case |
