海角大神

Early in her film career, Greta Garbo wrote to a friend, 鈥淎ll I want is to run away鈥�. one day I will make a scandal and leave everything.鈥� Famously, of course, she eventually did. After 16 years in Hollywood, during which she starred in 24 movies, she retreated from the public eye at age 36 and never worked again.

Robert Gottlieb鈥檚 new biography, 鈥淕arbo,鈥� helps elucidate the mystery of why his subject removed herself from the world. Happily, too, the book is great fun to read (and, with more than 250 photographs, gorgeous to look at). Gottlieb, the renowned former head of publishers Simon聽&聽Schuster聽and Alfred A. Knopf and the former editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, has an easygoing command of the material and describes Garbo鈥檚 films, and the business behind them, with insight and wit.

The book begins with Garbo鈥檚 childhood in Sweden, where she was born Greta Gustafsson in 1905. As a child she was very poor and very shy. She never attended high school, which would result in a lasting feeling of inferiority, Gottlieb explains, but she always knew she wanted to be an actress. As a teenager she met famed Swedish director Mauritz Stiller, who, according to the author, 鈥渉ad been looking for a beautiful girl whom he could completely mold.鈥� After making a movie in Sweden together, they were invited to Hollywood to sign with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is likely Stiller who chose Garbo鈥檚 stage name.

Garbo鈥檚 third Hollywood film, the 1926 hit 鈥淔lesh and the Devil,鈥� made her, Gottlieb writes, 鈥渢he leading actress of the cinema, a position she never relinquished.鈥� But Garbo was immediately uncomfortable with fame, a discomfort that would harden into a deep aversion. Besides being uneducated, she spoke little English in those early years, making her feel even more out of place.

She was compelled to brush up on her language skills to make the transition from silent films to speaking roles. Audiences had been so anxious to hear Garbo in her first movie with sound, 1930鈥檚 鈥淎nna Christie,鈥� that one news article called hers 鈥渢he voice that shook the world.鈥� The movie, whose iconic publicity campaign exclaimed 鈥淕arbo Talks!,鈥� was the top grosser of the year.聽

Gottlieb has a breezy yet authoritative way of describing Garbo鈥檚 oeuvre. Of 鈥淕rand Hotel,鈥� the 1932 film in which she utters her most famous 鈥� and prescient 鈥� line, 鈥淚 want to be alone,鈥� he writes, 鈥淚s 鈥楪rand Hotel鈥� a great movie? No, but it鈥檚 a dazzling one, and the world was dazzled.鈥� Of one of her stinkers, 1931鈥檚 鈥淪usan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise鈥�), he notes that more than 20 writers 鈥減ut together鈥� the script, adding drily, 鈥渢he word 鈥榳rite鈥� somehow seems inappropriate here.鈥澛�

The author laments that Garbo was often ill-served by her material, regularly cast as the sultry vamp or the tragedy queen. Her first comedy was her second-to-last movie, 1939鈥檚 鈥淣inotchka,鈥� directed by Ernst Lubitsch (promotional tagline: 鈥淕arbo laughs!鈥�). The response was 鈥渆cstatic,鈥� writes Gottlieb, who believes the star could have been one of the great romantic comedians of Hollywood鈥檚 golden age.

Given the mystique surrounding Garbo, it鈥檚 unsurprising that Gottlieb occasionally finds himself relating stories that remain unconfirmed. He writes that when the beloved producer Irving Thalberg died suddenly at age 37, 鈥淕arbo herself was moved enough by Thalberg鈥檚 death to actually attend his funeral, the kind of thing she almost never did. (Unless she didn鈥檛: Reports vary.)鈥� One would rather not believe in the piece of Hollywood lore that has her refusing to sign an autograph for an injured World War II veteran in uniform, but Gottlieb seems to find the story credible.聽聽

In the end the many unreliable accounts don鈥檛 detract from the forcefulness of the author鈥檚 portrayal. He presents a Garbo who was beautiful and glamorous, of course, but also needy, imperious, and ungenerous. 鈥淪he used people ruthlessly,鈥� Gottlieb asserts, 鈥渂ut people wanted to be used by her.鈥� Perhaps saddest of all, according to the author, she was dull. An assistant who worked for Garbo when she was in her 60s recorded some of their conversations, and Gottlieb reports that he listened to the tapes 鈥渦ntil I was so bored I couldn鈥檛 bear to go on listening.鈥澛�

And yet. 鈥淢ore than any other star,鈥� Gottlieb contends, 鈥渟he invaded the subconscious of the audience.鈥� Her luminous beauty in part explains her effect, but so too does the enduring enigma of Garbo, who died in 1990 at age 84. Nowadays, in the social media age, celebrity oversharing is the norm. By withholding herself, Gottlieb suggests, Garbo moved beyond legend status into something like myth.