Never was Greta Garbo more regal on the screen than when she played an actual monarch and countryperson of her's. Even though this film is hardly the story of the real Queen Christina of Sweden it is still a wonderful showcase for the talents of Greta Garbo.
Young Christina as played here by Cora Sue Collins before she grows up to be Garbo assumes the throne of Sweden after her father Gustavus Adolphus is killed on the battlefield of Lutzen in the Thirty Years War. As this was his only legitimate child, Gustavus Adolphus instructed that she be brought up with the advantages of being a man had. She learned the arts of war as would befit the daughter of a conquering king, but she received quite the classical education far beyond what any woman would normally receive.
Lewis Stone plays Count Oxenstierna who was her father's first minister and during her minority was the regent ruler of Sweden. He supervises her education, but when she starts spouting some heretical ideas, he's quite concerned.
The problem of succession and marriage plague Christina just as they plagued Elizabeth of England in the last century. But she handled it differently with disastrous results.
Which brings me to the film itself. This whole story line about Christina falling for the Spanish ambassador is total fiction. But the part of Don Antonio was to be John Gilbert's big comeback on the screen after his voice failed to register well in the very early talkies and his career went right into the toilet.
Gilbert's voice did register well and his performance isn't bad. But sad to say that time had moved on and MGM was investing in new leading men like Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, William Powell, etc. It was for John Gilbert just too late.
The real Christina went into exile for religion rather than love, that scenario would be played out for real in the United Kingdom in a few years. Among the heretical ideas that Christina with the education embraced was Roman Catholicism. Not a good idea where the nation had embraced Lutheranism, courtesy of Gustavus Adolphus.
She got a golden parachute though, unusual for deposed royalty back in those days. She kept her considerable personal estates in Sweden and twice went back to visit during her exile. It was hardly what Mary Queen of Scots got back in the previous century.
Though the story is fiction, it's also romance to the nines with Garbo a regal and alluring Queen Christina.
Young Christina as played here by Cora Sue Collins before she grows up to be Garbo assumes the throne of Sweden after her father Gustavus Adolphus is killed on the battlefield of Lutzen in the Thirty Years War. As this was his only legitimate child, Gustavus Adolphus instructed that she be brought up with the advantages of being a man had. She learned the arts of war as would befit the daughter of a conquering king, but she received quite the classical education far beyond what any woman would normally receive.
Lewis Stone plays Count Oxenstierna who was her father's first minister and during her minority was the regent ruler of Sweden. He supervises her education, but when she starts spouting some heretical ideas, he's quite concerned.
The problem of succession and marriage plague Christina just as they plagued Elizabeth of England in the last century. But she handled it differently with disastrous results.
Which brings me to the film itself. This whole story line about Christina falling for the Spanish ambassador is total fiction. But the part of Don Antonio was to be John Gilbert's big comeback on the screen after his voice failed to register well in the very early talkies and his career went right into the toilet.
Gilbert's voice did register well and his performance isn't bad. But sad to say that time had moved on and MGM was investing in new leading men like Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, William Powell, etc. It was for John Gilbert just too late.
The real Christina went into exile for religion rather than love, that scenario would be played out for real in the United Kingdom in a few years. Among the heretical ideas that Christina with the education embraced was Roman Catholicism. Not a good idea where the nation had embraced Lutheranism, courtesy of Gustavus Adolphus.
She got a golden parachute though, unusual for deposed royalty back in those days. She kept her considerable personal estates in Sweden and twice went back to visit during her exile. It was hardly what Mary Queen of Scots got back in the previous century.
Though the story is fiction, it's also romance to the nines with Garbo a regal and alluring Queen Christina.