The original Anna Christie (1930) English version has the cleaner negative and is a good film but it's the 1931 German language version that is the masterpiece. Filmed right after they finish the 1930 version, on the same stage but with different actors, the story is the same but Greta's performance is so much better. Maybe because it was in her native language, maybe because of the different actors or maybe it was the fact that it was so familiar at that point, never the less, this is the version to see. When Garbo makes her screen entrance in the 1930 version she looks gorgeous but in the 1931 version she looks like death warmed over and hating the world while at the same time looking like she could have been the most beautiful women in the world once in her life. Her best performance in any film.
Review of Anna Christie
