It's Creaky for sure, the Sound Quality is Fair at Best, and it's Nailed to a confined Stage most of the time. But it is a Movie that Stays With You. The Play, Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1922 for Eugene O' Neill. Audiences mostly Attended to Hear "Garbo Talk" and were more than Rewarded with a Great Supporting Role for Marie Dressler and a couple of Oddball Characters, George F. Marion as Her Swedish Captain Dad and Charles Bickford as a Rescued Sailor.Greta Garbo and Her undeniable Ability to Melt the Frame and Dominate Anyone who dare Share the Screen makes it "Her" Picture. Alluring, Sexy, Charming, Sympathetic, and Tragic, She captures the Film.Marion as the Father who Abandoned Her at Age 5, has a very Heavy Accent and Speaks in Sailor Slang holds the Part well, and Bickford as a Hulking Love Interest for Garbo is a bit Over the Top, but His Character is a Lovable "Bluto" Type and He adds some contrast to the Meek Marion and Garbo's Wounded Woman.Overall, well Worth a Watch for the Rich Characterizations, some Heartfelt and sometimes Savage Dialog, and of course to see Greta Garbo and Why all the Fuss.

Anna Christie (Greta Garbo) returns to see her father Chris (George F Marion) after 15 years. He is the skipper of a boat and she stays to travel with him. During this time, she meets Matt (Charles Bickford) and they fall in love. Matt and Chris don't see eye to eye and Anna has a secret to confess.....................What a boring story......it starts badly with George F Marion and Marie Dressler playing drunks in a bar. The scene goes on forever and they are both terrible. Its also hard to understand them. In fact, its difficult to understand the whole cast. I missed whole sections of dialogue between Bickford, Marion and Garbo because it is incomprehensible! Garbo is obviously something special as you are drawn to her every time that she is on screen and her presence gives this film the 4 stars that I have given to it. But nothing really happens - its a boring story with atrocious accents. You'll do well to stay awake.

This film is worthwhile despite what you may hear. The performance of Marie Dressler (I hope I am spelling it right) as a drunken old sot is reason enough to see this film. It is an amazing performance. She is in a drunken stupor in three scenes for a good long while and she never does the same thing twice. You can actually smell the alcohol when she is done. Amazing. And Greta of course speaks her first lines on film and shes great. The Eugene O'Neill story is solid and like most O'Neill stories, very deep and intense. This is not light entertainment but if you appreciate those great character actors from the 30's and 40's you will like it. Some of the film is technically fuzzy but all in all worthwhile.

'Anne Christie' was Garbo's 14th film and the first in which her husky Swedish voice was heard. She plays the lead character, Anna, who has struggled with being abandoned by her father Chris (a drunken barge owner played by George F Marion), and with the misfortune of the life she has has to lead to keep her head above water.Meeting Irish Matt (Charles Bickford) may mark the turning point for her ... or does it? Garbo looks and sounds great in this drama which, although looking rather clunky and moving at a slow pace, still manages to interest and engage an audience nearly 80 years later. Marie Dressler makes an impact in the role which gave her a second flush of movie success in films such as Min and Bill, Dinner at Eight, and Emma; while Marion and Bickford are more than adequate.An interesting slice of movie history. Garbo would do better talkies in the years following, but 'Anna Christie' will always be remembered for the first time she talked on screen.