Queen Christina (1933)

Queen Christina is an American romantic film drama first released in 1933, directed by Rouben Mamoulian.  The film stars Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone and Elizabeth Young.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


During the Thirty Years’ War, Sweden becomes the pre-eminent power in Europe, under the reign of the warrior king Gustavus Adolphus.  When the king is killed in battle in 1632, his daughter, still a child, succeeds him to the throne of Sweden.  The years pass and Christina, now a grown woman, wants an end to the wars that are bankrupting her country.  She looks forward to a future of peace and prosperity, where art and science will become man’s chief preoccupation, not war.  During a riding expedition, Christina meets Don Antonio, an envoy from the King of Spain.  They strike up an immediate rapport and spend the night together.  The Spanish envoy does not know Christina’s identity and is surprised when he next sees her at the Swedish Court.  When Christina declares her intention to marry Don Antonio, everyone turns against her.  Her loyal advisers insist that the match is ill-advised and that she should instead marry the heroic Prince Charles...

Possibly the greatest of Greta Garbo’s sound films, and certainly one of the few that matches the timeless majesty of her silent films, is this lavish historical drama directed by Rouben Mamoulian.  Who better than Garbo to play the part of a strong-willed monarch torn between conflicting passions of love and duty?  There are few films which made better use of the extraordinary cinematic presence and captivating allure of this legendary actress.  It is a hauntingly lyrical film, beautifully shot, punctuated by moments of intense poignancy and the occasional smattering of humour.

By this stage in her career, Garbo had so much influence at MGM studios that on this film she could literally call all the shots – to the extent of choosing her director, cinematographer and co-stars.  She originally selected the great English actor Laurence Olivier for the male lead (Don Antonio), but this proved to be a disaster.  Having failed to develop a constructive working relationship with Olivier, Garbo sacked him and replaced him with John Gilbert, her former real-life lover who had previously starred with her in a number of great films of the silent era, notably Flesh and the Devil (1926) and Anna Karenina (1927).   Gilbert was one of many actors who failed to make the transition from silent to sound cinema and this was to be his penultimate film appearance.  He died three years later from a heart attack, aged 38.

The film is loosely based on the life of Queen Christina, who ruled Sweden in the mid-17th century before abdicating in favour of her cousin Charles Gustavus.  The love affair between Christina and the Spanish ambassador Don Antonio is entirely fictitious but serves as powerful emotional drama in which a sensitive monarch has to choose between the dictates of her heart and the obligations of her inherited position.  In some respects, the film strangely presages Garbo’s future life.  In 1941, having made just six more films, the Swedish-born actress would give up acting altogether and spend the rest of her life as a virtual recluse.   With that in mind, Queen Christina perhaps reveals more about Garbo’s turbulent inner life than most of her other films.

© James Travers 2008

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