Her new contract stipulated a biopic of the Swedish Queen who in 1654 abdicated to become a Catholic. In MGM's version she abdicates so she can marry Antonio, the Spanish Ambassador!
The fictionalised script was co-written by Salka Viertel who was Garbo's great friend, writing four more scripts for her.
Garbo rejected Charles Boyer and Laurence Olivier, demanding her former lover John Gilbert be cast in their fourth film together. Gilbert was one of MGM's top silent stars whose career tailed off with the coming of sound.
He had left MGM earlier in 1933, so for Garbo to demand he be cast was brave. But he was already an alcoholic and died two years later of heart failure, aged 38.
Historical hokum but enjoyable.
Shelf or charity shop? Christina is reigning in my plastic stortage box. It is an odd film, a trifle dead, smothered by MGM's tasteful gloss, but whenever Garbo is on screen, the pulse quickens and she works well with Gilbert, Lewis Stone (one of the seven films they made together) and C. Aubrey Smith. Luminously photographed by William Daniels (one of her 21 films that he shot, from silents to sound): QUEEN CHRISTINA features two of the greatest Garbo scenes: Christina walking round and touching the objects in an inn bedroom saying "I have been memorizing this room; in the future I will live a great deal in this room" and the final scene as Christina sails into the unknown. Mamoulian told her to clear her mind of all thought and just stare ahead of her as the camera moved in, letting the audience read in her face what they wanted.
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