Greta Garbo: The Signature Collection (DVD, 2005)

Greta Garbo's beauty is timeless. And her acting skills are evident even in the early silent films, which are still remarkable entertaining. Her skill as a comedienne is a wonderful surprise in Ninotchka. What I found especially interesting about her first "talkie" - Anna Christie - is that the movie was filmed twice; once in English with an English-speaking cast and once in German (for the European market) with leading men who could speak German. No dubbing or subtitles in those days. Garbo's performance was, I think, much better in the German language version, since she was clearly more comfortable with that language than with English. Of course, casting her as a young girl from Minnesota made her Swedish accent fit the part perfectly. In any case, she made the transition from silent films to talkies very successfully. Grand Hotel is truly a grand film, and don't miss her signature line "I youst vant to be alone." She later became a recluse living on the upper East Side of NYC. I wanted this collection since it was issued, but waited for the price to drop on eBay. When the usual trash comes up on commercial TV, I just pop one of Garbo's films in the DVD player for real entertainment.