Anna Christie (1930)

Anna Christie is a 1930 German-language film adapted from the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title and filmed following the release of the English-language original version of the same adaptation earlier the same year. Both versions feature leading actress Greta Garbo. In the early years of sound films, Hollywood studios produced foreign-language versions of some of their films using the same sets and sometimes the same costumes, with native speakers of the language usually replacing some or all of the original cast. While many of those versions no longer exist, the German-language version of Anna Christie survives.

The film was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at their Culver City, California studio in July and August of 1930 (the English-language original had been filmed there in October and November of 1929). It premiered in Cologne, Germany on December 2, 1930. Garbo is the only cast member in both versions and noticeably differs in her appearance in the two. The German dialog was written by Walter Hasenclever and Frank Reicher, for the most part very closely following Frances Marion's original adaptation. The film was directed by Jacques Feyder using the same cinematographer, Garbo favorite William H. Daniels, but a different crew.

Synopsis

Chris Christofferson (Hans Junkermann), the alcoholic skipper of a coal barge in New York, receives a letter from his estranged twenty-year-old daughter Anna "Christie" Christofferson (Greta Garbo). She tells him that she'll be leaving Minnesota to stay with him. Chris had left Anna 15 years ago to be raised by relatives who live on a farm in the countryside of St. Paul. Chris has never visited his daughter in St. Paul and consequently has not seen her for the past 15 years.

Actors