Greta Garbo Movies-Best to Worst-With Adjusted Box Office Grosses/Results
75Greta Garbo is ranked as the 5th greatest screen legend actress of all-time according to the American Film Institute.
Recently I decided to do a hub on each person on the Top 50 Screen Legends of All-Time according to the American Film Institute. So I have now reached the 5th greatest actress of all-time Greta Garbo. I think I am a pretty knowledgeable person when it comes to the subject of movies, but I must admit that I really did not know very much about Greta Garbo(1905-1990) when I started writing this hub. Prior to this hub I had seen one of her movies, Grand Hotel, and had really only heard of 3 or 4 of her movies.
The first place I started my research was at IMDB, and found that she had 32 screen credits to her name from 1920 to 1941. After appearing in a few Swedish films, she received a contract from MGM and moved to the United States in 1925. Over the next 15 years, Garbo would appear in 24 movies and become one of the most famous people in the world. After appearing in 1941's Two-Faced Woman she stopped making movies, moved to New York City and pretty much stopped appearing in public....she passed away in 1990.
The following hub will have her Top Ten Box Office hits, her Top Ten Critic Audience Rated movies, all 24 of her North American released movies and a Top Ten Interesting Facts about Greta Garbo.
Greta Garbo in 1931's Mata Hari...her 4th biggest box office hit with 77.90 million in 2011 dollars.
Greta Garbo's Top Ten Box Office Hits...Ranked By 2011 Adjusted Box Office Dollars.
Rank Movie Year
| 2011 Adjusted Box Office (mil)
| Co-Stars
|
|---|---|---|
#1 Grand Hotel
| 182.80 million
| Lionel Barrymore/Joan Crawford
|
#2 Anna Christina (1930)
| 88.20 million
| Charles Bickford
|
#3 Camille (1936)
| 81.10 million
| Lionel Barrymore
|
#4 Mata Hari (1931)
| 77.90 million
| Lionel Barrymore
|
#5 Ninotchka (1939)
| 73.90 million
| Melvyn Douglas
|
#6 Susan Lenox(Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
| 66.80 million
| Clark Gable
|
#7 Romance (1931)
| 64.40 million
| Lewis Stone
|
#8 Anna Karenina (1935)
| 62.80 million
| Fredric March
|
#9 Inspiration (1931)
| 60.40 million
| Robert Montgomery
|
#10 Queen Christina (1933)
| 58.00 million
| John Gilbert
|
Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in 1939's Ninotchka....her best movie according to critics and audiences...her second to last film.
Greta Garbo's Top Ten Movies based on critics and audience voting.
Rank Movie Year
| Critics Audience Rating
| Co-Star
|
|---|---|---|
#1 Ninotchka (1939)
| 87%
| Melyvn Douglas
|
#2 Queen Christina (1933)
| 85%
| John Gilbert
|
#3 Flesh and the Devil (1926)
| 84%
| John Gilbert
|
#4 Grand Hotel (1932)
| 82%
| Joan Crawford
|
#5 Camille (1936)
| 81%
| Lionel Barrymore
|
#6 A Woman of Affairs (1928)
| 80%
| John Gilbert
|
#7 Anna Karenina (1935)
| 78%
| Fredric March
|
#8 The Mysterious Lady (1928)
| 77%
| Conrad Nagel
|
#9 Susan Lenox(Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
| 76%
| Clark Gable
|
#10 Love (1927)
| 75%
| John Gilbert
|
Greta Garbo in 1930's Anna Christina....her 4th best movie according to Movie Score.
Greta Garbo's 24 Movies ranked by Movie Score. Movie Score is box office results + critical reception + award recognition. Perfect score would be 100
Rank
| Movie Year
| 2011 Inflated Box Office (Millions)
| Cogerson Movie Score
| Critics Audience Rating
| Oscar®Noms / Oscar® Wins
| Co-Stars or Award
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st
| Grand Hotel (1932)
| 182.80
| 71.68
| 82%
| 01 / 01
| Best Picture Oscar® Winner
|
2nd
| Ninotchka (1939)
| 73.90
| 59.45
| 87%
| 04 / 00
| Nominated for Best Actress Oscar®
|
3rd
| Camille (1936)
| 81.10
| 53.56
| 81%
| 00 / 00
| Nominated for Best Actress Oscar®
|
4th
| Anna Christina (1930)
| 88.20
| 50.83
| 64%
| 03 / 00
| Nominated for Best Actress Oscar®
|
5th
| Romance (1931)
| 64.40
| 45.65
| 65%
| 02 / 00
| Nominated for Best Actress Oscar®
|
6th
| Queen Christina (1933)
| 58.00
| 41.34
| 85%
| 00 / 00
| John Gilbert
|
7th
| Susan Lenox(Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
| 66.80
| 39.77
| 76%
| 00 / 00
| Clark Gable
|
8th
| Anna Karenina (1935)
| 62.80
| 39.68
| 78%
| 00 / 00
| Fredric March
|
Rank
| Movie Year
| 2011 Inflated Box Office (Millions)
| Cogerson Movie Score
| Critics Audience Rating
| Oscar®Noms / Oscar® Wins
| Co-Stars
|
9th
| Mata Hari (1931)
| 77.90
| 37.45
| 63%
| 00 / 00
| Lionel Barrymore
|
10th
| A Woman of Affairs (1928)
| 43.70
| 37.15
| 80%
| 01 / 00
| John Gilbert
|
12th
| Love (1927)
| 48.50
| 35.95
| 75%
| 00 / 00
| John Gilbert
|
12th
| Flesh and the Devil (1926)
| 31.80
| 35.57
| 84%
| 00 / 00
| John Gilbert
|
13th
| Inspiration (1931)
| 60.40
| 35.52
| 67%
| 00 / 00
| Robert Montgomery
|
14th
| As You Desire Me (1932)
| 56.40
| 35.25
| 69%
| 00 / 00
| Melvyn Douglas
|
15th
| Conquest (1937)
| 49.30
| 33.27
| 64%
| 02 / 00
| Charles Boyer
|
16th
| Two-Faced Woman (1941)
| 54.90
| 32.86
| 63%
| 00 / 00
| Melvyn Douglas
|
Rank
| Movie Year
| 2011 Inflated Box Office (Millions)
| Cogerson Movie Score
| Critics Audience Rating
| Oscar®Noms / Oscar® Wins
| Co-Stars
|
17th
| The Mysterious Lady (1928)
| 27.80
| 32.51
| 77%
| 00 / 00
| Conrad Nagel
|
18th
| The Painted Veil (1934)
| 40.50
| 31.55
| 67%
| 00 / 00
| Herbert Marshall
|
19th
| The Temptress (1926)
| 30.20
| 31.06
| 72%
| 00 / 00
| Antonio Moreno
|
20st
| The Kiss (1929)
| 26.20
| 29.73
| 70%
| 00 / 00
| Conrad Nagel
|
21st
| The Divine Woman (1928)
| 27.80
| 29.18
| 68%
| 00 / 00
| Lars Hanson
|
22nd
| The Single Standard (1929)
| 32.60
| 29.10
| 65%
| 00 / 00
| Nils Asther
|
23rd
| Wild Orchids (1929)
| 31.00
| 28.77
| 65%
| 00 / 00
| Lewis Stone
|
24th
| Torrent (1926)
| 23.80
| 27.86
| 66%
| 00 / 00
| Ricardo Cortez
|
Possibly Interesting Facts About Greta Garbo.
1. Greta Garbo was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden. She went from a department store model to appearing in Swedish movies to signing a contract with MGM by the time she was 20. On her arrival in the United States the general consensus was MGM had made a mistake because she was "not extraordinary and could be safely disregarded".
2. Greta Garbo's big break occured when Monta Bell(a director) stumbled across her screen test that was accidently included in a reel of torrential rain storms that he was watching for research in his upcoming movie. Bell saw Garbo and immediately put her in his movie...1926's Torrent.
3 Greta Garbo could not speak any English when she first arrived, that was not a problem as all of her first films were silent films. In 1930 she appeared in her first "talkie", Anna Christina, ....the publicity for the movie was the famous line...."Garbo talks"....as the public loved her heavy Swedish voice as well as her looks.
4. Greta Garbo was nominated 4 times for a Best Actress Oscar® ....those movies were 1930's Anna Christina, 1931's Romance, 1936's Camille and 1939's Ninotchka. Garbo actually made Anna Christina twice....once in English and the other time in German....the German versus did not make the hub.
5. Greta Garbo never married, never had children and lived alone. Her last years of her life were spent in absolute seclusion. She almost did marry actor and co-star John Gilbert in 1927 but left him at the alter when she got cold feet.
6. Greta Garbo was Adolph Hitler's favorite actress. When she learned that Hitler had watched 1936's Camille 7 times and wanted to meet her....Garbo actually considered meeting with Hitler...the catch? she wanted to bring a knife and end his life.
7. Greta Garbo wanted to keep working after 1941's Two-Faced Women....but all the projects she was interested in making all fell apart due to financial reasons. By 1949 she had given up the thought of returning to the big screen.
8. Greta Garbo turned down these roles over the years: I Remember Mama, Airport 1975, Out of Africa, The Paradine Case, Red Dust, Sunset Boulevard, and My Cousin Rachel.
9. Greta Garbo's nicknames were The Face, Garbo and The Swedish Sphinx. She was also very famous for being very frugal. When she passed away she left her niece over 32 million dollars.
10. Greta Garbo is the 78th actors/actresses to receive a Cogerson career review hub page. My Greatest Actors/Actress Table has two separate tables....the first table ranks the 78 actors using all of their movies. Greta Garbo comes in at #48 on that table one spot ahead of #49 Charlton Heston. The second table only looks at the actor's Top Ten Movie Score Movies. On that table Greta Garbo comes in at #75.
Alphabetical Index: Classic Actors/Actresses (31 Hubs)
Fred Astaire ; Ingrid Bergman ; Humphrey Bogart; Marlon Brando; James Cagney;Gary Cooper; Bing Crosby; Bette Davis ; Kirk Douglas; Clark Gable; Cary Grant; Audrey Hepburn ; Katharine Hepburn; Charlton Heston; William Holden ; Danny Kaye ; Grace Kelly ; Rock Hudson; Burt Lancaster; Jack Lemmon ; Myrna Loy; James Mason ; Steve McQueen; Marilyn Monroe; Paul Newman; Gregory Peck; Barbara Stanwyck ; James Stewart; Spencer Tracy : John Wayne; Richard Widmark
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
One of my favorite photos of Greta Garbo that I found when researching this hub.
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The Documentary I saw of Garbo wasn't as impressive as this hub Cogerson...too bad she wasn't ever known as Hitler's assassin.;-))
Hey Jools99...thanks for checking out this hub...I imagine many people are aware of the name Greta Garbo and I am sure not many people know very much about her....she spent almost 50 years hiding from public view...that is amazing....especially the way current celebrities will call tabloids and let then know where they will be shopping and at what time.
I agree it is a shame that she did not continue to make movies....4 Oscar nominations in 24 movies is a pretty good percentage....I am sure she would have won an Oscar if she would have continued....but on the other hand by staying out of the public eye she managed to stay young forever in her movies...thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Hey Mentalist acer....first of all Happy Belated Birthday....and thanks for such a nice compliment about my hub. Can you imagine how history would have changed if Greta Garbo would have taken out Adolph Hitler in 1930's....it makes one's mind spin.
I am quite familiar with Garbo's life through seeing documentaries and other interviews- her public life, that is. I have heard of all of her Hollywood movies, whether I've seen them or not. I will confine myself to the films you discuss here. Just consider that some of these titles that make top ten lists I have seen the other version but not the Hollywood movie. Sometimes I've seen both. So the overall number of films of her career I've seen, though paltry, is higher than what I list here.
I have Flesh and the Devil taped and waiting for me to watch.
I have seen Ninotchka the most often. (Tagline: Garbo laughs. It was her last comedy as well as her first.) It is for sure my favorite as most of her films are tragedies. She was always playing tragic figures or the love interest of tragic figures.
I also love Grand Hotel. I would put that as my second favourite of her career.
As fpor the films I haven't seen, I am most looking forward to Mata Hari and Two-Faced Woman.
Top ten box office:
I have seen four of these - #1,2, 3 and 5.
Top ten critics: I have seen three: 1,4 and 5
Top ten movie score: I have seen four of them -the top four.
Overall: I have seen few of her films so far. This has more to do with the tragic nature of several plot lines and my preference for other story lines than with availability - at least in terms of her Hollywood films. They are all available on TCM.
Besides her top four movie score films (and acknowleding that Flesh and the Devil is waiting for me), I have only seen one other film of hers from her Hollywood era: The Temptress.
HELLO - I saw Ninotchka on the Turner Classics Movies some time ago. She was a lovely looking woman. Not sure how many movies I have seen with her in them but a good HUB just the same. Some research must be hard to find on some of the older actors...good job once again.
"I vont to be alone!" Her most famous quote though Garbo later claimed she never said it, it's in all her films or variations of it. :)
Classy hub Cogerson, lots of facts I never knew about this very private actress. Hitler was a big fan and she wasn't flattered? :)
According to my database I have 10 of her films in the collection -
Anna Christie
Anna Karenina
Camille
Flesh and the Devil
Grand Hotel
Mata Hari
Mysterious Lady
Ninotchka
Queen Christina
Temptress ,The
But I only remember seeing 4, Anna Christie, Mata Hari, Grand Hotel and my favourite Ninotchka. So I still have the others to watch.
Ninotchka was remade as an MGM musical in the 1950's starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse as Ninotchka. A big favourite of mine, a must see in widescreen.
Good work as usual Bruce and I like that photo too. You'll have to add Mae West and Marlene Dietrich to your growing actor/actress list now. :)
Voted Up and Interesting, Useful too.
Hey Flora thanks for stopping by....it was an interesting hub to write and I feel I understand her career much more, but I have to admit only two of her movies made my "must watch" list and that was Ninotchka and Mata Hari. So how many of her Swedish movies have you seen? I would have thought that they would be hard ones to find.
It looks like you are the tally champ again....as your 5 beats Steve's 4 and my lonely one.
One of the books I read while doing the hub was The Great Garbo by Robert Payne...and he pretty much said that the movie that made her a star...Anna Christina is actually not that good as it was based on pretty bad play and Charles Bickford is especially bad in the movie.
Although he does give her credit for being the best part of the movie. As always I appreciate your comments and contributions.
Thanks for checking out my Garbo hub Bern1960....hopefully you picked up a few new things about Garbo.....no much of a personal life to report for her.....so sad. Thanks for the compliment.
I don't remember them as it was so long ago I saw them, but it is only a grand total of two. So....still low.
I am surprised you haven't seen Ninotchka yet, as it is relatively easy to find.
Sad commentary on the career of Garbo that I "win" the race between the three of us with such a low total.
Hey Steve....I think she said a line very close to "I want to be alone" in Grand Hotel....and as big as that movie was it seems to stuck to her the rest of her life. I am glad you liked the facts I dug up...I am fascinated about the Hitler fact....imagine the history books if she had killed Hitler.
It sounds like you have some Greta Garbo movies..lol. What was the name of the remake with Astaire? As for Dietrich and West they are on the schedule to be done...exactly I have already though Mae West and her 13 movies will share out a hub with James Dean and her 3 movies. Thanks for the compliment and the visit.
Hey Flora....yes it is sad that between the three of us we are at 10..... I am impressed that you have seen two of her movies that were pre-1926. I will be watching Ninotchka very soon.
The movie is Silk stockings. I believe you have seen it, Cogerson.
I forgot to include the title, Flora got it, yep Silk Stockings. Peter Lorre is in that too. Bela Lugosi was in the original.
Hi Bruce; Garbo seems to be one of those names that movie fans are familiar with but most have never actually seen her films. She's someone we SHOULD know about but don't. I love old films but I've only seen a handful of Garbo's work. "Grand Hotel" (Where her famous "I want to be alone" line comes from) is one of her best. "Ninotchka" was probably her best work, because she got to show her humorous side.
Another informative hub,
Rob
Thanks for the information on Silk Stockings...Flora and Steve...that is one of the ones that I did not watch during by Astaire blitz of movies...but interesting that Lugosi was in the original and Lorre was in the remake...I assume the played the same roles.
Cogerson, no they were different roles, Lugosi was a Russian official as I remember while Lorre was already stationed in Paris before Ninotchka arrived. Did Lugosi and Lorre ever work together? I don't think so. They were both Hungarian.
Hey Rob...I agree I am sure many movie buffs are aware of the name Greta Garbo but really do not know much about her career....I know I fall into that category. And judging by the early results of this hub....maybe even the name is starting to fade away into history...her last movie was made in 1941...71 years ago....I will be checking out Ninotchka very soon. Thanks for checking out my Garbo it is greatly appreciated.
Thanks Steve...... I figured when I saw the two names they would be doing the same role in the two movies.....Silk Stockings(from your suggestion) and Roberta are the last two Astaire movies that I am trying to track down....thanks for the information.
I think I completely struck out here. I must have seen at least one of these but nothing comes to mind. Regardless, your work here is exceptional. You have the makings of a book in progress.
Hey mckbirdbks....I do not think you are the only one to stike out here....I am right there with you. Thanks for the compliment...I have thought I should print up all my movie hubs and put them into a binder....and then I could say I have written a book and it was published....even if it was just my one copy.....lol.
Hi, Cogerson - when I was a teenager, I was a complete old movie nut and just loved Greta Garbo. She had a fascinating screen presence and was some beautiful woman. Lately, I have been so wanting to check out some old movies and now I know why - I've been reading your hubs!
Hey Dolores....first of all...I hope you have a great holiday....second of all thanks for the compliment and the comment. As for Garbo....I have a much greater appreciation for her work after writing this hub and reading a few of her biographies. Glad my hubs are helping put some more light on some of the great movies from the past.
Jools99 Level 7 Commenter 5 months ago
Interesting hub Cogerson, I have seen a couple of her movies but am not very knowledgeable about her at all. I think you did a really good job here. She was incredibly photogenic I think, great photos. It sounds like she decided to quit the screen and public life, very strange. What a shame, makes you wonder whether she might have gone on to other great roles.