Queen Christina is a pre-Code Hollywood biographical film, produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933 by Walter Wanger and directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
As queen, she favors peace for Sweden and argues convincingly for an end to the Thirty Years' War, saying: Spoils, glory, flags and trumpets!
Death and destruction, triumphals of crippled men, Sweden victorious in a ravaged Europe, an island in a dead sea.
One day, in an effort to escape the restrictions of her royal life, she sneaks out of town and ends up at the same inn as Antonio (John Gilbert), a Spanish envoy on his way to the capital.
When the scheming Count Magnus (Ian Keith), who had previously had some romantic liaisons with the Queen, rouses the people against the Spaniard, Christina is able to ease tensions for a time, but ultimately, she decides to name Karl Gustav as her successor and, in a move that shocks the entire court, abdicates the throne to be with Antonio.
The leading roles are played by Greta Garbo as Christina and John Gilbert as Don Antonio, an emissary from Spain.
As early as 1928, MGM was examining sources to develop a scenario suitable for studio property Greta Garbo in the role of 17th century Swedish queen, Christina.
[5][6] As to the supporting cast, British actor Laurence Olivier was to have made his America movie debut as the Spaniard Antonio, but his screen test was unimpressive, and he failed to form a genuine rapport with Garbo.
In the future, in my memory, I shall live a great deal in this room.” —Greta Garbo as Queen Christina, leaving the suite in which she has discovered true love with Antonio (John Gilbert).
[15] After her brief but personally transformative sexual encounter with the Spanish ambassador Antonio Pimentel de Prado (John Gilbert), Queen Christina lingers in the room in which they have had intercourse, committing the room’s interior to memory as though its components “had shared some secret with her.”[15][16][17] Director Rouben Mamoulian described the sequence as “a sonnet”, informing Garbo before shooting “this has to be sheer poetry and feeling.
"[37] Variety found the film "slow and ofttimes stilted", though it wrote that Garbo's "regal impression is convincing, which counts for plenty.
[39] TCM's Frank Miller stated: "It would be years before foreign revenues and reissues brought the film into the profit column.
Garbo and Gilbert's love scenes together are truly memorable, as is the famous final shot...”[43] The part of Queen Christina is regarded as one of the better in Garbo's filmography,[44] and the film is especially notable for resoundingly disproving rumors that John Gilbert's lack of success in the sound era was due to his having an unsuitable voice.
A number of historical characters appear in the film (such as Axel Oxenstierna, Charles X Gustav of Sweden, and Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie), and some historical events are depicted (such as the Thirty Years' War and Christina's abdication), but Queen Christina is not a film that adheres closely to the facts.
[40][51] The film is correct in stating that Christina's father had her raised as if she were a boy, with the education and responsibilities expected of a male heir, and in depicting her habit of dressing as a man, which continued throughout her life.
[53] Greta Garbo was troubled by the films’ historical inaccuracies and absurdities: “Just imagine Christina abdicating for the sake of a little Spaniard” she wrote a friend.