"Anna Christie" was afraid. No, not the character, the movie--the writers and producers. They took the movie to the mountaintop and then pushed it over to a tumbling death.
Anna Christie was played by Greta Garbo. She'd come to New York from St. Paul, Minnesota to rest. You don't know exactly why she needs a rest, but you understand that she'd been under some form of duress.
The first person she met in New York was Marthy (Marie Dressler), a "tramp" and a drunkard. Marthy was shacking up with Anna's father until he gave her the boot to make way for his daughter. Chris (George F. Marion), Anna's father, hadn't seen his daughter in fifteen years and he wanted to make a good impression on her. He presumed that she was a fine pure girl from St. Paul and he didn't want to be a bad influence.
What we gathered from Anna upon first meeting her was that she hated men. She used a particularly odious cousin as an example and from that we could understand why she would hate men. But as one should know when it comes to Hollywood, she simply hadn't found the right one.
She found the right one one night on her father's coal barge. Chris rescued an Irish sailor named Matt (Charles Bickford) from his capsized vessel.
Matt was a boor of a man. He spoke gruffly, boasted of his fighting ability, and had no manners. It was a wonder what Anna saw in him except that opposites attract. He was rude and abrasive to everyone, even Anna. He was especially disrespectful to Anna's father, which seemed counterintuitive to me. After all, he did want to marry his daughter.
Things came to a head when Chris and Matt were arguing over Anna and quite literally pulling her in different directions. It was an ugly scene and it showed just what value men placed upon women; even the ones they love. Anna had enough. She sat both of them down and then let them have it.
I hadn't heard a verbal undressing like Anna's since Pansy Gray (Ruth Chatterton) told off her husband in "Anybody's Woman." It was a thing of beauty. Strangely (or maybe not), working class women are the best at putting men in their place. High society women tend to be too proper and sophisticated to tell off the misguided men in their lives, whereas the women from the street who had it rough have all the verbal tools necessary to spar with the arrogant and hypocritical men they encounter.
Anna told both men something they certainly didn't want to hear. She told them that after she was sexually abused by her cousin she turned to prostitution to take care of herself. The reaction of the men was as if they'd been stabbed through the heart. Chris was more apologetic because he was the father that left her to be raised by extended family. He was an absent father for no good reason other than he was a sailor. She heaped as much guilt on him as she possibly could and made him hear it all.
Matt was furious because he was in love with a woman who'd sexually been with so many. There wasn't as much to get on his case about except to see if he was being honest about wanting to marry her no matter what.
Both men chose alcohol to escape their pain which was laughable. Here it is Anna had suffered and these two men behaved as though they endured what she endured.
Chumps.
To this point "Anna Christie" was firing on all cylinders. She told both men what they didn't want to hear and they both chose to run. When her father came back he told her he signed up to sail on a ship to Cape Town. Again he was bailing on her. Anna took it in stride, though she was clearly exasperated.
Matt came back and said he also signed up to sail to Cape Town, but get this: he'd forgive and forget all of her past so long as she swore on the cross that she didn't love anyone but him, and that she didn't love those other men.
Now, this is where "Anna Christie" tumbled and fell.
She did as Matt requested.
Instead of telling Matt he can shove his oath requests right up his arse, she honored them. It was actually quite bizarre as well as disappointing. One moment Anna was fed up with the world and certainly fed up with the two men in her life, and the next moment she was a little lamb swearing to God that she only loved Matt just so she could keep him in her life. At one point she was holding all the cards, and the next moment she was folding.
I don't begrudge Anna wanting Matt and his love because deep down everyone wants to be loved no matter how hard boiled they may seem. It was a downer to see what extent she went to hold on to Matt. It was very telling that he made her swear to loving him and him only. I truly thought, based upon what she had shown so far, that she would take great offense to such a suggestion and tell him to kick rocks. If he can't believe her when she says she loves him, then what can he believe? She had already bore her soul and told him things she didn't have to disclose, yet he wanted her to swear she loved him and no one else. Then, he even had the nerve to balk at her swearing because she wasn't Catholic.
Once he reluctantly accepted her oath she was all smiles. It was as if she didn't go through the most painful event in her life only a few hours before. The behavior was very incongruous. It didn't seem to match Anna's character at all up to that point and it certainly didn't match the apparent theme.
Based upon how Anna had been treated and done by men specifically, and based upon Anna's overall attitude towards men, it made sense that Matt, not Anna, would have to prove his love. It would've made sense for Matt to have to swear to Anna that he loved her and wouldn't mistreat her. Instead, we got the opposite which I thought was a huge swing and a miss on the part of the writers.
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Anna Christie was played by Greta Garbo. She'd come to New York from St. Paul, Minnesota to rest. You don't know exactly why she needs a rest, but you understand that she'd been under some form of duress.
The first person she met in New York was Marthy (Marie Dressler), a "tramp" and a drunkard. Marthy was shacking up with Anna's father until he gave her the boot to make way for his daughter. Chris (George F. Marion), Anna's father, hadn't seen his daughter in fifteen years and he wanted to make a good impression on her. He presumed that she was a fine pure girl from St. Paul and he didn't want to be a bad influence.
What we gathered from Anna upon first meeting her was that she hated men. She used a particularly odious cousin as an example and from that we could understand why she would hate men. But as one should know when it comes to Hollywood, she simply hadn't found the right one.
She found the right one one night on her father's coal barge. Chris rescued an Irish sailor named Matt (Charles Bickford) from his capsized vessel.
Matt was a boor of a man. He spoke gruffly, boasted of his fighting ability, and had no manners. It was a wonder what Anna saw in him except that opposites attract. He was rude and abrasive to everyone, even Anna. He was especially disrespectful to Anna's father, which seemed counterintuitive to me. After all, he did want to marry his daughter.
Things came to a head when Chris and Matt were arguing over Anna and quite literally pulling her in different directions. It was an ugly scene and it showed just what value men placed upon women; even the ones they love. Anna had enough. She sat both of them down and then let them have it.
I hadn't heard a verbal undressing like Anna's since Pansy Gray (Ruth Chatterton) told off her husband in "Anybody's Woman." It was a thing of beauty. Strangely (or maybe not), working class women are the best at putting men in their place. High society women tend to be too proper and sophisticated to tell off the misguided men in their lives, whereas the women from the street who had it rough have all the verbal tools necessary to spar with the arrogant and hypocritical men they encounter.
Anna told both men something they certainly didn't want to hear. She told them that after she was sexually abused by her cousin she turned to prostitution to take care of herself. The reaction of the men was as if they'd been stabbed through the heart. Chris was more apologetic because he was the father that left her to be raised by extended family. He was an absent father for no good reason other than he was a sailor. She heaped as much guilt on him as she possibly could and made him hear it all.
Matt was furious because he was in love with a woman who'd sexually been with so many. There wasn't as much to get on his case about except to see if he was being honest about wanting to marry her no matter what.
Both men chose alcohol to escape their pain which was laughable. Here it is Anna had suffered and these two men behaved as though they endured what she endured.
Chumps.
To this point "Anna Christie" was firing on all cylinders. She told both men what they didn't want to hear and they both chose to run. When her father came back he told her he signed up to sail on a ship to Cape Town. Again he was bailing on her. Anna took it in stride, though she was clearly exasperated.
Matt came back and said he also signed up to sail to Cape Town, but get this: he'd forgive and forget all of her past so long as she swore on the cross that she didn't love anyone but him, and that she didn't love those other men.
Now, this is where "Anna Christie" tumbled and fell.
She did as Matt requested.
Instead of telling Matt he can shove his oath requests right up his arse, she honored them. It was actually quite bizarre as well as disappointing. One moment Anna was fed up with the world and certainly fed up with the two men in her life, and the next moment she was a little lamb swearing to God that she only loved Matt just so she could keep him in her life. At one point she was holding all the cards, and the next moment she was folding.
I don't begrudge Anna wanting Matt and his love because deep down everyone wants to be loved no matter how hard boiled they may seem. It was a downer to see what extent she went to hold on to Matt. It was very telling that he made her swear to loving him and him only. I truly thought, based upon what she had shown so far, that she would take great offense to such a suggestion and tell him to kick rocks. If he can't believe her when she says she loves him, then what can he believe? She had already bore her soul and told him things she didn't have to disclose, yet he wanted her to swear she loved him and no one else. Then, he even had the nerve to balk at her swearing because she wasn't Catholic.
Once he reluctantly accepted her oath she was all smiles. It was as if she didn't go through the most painful event in her life only a few hours before. The behavior was very incongruous. It didn't seem to match Anna's character at all up to that point and it certainly didn't match the apparent theme.
Based upon how Anna had been treated and done by men specifically, and based upon Anna's overall attitude towards men, it made sense that Matt, not Anna, would have to prove his love. It would've made sense for Matt to have to swear to Anna that he loved her and wouldn't mistreat her. Instead, we got the opposite which I thought was a huge swing and a miss on the part of the writers.
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