As you wish me

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Movie
German title As you wish me
Original title As You Desire Me
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 71 minutes
Rod
Director George Fitzmaurice
script George Markey
production Paul Bern for MGM
music Herbert Stothart
camera William H. Daniels
cut George Hively
occupation

How do you want me (OT: As You Desire Me ) is an American feature film by George Fitzmaurice with Greta Garbo in the lead role. The film is loosely based on the play So ist es by Luigi Pirandello and was brought into national distribution on June 2, 1932.

action

The singer Zara worked in a nightclub in Budapest shortly after the First World War . Zara is known for its beauty and is admired and desired by the male visitors. She lives with the writer Salter, who torments her and exploits her emotionally. He draws some of his artistic inspiration from their relationship. Zara is becoming increasingly addicted to alcohol. Salter had met Zara a few years ago in Italy, where the young woman, suffering from amnesia due to traumatic war experiences , lived in disorder.

One day Toni appears on behalf of his friend, the Italian Count Varelli, in a performance of Zara. Varelli believes he recognizes his wife Maria, who has been missing since the war. Zara seems to vaguely remember Varelli. Toni asks Zara to return to Italy with him. Salter tries by all means to prevent Zara from regaining her memory. Finally, Zara, who is more and more convinced that she is really Maria, leaves her mentor and follows Toni.

In Italy, the count and the supposed countess are trying to reconstruct the lost time together. Again and again Zara / Maria doubts her identity and even the advice of well-meaning friends cannot help her to discover who she really is. In the end, she wants to leave the Count as she is unsure of the actual circumstances that led to her loss of memory. After much discussion, however, Zara / Maria realizes that the love for Count Varelli is stronger than any doubt about one's own identity. Even Salter's sudden appearance in Italy and his attempt to win Maria back through an intrigue can no longer influence Maria. Maria and Varelli try to start a new life together and leave the shadows of the past behind.

background

At the express request of Greta Garbo , Erich von Stroheim was engaged for the role of the despotic Salter. The actress had known von Stroheim since 1926 and was very familiar with his work. Like the films by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau , she valued Stroheim's films as artistic masterpieces. In her last extensive interview in 1929, she told the New York Times that she wanted to appear as Joan of Arc under the direction of Stroheims.

Against Thalberg and Mayer's wishes, Stroheim was signed for $ 1,500 a week. Stroheim was in poor health and often stayed away from filming. Garbo therefore always put her own indispositions on the same days. So Stroheim got no trouble with the studio. He himself claimed that his role as the jealous impresario was based on the character of Ferenc Molnár , a well-known author of pre-war Europe. Quite a few critics saw the interplay between Garbo and Stroheim as a more or less subtle parody of the relationship between Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg, which was already known at the time . After Norma Shearer , Garbo's only competitor at MGM, starred in the film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude earlier in the year , Garbo pushed for a prestige role as well. On the one hand, choosing Pirandello was quite risky, as his pieces were little known in America. On the other hand, with a renowned European author, an explicitly European setting and the Swedish Hollywood star, several factors came together that fit together.

It was the last film under Garbo's current contract and it was questionable whether the actress would ever film in Hollywood again. The studio left the public in the dark about further plans and launched the film semi-officially as Garbo's farewell performance. In great secrecy, however, Garbo signed a new, financially lucrative contract shortly after the shooting.

Theatrical release

With a production cost of $ 450,000, the film was roughly the MGM average. It was reasonably successful at the box office, grossing $ 705,000 domestically and another $ 658,000 elsewhere for a total of $ 1,362,000. The studio was able to realize a profit of 470,000 US dollars in the end. Against the background of the worsening global economic crisis and given the not very commercial issue of amnesia and identity, that was a more than acceptable result.

criticism

Most of the critics were taken with Garbo's portrayal. The New York Times was particularly benevolent:

"If Greta Garbo's portrayal in" Wie Du Mich Wünschst "is her farewell performance on the American screen, then the talented Swedish actress has the satisfaction of leaving MGM Studios in triumph. Her acting is as brilliant as anything she has offered in her long list of film roles. "

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ If Greta Garbo's portrayal in [...] "As You Desire Me," is her valedictory to the American screen, then the talented Swedish player has the satisfaction of leaving the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in a blaze of glory. For her acting [...] is as brilliant as anything she has accomplished in her long list of film roles.