User Reviews

This film brought to mind our own encounter with the elusive Ms. Garbo one afternoon as we held the door open for her at the 59th St. entrance of Bloomingdale's. Ms. Garbo could be seen around her East Side neighborhood, where people didn't even stare at her out of respect of her privacy! Manhattan in the 50s, 60s and even 70s had a lot of antique dealers on 3rd. Ave. and Ms. Garbo was a constant figure browsing those stores. Greta Garbo, the once silver screen goddess, lived a modest life in Manhattan. Her trade mark was the shade of lipstick she always wore and the camel hair coat one saw on her, until in later years when she adopted a brown duffle coat whenever she went out.

Sidney Lumet's film pays homage to that fleeting figure. The mysterious woman is at the center of a film that perhaps is not so much about the mythical figure, as much as the allure of what she stood for.

The story of the terminally ill Estelle Rolfe is a sweet account in how her loving son Gilbert tries to bring the illusion of the movies to his dying mother. The movie shows to what lengths Gilbert goes to grant Estelle a moment with the person she most admired, the actress Greta Garbo. Estelle was a fan, but more than that, she was a no nonsense lady who championed righteousness above all.

Anne Bancroft was born to play Estelle. Ms. Bancroft knew this woman and her portrayal benefits from the way she plays her. As the son, Ron Silver is good. He will go to whatever extreme to please his mother. Carrie Fisher is Lisa, the California girl married to Gilbert who doesn't want to stay in New York. Veteran actors like Howard Da Silva, Stephen Hill, Herminone Gingold, Dorothy Loudon, Harvey Fierstein are seen in the film in supporting parts.

"Garbo Talks" is not one of Sidney Lumet's best movies, but still, one gets the feeling what it is to live in New York with this tale about the celluloid meeting reality in Manhattan.

Imagine you knew that your life were about to end... What would you fill your last days with?

Melancholic and difficult as it may seem, we sometimes tend to occupy our minds with such dilemmas. But this is not as hard as it occurs to be. Rather than thoughts, reflections and grieving atmosphere, these days occur to be precious and simple for the main character of GARBO TALKS where the silver screen legend is, again, not left alone and says her powerful lines... This time, however, she does so at the bedside of her dying fan.

Estelle Rolfe (Anne Bancroft), a mother, a divorced wife, a vivid and an energetic middle-aged woman is told by the doctors of brain tumor. Not much time is left for her...What does she do? What does she dream of? This dream appears to be so eccentric, so peculiar, so unique: she desires to meet Greta Garbo, the celebrity she has always admired and whose roles have always been deeply associated with her private life events. Estelle asks her son, Gilbert (Ron Silver), whom she named after Garbo's most popular co-star John Gilbert, to find the celebrity near her famous New York apartment. Although it seems ridiculous to him, the love to his mother will prompt Gilbert to achieve the impossible...

Despite the fact that the content of the movie seems, at first sight, to be a little bit subjective and the action quite predictable, GARBO TALKS offers a very pleasant and a creative insight into a 'different personality' and her unique determination. The whole film together with its humorous moments as well as some affectionate images, becomes a complex study of being a celebrity fan, of the illusive world created by idolatry and its consequences in REAL LIFE, which is the one and the only and which has always been quite different and should be apart from screen stories. Moreover, this illusive world 'infects' her son. The various characters who come and go are, as if, perceived through the subjective eyes of Gilbert, they are all less important than Gilbert's supreme goal: fulfill his mother's wish. As a result, we can say that GARBO TALKS is a beautiful development of son's love. In that way, it is neither Gilbert nor Estelle who is in the lead. It is rather a mother-son relation that appears to be at the core.

The performances are worth attention, yet, there should be a particular mention about one portrayal and one actress. It is Anne Bancroft as a peculiar woman, a difficult woman, a strange personality who lives within the four walls of her specific world, yet who does not lose contact with the outer world perceiving it, however, from her own perspective. In scenes galore, Ms Bancroft shines as witty, fluent, determined, spontaneous and quite eccentric. Without her marvelous acting, the film would be pretty pathetic. Ron Silver does a good job as her loving son Gilbert, especially in the indefatigable quest for Garbo and in his scenes with Angelo Dokakis. Nevertheless, it is throughout Ms Bancroft who is at the focus of attention: we empathize with her, cry with her, laugh with her...she also drives us crazy...

According to some curious notes, director Sidney Lumet asked Greta Garbo to appear on screen again, after all these years, as herself. Unfortunately, there was no response and, consequently, it is Betty Comden whom we see in the role of the Swedish Sphinx. Greta Garbo died in 1990, six years after the premiere of this film. No one knows if she ever saw this film...

GARBO TALKS is a nice film about determination, dreams, inner world, celebrity adoration and, foremost, about the nostalgia for a world that seems gone, for a world that seems lost. GARBO TALKS is, finally, a pleasant fantasy which says that the unbelievable may become the reality. Why? Seemingly to console us, to make us happy just for a moment...not to be alone with oneself...

...playing an extremely feisty lady living in NYC who simply doesn't take anyone's stuff-for example, when construction guys yell obscenities to passing women, she gets up on a lift and confronts the guys, "Ok, who here has the electric tongue? Is it plug in or batteries?" She is a Garbo fanatic, presumably enchanted by Garbo's independent nature, crying at her films playing on TV.

Her suffering adult son Gilbert (Ron Silver) has to routinely bail her from jail, take daily humiliation at work and deal with his complaining wife, uncharacteristically played by cutie Carrie Fisher.

Add to that, Mom is diagnosed with inoperable brain tumor. Her dying wish is to meet Greta Garbo, whom we all know at the time lived in NYC. For anyone who remembers NYC in the 80's, it was a big deal to have a "Garbo Sighting" and better yet-a snap photo.

All this sets up the episodic story of Gilbert's goal to find Garbo. It was very cute, although the story flow was kind of uneven. Some "episodes" in his quest were funny, some poignant, some too long and others too short for my liking.

Overall, it was worth a view for the enjoyable performances, especially Bancroft who obviously had fun doing it. Catherine Hicks is also a standout, as a struggling actress working at the same dull accounting firm as Gilbert. Harvey Fierstein's segment was way too short, he's a powerhouse (as usual) in his vignette.

The music however was the absolute worst. It's dated, inappropriate and goofy. Leonard Maltin's two sentence comment actually mentions the horrible soundtrack. Never underestimate the power of music in film!

A beautiful, simple little movie about the love between a mother and her son.

I saw this many years ago, and when I finally found a copy on VCR, snapped it up for my mom... It's now her very favorite movie and gets watched (and recited-along-with!) on a regular basis. It's made her quite the belle of the ball, with all of her friends dying to borrow it!

If your mom likes movies from the 40s, and loved Steel Magnolias, get her this and watch it together.

And if either of you can sit through the scene where Gilbert confronts his mother's idol without crying at the sweetness of the exchange, the panic and vulnerability in his whole being, you're tougher than we are!

Lovely!

The story of a dying woman's last request is to meet her favorite film actress. It wouldn't be problem but the actress is Greta Garbo who has remained in seclusion for years since her retirement from the film industry. Anne Bancroft plays the dying mother and Ron Silver plays her son. The rest of the cast includes Harvey Fierstein as what else a gay New Yorker, Liz Smith, Denny Dillon, Steven Hill, and others that are well-known in New York City. Anne Bancroft's performance is really something to watch in this film. You want what she wants. In a way, the film is more about her than her son who wants to please his dying mother and grant her one wish even if it's almost impossible. Greta Garbo's legacy and her reclusion in New York City life reads like a great fiction novel but it's true. Garbo who was one of the most famous of her generation didn't hide but didn't promote herself shamelessly and she didn't even make the movie. But it must be a compliment that so many of her fans still remember her fondly.

A painfully protracted, maudlin and predictable drama, my twenty-fifth Sidney Lumet film, Garbo Talks, gets filed precipitously on the low quality end of my quest.

The film documents a harried young working man named Gilbert (Ron Silver), who is son to Estelle Rolle (Anne Bancroft), eccentric, feisty and above all, an obsessive fan of Greta Garbo. When Estelle becomes afflicted with a brain tumor, her son decides to go on an obsessive quest of his own: track down Greta Garbo, and bring her to his mother.

Anne Bancroft is in full-on, chew-the-scenery Auntie-Mame mode here, that kind of feisty ol' gal that film loves, where she mouths off to people, and stands up for her ideals, and ends up in jail all the time. She stands outside of the film as an obvious artificial construct, and every scene with her is yuk-yuk lame; every note striking false. The rest of the characters are equally as one-dimensional, but tremendously less-interesting. Ron Silver is flat as can be, and his attempted love triangle is as telegraphed as anything else in the film: He is dating affluent Lisa Rolfe (Carrie Fisher), but becomes smitten with oddball co-worker Jane Mortimer (Catherine Hicks), and I called every scene three scenes before they happen.

That's the other problem. One-dimensional characters can survive if they are posited in an intriguing and captivating story, but there's simply nothing here. The film's pace is glacial, resplendent with extraneous material that strengthens absolutely nothing, and when the film does begin to follow a linear plot, it's both plodding and uninteresting. There are plenty of guest stars, so to speak, including Harvey Fierstein as a gay New Yorker (imagine that) in yet another highly inessential scene.

Late in the film, it attempts to make a halfway-decent statement on the nature of idolatry and its role in our lives, but by that time, none of the characters exist as real people, and the film had bored me into submission, so it functions as a case of far-too-little, far-too-late. The film is my twenty-fifth Lumet-directed film, making him easily my most-viewed director, but outside of a couple egregious misses (A Stranger Among Us, anyone?), he hasn't plumbed the painfully uninteresting depths of Garbo Talks.

{Grade: 4.5/10 (C/C-) / #21 (of 24) of 1984 / #23 of 25 Lumet films}

This is not a film about Greta Garbo, and La Garbo isn't in the movie, not really. Moreover, from a writer's perspective, Greta Garbo could have been any quest that we seek with sincerity and purity of intention. But in this case it is Garbo, and her mystique permeates this film through her haunting absence, which lends Garbo Talks its beautiful sense of longing.

Anne Bancroft gives a tour de force performance as the dying mother who never stops championing her causes, and wishes only one thing; to meet Garbo before she dies. Ron Silver is her put upon son who sacrifices everything, including his marriage to a hilariously unsympathetic Carrie Fisher to give his mother her dying wish.

Hermione Gingold is utterly side splitting as one of the improbable steps in young Gilbert's search for the elusive Garbo. Harvey Fierstein is brilliant in his understated portrayal of a gay man Gilbert meets on the ferry to Fire Island, where he hopes to find Garbo at her retreat.

Garbo is played by the incomparable Betty Comden, seven time Tony Award winning composer who co-wrote such classics as Singin' in the Rain, Auntie Mame, Bells are Ringing, and the Barkley's of Broadway.

There is a scene, late in the movie, where Bancroft is delivering a soliloquy, which stands as one of my favorite moments in film. Sally Field should have given her Oscar that year to Bancroft. It is only then, in her emotional epiphany, that Ms. Bancroft reveals the delicate yet powerful theme of the film. It was never about Garbo. She was merely a symbol of the quest to find a unifying thread that gives meaning to a life remembered. The buildup may be tauntingly slow, but the payoff is astounding.

Why do I love this movie? It's about a feeling, a mood, a tone, owing in large part to Sidney Lumet's light yet masterful touch. The lyrical pace and the glorious ending are movie art, floating as gentle as a cloud above the din of its heavy handed contemporaries.

Here is a cute, under-the-top little small-fry could be the minorest of Lumet's minor works, but in some way like 84 Charing Cross Road, which this film's star would tackle a few years later, it is its benign slightness that is its own charm. Anne Bancroft is so good as the anarchically rational Estelle Rolfe in this movie, that there are literally moments when nothing else matters to us, or the film, but what she's saying or doing, how she's saying it and how she's doing it. Estelle isn't afraid to spend time in the clink over grocery prices, makes a scene at one point embarrassing construction workers by scolding them for jeering passing women, and won't go to her dutiful son Gilbert's wedding if it means being a protest scab. She also worships films starring Greta Garbo, whose move from silent films to her first talkie made lots of racket in advertisements with the eponymous slogan. When Estelle discovers she has a brain tumor and six months left of life, which she lives ebulliently, she concludes that she must meet Garbo. Ron Silver plays Gilbert, a Manhattan accountant Estelle even named for Garbo's frequent co-star, feels compelled to satisfy his mother's last hope in spite of Garbo's famous devotion to privacy.

Lumet benefits from the sharpening of his comic touch a decade earlier with Murder on the Orient Express. Thusly, he employs unusual color schemes for comic effect. Similar to that earlier film, a major element is evoking a nostalgia for the past. This later film is merely a more straightforward version of the pining for magic and theatrics of the 1920s and '30s in which his 1974 Agatha Christie adaptation is steeped.

In an inspired serio-comic visual sequence of steps, Silver must laboriously forge his way through the flea market toward his darling mother's slippery dream, unable here to advance in a simple straight line but constrained ultimately to hazard consequences, to go around various stratums of humanity, to confront life's incessant chances and bolts from the blue instead of finding his footing in his habituated refuge.

Somewhat considering Carrie Fisher an exception, the performances are all great. There are genuinely very funny scenes owing largely to performances. Ron Silver is perfectly understated in a way that adds a level of dry deadpan to the humor of a scene. After Kelly Preston's hilariously timed story of promiscuity in the elevator, Silver's reaction when they reach their floor, and especially the cut to the next scene in the cafeteria, where he latches on her every word and bite over lunch, is priceless.

There is hardly a difference in the approach that the estimable Anne Bancroft takes as the incorrigible Estelle Rolfe in this sentimental 1984 comedy versus what she did three years later as the equally feisty Helene Hanff in David Jones' "84 Charing Cross Road". Somehow, this fine actress can take what may appear to be a caricature on paper and infuse it with her special blend of warmth and moxie to make the characters come alive. Just as it was Helene's love of antiquarian books that drove the story of the later film, it is Esther's adoration of screen legend Greta Garbo that drives this movie. Perpetually jailed for her overzealous liberal activism, Esther discovers she has a malignant brain tumor and asks her son Gilbert to help her fulfill her last wish - to meet Garbo.

The movie focuses on Gilbert's relentless search for the reclusive actress, while confronting his marital problems and developing a burgeoning interest in a struggling actress. As a director hardly known for his deftness with comedy, Sidney Lumet guides this talky venture with a melancholy lugubriousness that makes it feel longer than its 103-minute running time. Written by TV-movie writer Larry Grusin, the story plods along with Gilbert meeting several eccentric characters along the way - a bedraggled paparazzo in pursuit of Garbo for years (Howard Da Silva in his final role), his lunatic cat-lady agent (Broadway veteran Dorothy Loudon), a senile actress who worked with Garbo once (Hermoine Gingold in her final role), and a lonely gay man on the Fire Island ferry (Harvey Fierstein who overplays the tear-jerking aspect of his cameo).

Garbo (who would have been nearly eighty at the time of filming) does finally show up in the story - sort of - from the back and is embodied by legendary Broadway songwriter Betty Comden. This gives rise to a nicely performed monologue scene with Bancroft. There is another good one with Steven Hill, who plays Estelle's frustrated ex-husband. It would have been absurd to expect the real Garbo to show up, but one can't help but have a glimmer of hope throughout that it could have happened. Ron Silver plays Gilbert sympathetically if rather too glumly to maintain interest in his character's plight. As the aspiring actress, Catherine Hicks ("Seventh Heaven") pops in and out of the story to twinkle and inspire Gilbert. Just finished with the "Star Wars" trilogy, Carrie Fisher effectively plays an entirely different princess as Gilbert's wife Lisa, the Long Island variety by way of California. The 2004 DVD offers no extras.

Anne Bancroft plays Estelle, a dying Jewish mother who asks her devoted son (Ron Silver) to locate reclusive one-time movie star Greta Garbo and introduce the two before Estelle checks out for good. Might've been entitled "Bancroft Talks" as the actress assaults this uncertain comedic/dramatic/sentimental material for its duration. Hot-or-cold director Sidney Lumet can't get a consistent rhythm going, and Bancroft's constant overacting isn't scaled back at all by the filmmaker--he keeps her right upfront: cute, teary-eyed and ranting. Estelle becomes a drag on this scenario (not that the thinly-conceived plot has much going on besides). Silver and co-stars Carrie Fisher and Catherine Hicks end up with very little to do but support the star, and everyone is trampled by her hamming. *1/2 from ****

I can't add too much to the other reviews. We have a devoted son trying to fulfill his mother's wish, and he goes to extremes in order to fulfill it, all the while trying to unknowingly fulfill his own.

I saw this film when it was first released, and was just astounded as to its simple form. It was heart warming and heart wrenching all at once, though I didn't feel it at the time, but admired its simplicity in form. This is the kind of film making they simply don't do anymore. The shots are basic, functional, non-energetic, and do their job. No steadicam work, no overhead remote wire work, nor sweeping helicopter shots. And for that matter there's no wit filled dialogue. No excessive use of foul language. No explosions, gunshots nor car chases. No phony and juvenile romantic moments. No fake intimacy. No fabricated outlandish scenarios. No pre-teen raunch jokes and humor. None of that.

It's the way movies used to be. The movie going audience was different back then. More mature. More adult. More willing to behave themselves and take life seriously but also acknowledge a time and place to have fun. They were also smarter when it came to the human condition. They weren't raised on fast food cinema with superheros gallivanting around CGI worlds. It was a different time. A different place. It's what going to the movies used to be like.

And that's who this film is for. For those people, the movie audience of yesterday, who didn't mind taking in a matinée to see a romance or detective story on the screen. The kind of movie goer who wasn't waiting to be wowed by the next big breakthrough in special effects, CGI and other technical wizardry. They went for the actors and story.

And those are the kind of films Greta Garbo was in. Oh sure, she was beautiful to be sure, but she was also an actress with reclusive tendencies--a quirk that made her legendary among her comeliness and presence on screen. People thought she was beautiful, and then her natural character was captured via lens and film to relay to the movie going audience of the 30s and 40s. People fell in love with her, her characters, her performances, and her films.

In this film we bring all those elements together to form a compound for the classic movie lover who lived in the 80s. For anyone who loves their mother, for anyone who loves classic films, for anyone with a misled faith in Hollywood endings, such as I and many others, this film is for you.

I haven't seen it since it was first released. And it was a pleasure to see it again.

Check it out.

With a premise of a dying woman's last wish to meet Greta Garbo, you'd think the movie would be heavy and sad. It's very tricky to make a comedy about dying, but Larry Grusin certainly tried to write one. The vast majority of this movie, with the exception of about five minutes, attempts to be a light movie full of laughs. I know that tactic will work for a lot of people, but it doesn't work for me. People who have never lost a loved one might enjoy seeing Anne Bancroft keep her sense of humor during her darkest moments, but those with sadness in their hearts might be put off by the forced witticisms. Anne's response to learning she might lose her hair in chemotherapy: "I just had it dyed."

Anne Bancroft isn't responsible for the script, and she does the best she can with the lines she's given. Given the character, she does an excellent job. Her son, Ron Silver, also does a good job, fully blossoming in the final half hour when his search brings him closer as time runs out. The final part of the movie is very enjoyable, because the humor finally dissipates. While most people in the world are afraid of death and would prefer any distraction to facing it, I think most people will really enjoy this movie. It gives you over an hour of gags and timing gimmicks to distract yourself from Anne's impending doom.

While Anne's wish is to meet Greta Garbo before she dies, her son goes on a quest to fulfil it. If you are a modern kid and have no idea who Greta Garbo is, you can still appreciate the movie. You'll get to see glamorous photographs during the opening credits, as well as snippets from Camille and Ninotchka during the movie. Ron goes to a movie theater and watches an old flick, enjoying the screen presence that had his mother captivated her whole life, but that scene didn't warm my heart. I understand the script makes Ron spend the last few months of his mother's life on a wild goose chase, but I couldn't help but worry about him if he were a real person. All I noticed was the enormous amount of time he spent away from his mother, time he would want back after she's gone and that she would have appreciated spent with him. She's shown alone in a hospital room during several scenes, reading, watching tv, and listening to music. A hospital room is a cold, lonely, scary place. Wouldn't she prefer her son spending time with her, reading to her, holding her hand while watching tv, and talking while they listen to music, rather than running around New York City and going to the movie theaters by himself? Meeting new people, getting fresh air, traveling, and learning that other people have pain are all things that could help him during his grief, not take away precious time he has left with his mother.

You understand why I didn't like most of the movie, but if this type of movie appeals to you, chances are you'll like it. You'll get to see a great Anne Bancroft performance, and it's always a nice addition to a story to pay tribute to the silver screen.

Anne Bancroft, in the film Garbo Talks, experiences what many film fans can only dream of, meeting their idol. As Estelle Rolfe fades, we see her son Gilbert grow, helped along by his quest to find the mysterious Greta Garbo before his mother dies.

This film, while not great, is a great film if you are a Garbo fan. Listening to Estelle tell Garbo of all the big moments of her life and how each were punctuated by one of Garbo's films, is a testament to the power film can have.

Gilbert Rolfe (Ron Silver) is a pushover at work. His mother Estelle (Anne Bancroft) is an opinionated crusader who frustrates him. His wife Lisa (Carrie Fisher) tries to get him to work for her parents but he refuses. Jane Mortimer (Catherine Hicks) is his flirtatious co-worker. His father Walter (Steven Hill) divorced Estelle long ago after tiring of her relentlessness. Then she's told by the doctor that she has 4 to 6 months to live. She's a Greta Garbo fan and wishes to meet her. He decides to do all he can to talk to the reclusive Garbo.

This is set up for a fun comedy. I can see the movie is trying to do a comedy. However it soon becomes obvious that the comedy isn't hitting right. I think Anne Bancroft tries her best but Ron Silver is no comedian. He can't make it work. It also isn't much of a drama. It's obvious from the start that Gilbert will learn from his experience and stop being a pushover. Everything in between falls flat except for Bancroft. She's great.

Anne Bancroft has one of my favorite "renowned actress who really wants a great part" stories regarding this movie. She wanted the role, but Sidney Lumet wasn't going to give it to her. He'd just seen one of her husband's (Mel Brooks) lesser known, but still good movies, "To Be or Not To Be," and told her he was looking for someone older, less glamorous, less beautiful.

And she said, "Look, in that movie, I was carefully photographed, I was lovingly lit, and I was sleeping with the producer!"

So she got the part. And did such a good job.

Garbo Talks is a movie I remember appreciating when I saw it in 1985 on HBO. I didn't know much about Greta Garbo but it was a cute premise that had potential. Anne Bancroft has always been charming and I liked Ron Silver as the put-upon Gilbert. It gave me good memories. That's pretty much what I remembered.

Recently, I watched an EXCELLENT documentary on Garbo, explaining her life before, during and after stardom. And how her ironclad disappearance and steadfast decision to stay away from the spotlight for the rest of her life may have been sad to us mortals, but she earned the right to live her life as she saw fit. And that distance should have been respected. It rekindled thoughts of this movie due to the fact it is named, "Garbo Talks", so I sought it out on DVD these decades later, even though I knew it wasn't her actually involved with the project. Sometimes, we should leave old memories in the past...

This is basically a movie about an unbearable caricature of a "New Yawk" of a mother demanding her low-self-esteemed son stalk a private citizen and require the decidedly-anti-public screen legend come visit her in the hospital as her one and only dying wish. Yes, that's the plot in a nutshell.

I won't give away the ending but let me say - Anne Bancroft... she did better work in better movies. I will say this movie does have some charms in specific scenes. The supporting characters Gilbert meets along his quest to find Garbo are very adorable and worth watching to see. I kinda fell in love with both the old photographer and Harvey Fierstein, both worth the price of admission. And Ron Silver, who grew up to play lots of heavies and low-lifes in future movies, comes across as genuinely loving son and wants to do the right thing by his battle-axe mother.

But, in the end, I just felt this movie was a product of it's time cashing in on the carefully cultivated and notoriously shy persona of a legend who literally wanted to be left alone in NO uncertain terms. So what does the director do? Not only did he get a resounding silence of a response from anyone who knew Garbo about actually APPEARING in a movie that quite literally ripped off Garbo's name to sell tickets... But they actually had a STAND-IN playing Garbo (and "Garbo Talks" is not true at all - it wasn't Garbo in the first place - minor spoiler only if you didn't read the credits on telling you it's a stand-in) so any resemblance of coming full circle with actual truth is a figment of the audience's imagination.

The last thing I will state about this travesty is this: Greta Garbo's personal life at the time this movie was created was completely shown in such great detail, including but not limited to her ACTUAL building AND apartment number in New York City, favorite vacation locations down to the exact houses she stayed, her food preferences, her walks into New York antique stores and flea markets.... her ENTIRE personal life was on screen. And Greta was STILL ALIVE when this was filmed.

Honestly. Let's put aside the genuinely honest, safe fans like you and I who really loved Garbo and would do anything possible to keep her safe and love her from the distance. But think of the reckless propaganda given to crackpots and harmful nuts in the public to potentially endanger a very shy, ultra-private citizen. It is known Garbo would occasionally visit her movies in disguise. Any opinion on whether she would have visited a showing of a movie literally named after her most famous ad campaign in 1931? The panic that poor woman must have felt of watching her entire life on screen and nothing she could do to feel safe again... My heart breaks for the Great Garbo. She deserved soooooo much better.

If you saw this movie in 1984-85 in it's original run, please try to remember it for what it was. In 2020 and beyond, if you want to know about Greta Garbo, watch one of her AWESOME older movies - Flesh And The Devil, Anna Karenina, Queen Christina, Grand Hotel... and if you wanna hear the ORIGINAL movie that was advertised as "Garbo Talks!" in 1931, watch Anna Christie. Hearing Greta Garbo's actual lustful, husky, beautiful voice for the first time versus listening to Anne Bancroft robbing the lines at every turn so we CAN'T hear Garbo talk is a travesty. Garbo deserved to be left alone. And SHE was the legend. Movies using her name to sell tickets shouldn't be allowed to share her name at all. Disappointed.

Ron Silver's decision to try and grant his dying mother's wish to meet Greta Garbo becomes an all-consuming obsession in "Garbo Talks" (***1/2). This unusual story touches upon a theme that is seldom explored with much depth in films: the effect the movies or a particular star may have on our entire lives. How many of us have had the experience of watching a golden oldie that evokes a vivid memory of where we were and what our lives were like the very first time we saw it? Most of us, I'll bet. This thought is crystallized in the funny and touching monologue Anne Bancroft delivers in her hospital bed to her idol as she tells Garbo what her films have meant to her during key moments of her life. Ron Silver is effectively low-key as Bancroft's devoted son, and the telling cameos contributed by a great supporting cast playing assorted New York oddballs he meets during his odyssey are a special bonus (Hermione Gingold is a rare hoot). There are a few gaps that could probably have been filled in better between the vignettes (I would have been curious to know how Silver spent his night on Fire Island after missing the last ferry boat), but all-in-all this is a wonderful little sleeper. Those who are tuned into it will know what I mean.

This, as you have guessed, is one miserable little film. Miserable, but leading to a "good for you (the hero)" ending. The misery gets heaped on just as it did for George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life). His marriage destructing and ending, his horrible work situation, the terminal illness of his mother (beautifully paid by Anne Bancroft), and his lack of a "backbone", provide no relief from his lot in life.

I've only watched the film, all the way through, once or twice. The misery is much too intense for me. The wait for something "good" to happen seems to take forever. I prefer to pick up the action after the final hospital scene and assume his misery, instead of experience it repeatedly (much like the way I watch "It's a Wonderful Life"). Identifying with misery is easy, but "Garbo Talks" allows us hope and leaves us on a high note........

PS-- When Garbo does finally "talk" (one sentence), she speaks volumes.......

..."It's not true-- I was arrested last month in Brooklyn; they gave me a sandwich and some cigarettes-- it was Mozzerella Cheese."

This is the response of Estelle Rolffe when she is told,

"They don't give you nothing' in detention, honey."

She's in jail, and she's demanding to know:

"Who do you have to pay off to get a little water around here?"

Her son dutifully comes to pay her bail, and, asks her if it's ever going to stop... "marching for Washington, getting arrested, lying down in front of cars"...? But as Estelle reminds him, "I am who I am, you are who you are." She also says she doesn't mind going to jail for something she believes in. She's a firm believer that if the present generation would be a little more active, she could take it a little more easy. Her son Gilbert, is dominated by a spoiled, pampered wife, who never stops telling him that she wants him to move to California where her parents are. He's pushed around at work and never says a word. And somewhere in the middle of all this is the infamous Greta Garbo. We know Estelle adores her because we are introduced to her when she is crying her eyes out at the end of "Camille"-- possibly Garbo's best known film...

"You can get other opinions, but there's nothing to be done." When Estelle begins having headaches that turn out to be a brain tumor, Gilbert gets the news he must pass on to his mom. "That's an attitude she won't understand," he says. So, Estelle is given the "speech" for a woman who now has but a short time to live, and in response she says just one thing... It's not a last wish... she has a lot more, she's just short on time. Now, Gilbert is spending his lunch hours hunting for biographies and calling obscure phone numbers. In the process, he meets an eccentric, aspiring actress named Jane Mortimer, who adores him because he's so "off center." Estelle loves Garbo possibly even more than she loves Gilbert... What would you do?

When the film was released in 1984, the real Garbo was alive and well, and living in New York (where the film takes place). Many of the "rumoured" details of Garbo's later life are depicted in the story, such as her notorious hatred of photographers, her vacant apartments in the building where she lived, her Swedish maid, and mention that she still has the first nickel she ever made (by a forgotten actress who knew her back in the day). To create a movie centered around a woman still living, right in the city where she lived, must've indeed been a risk; and when you consider that the real Garbo was most famous in later life for her being a recluse, it makes the mystique of the movie greater. Superb performances by Anne Bancroft, Carrie Fisher, and Catherine Hicks, make this film one of my very favorites. The cheesy, 80's violin music in the scenes is way overkill, but under that is an endearing story of an admiration for a mother Gilbert loved, but didn't understand... so he goes on a journey which helps him understand himself better than ever before.

I fell in love with "Garbo Talks" upon my first viewing and I've watched it countless times since, waiting for the cracks to show, the characters to ring false, or for the magic to wear off, yet it never has.

I favor domestic comedies with real relatable people and their daily concerns, and a little romance doesn't hurt, and it's all here delivered by pros like Ron Silver and the incomparable Anne Bancroft. The simplest, sweetest premise: A son wants to fulfill his dying mother's wish. Add the quest for Greta Garbo and an eclectic, perfectly cast group of actors (including two film debuts, (Harvey Fierstein and Dorothy Loudon), and two film farewells (Howard DaSilva and Hermione Gingold), and a very funny, charming script full of hilarious one-liners and you have a classic.