“Garbo talks!”

“Garbo laughs!”

The clichés abound.

“I vant to be alone” Not true, never said.

Nor was MGM’s publicity juggernaut hardly above the fray. As its 1926 publicity release demonstrates:

“Greta Garbo, discovered in stark(?!?) Sweden, is setting the heart of America aflame.”

And yet, behind every cliché is a buried kernel. Greta Garbo did indeed set the heart of America aflame. From her first silent films: The Torrent and The Temptress, both in 1926, Garbo reigned.

Her ability to convey emotion, inner turmoil, through her expression alone, signaled a new style of film acting (mirrored among male actors at the exact same moment by Gary Cooper). Garbo and Cooper were acting from the inside-out, letting their eyes reveal the inner truth. Decades later, this would become known as the Method, but Garbo and Cooper were first out of the starting gate. Which makes the fact that Cooper turned down Ninotchka opposite Garbo even more a shame.

Cooper & Garbo in Ninotchka … now there’s a marquee.

Garbo starred in so many films throughout the twenties and thirties:

Flesh And The Devil

Love

The Kiss

Anna Christie

Mata Hari

Grand Hotel

The Painted Veil

Anna Karenina

Camille

Queen Christina

Ninotchka

Each captures different aspects of her extraordinary screen presence. Yet, it is one of her lesser efforts that allowed Garbo to convey a myriad of emotions – mystery, tragedy, humor. It’s all there in Susan Lenox, Her Fall And Rise. Though perhaps among Garbo’s weaker films, it’s nonetheless a powerful example of her sweeping talent. A talent whose impact is felt very much today.

To fully appreciate Garbo’s impact on today’s actors, catch Charlize Theron’s understated performance in the current The Valley Of Elah. Even when expressing frustration, disgust, outrage, Theron is under control. It’s all happening underneath, out of sight. Only through her eyes and steely expression are we aware of the roiling currents inside her character.

This Sunday, 9/23, at 8 pm, ET, Scott Reisfield discusses his great-aunt’s life and career with ICONS radio hosts, Stephen Bogart and John Mulholland. With personal anecdotes, Greta Garbo comes alive, as artist and woman.