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GILBERT
and GARBO
Adela Rogers St. John wrote that "in the full flower of their romance, Gilbert and Garbo were added by movie fans to the list of immortal lovers, Romeo an3 Juliet, Dante and Beatrice, Anthony and Cleopatra. They portrayed love between man and woman as Shakespeare wrote it in his sonnets to the Dark Lady." They were, indeed, a perfect combination on screen — Garbo, the enigma; Gilbert, the clever and sophisticated boudoir strategist, the one man in the world capable of penetrating the enigma. The scenes between them have the fascination of a duel, erotic tension building between them until the lady's ultimate capitulation, and extending through the afterglow, which lasts for several scenes. Against the stylized absurdities of their backgrounds, and despite the nonsensical plots which brought the two together, Gilbert and Garbo created real romance, an intimacy which belied the fantasy surrounding them.
In this work they were undoubtedly aided by the general knowledge that they were off-screen lovers. Gilbert, who, according to a friend, "had a tendency to overcapitalize romance both on the screen and off," brought enthusiasm and therefore believability to his work in the love scenes. Essentially a troubled, not terribly bright man, he apparently carried a torch for Garbo for many years. She, according to reliable reports, loved him for exactly fourteen days, although twice she seemed on the point of marrying him and was at some pain to extend the relationship on a just-goodfriends basis for quite a while. In 1933, four years after their last silent film together, in the period of Gilbert's decline, she was instrumental in casting him in Queen Christina. partly for sentimental reasons, partly because he was eminently right for the part of her Spanish lover. Gilbert came to their love scenes with his customary ardor. Garbo suggested he tone them down. "Backward, turn backward, 0 Time, in your flight," Gilbert sighed in vain.
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