Inspiration

INSPIRATION is Greta Garbo's third talking picture and less static than "Anna Christie" and "Romance". In 1931 Garbo was at the height of her fame and INSPIRATIION was an expensive MGM production. But now it's an undeservedly obscure Garbo film. The scenes are varied, glamorous and entertaining. You can see clearly it was an expensive production: There are some grand and striking scenes like Garbo and Montgomery in the stairwell, Garbo in the artist studio, the snow scenes, the street scenes at night. Great care was taken with every scene. It's melodrama but there's also some comedy included. (It's very unlike the gloomy "Anna Christie"). Garbo is amazing in this film and very beautiful, from the first scenes when she joins the party, relaxed and smiling - until she sees Montgomery and she realizes what she's missing, till the last scene when she writes the letter. I also like Robert Montgomery here as an introverted man, his acting is great.

I would love to see this film in a theater for maximum impact. Ignore the abysmal reviews by those who are cynical and desire more than fine old-fashioned entertainment. This is true inspiration.

Many (perhaps too many) of Garbo's films are rated primarily on the basis of her performance, with everything else secondary. This is most unfortunate, since MGM - very much to their credit - did not arrange her pictures primarily as star vehicles: the leading men and supporting players are usually strong performers. Considering the fairly large number of pictures in which she starred, her performances do not encompass a wide variety of characterizations: she is typically a woman who has loved well but not wisely (and probably too often), a worldly and world-weary femme fatale preoccupied with the futility of searching for real happiness, yet finding no viable alternative in the life she knows.

This is once again her character in "Inspiration," a relatively obscure Garbo film which compares very favorably with the later and much better-known "Camille." The stories have much in common, as do her performances. While "Camille" obviously had a considerably larger budget, resulting in more impressive production values, the dramatic values in "Inspiration" are at least equal to those of the other.

Of particular note: Garbo, dismissed by her lover, huddles in a storefront, waiting for him to pass on a dark, rainy day - finally emerging when she spots him, only to be rejected once again - without a word - with nothing more than a curt shake of the head as he walks on.

And Lewis Stone, having ended the liason with his young, despairing mistress in an upper apartment, descends the staircase, pauses ever so briefly at the building entrance to note her lifeless body now crumpled on the sidewalk, and continues on his way.

Don't get me wrong. I love both Garbo and Montgomery. They are both very talented and extremely sexy. This film, however, was not. As the previous poster has said, there is NO chemistry between the 2 stars. It was as if they were not even in the same movie.

Montgomery looked very bored with it all, and, although very dapper in his tuxedo, looked as though he were going to fall asleep throughout the film. I had to laugh when he WAS asleep in the last scene and never woke up, credits rolling. Looks like the poor thing finally got his nap after all. Still, he's always wonderful to look at!

The same goes for Garbo, only this time, her slow talking got on my nerves not just a little bit. I loved her outfits, and she could definitely be a model, but her speech was simply too languid for the film. Even Bob spoke slowly. What the hell?

The supporting players were given awful dialog, stock characterization, and no substance whatsoever, thus making no impact. All this accomplished was to get screen time away from the 2 stars, thankfully, I suppose. (The little doggie was cute, though.)

Nobody looked as though they had any enjoyment making this film, and the same can be said for the unfortunate viewer.

Bottom line: lovely to look at, painful to follow through.

In a plot with some similarities to the much better Camille, Greta Garbo is an artist's model who like the rest of her peers lives on the financial favors of those in the artist's colony. I wouldn't doubt she does those things professionally as well. It costs a lot to be an artist's Inspiration.

However she gets inspired by a young callow youth played by Robert Montgomery and she's willing to shake off all her patrons, chief among them being Lewis Stone for life with a young man entering France's diplomatic service. No matter because Lewis Stone seems rather enthralled with Karen Morley at the moment.

Probably Inspiration would not sit well with today's audiences. It's not one of Garbo's better vehicles.

One thing I did like about Inspiration was its torch song theme. Though it's not sung in Inspiration, the theme has lyrics and it's entitled How Long Will It Last. It was recorded by Bing Crosby the following year and was one of his early successes. It's the best thing about Inspiration.

I'd really recommend that you see this side by side Camille and judge for yourself how much better Camille is. Still Garbo and Montgomery do their best by this dated melodrama.

''Inspiration'' is no doubt dated, but that's not the only failure of this film....... The plot also does much to ruin the film...... First of all, there is absolutely NO chemistry between Garbo & Montgomery to speak of...... The plot of how they met, and fell for each other, makes no sense, and is totally unbelievable...... They both looked bored with each other, throughout the film, and not to mention, putting the audiences to sleep...... It seems as though, they weren't even in the same movie together...... ''Inspiration'' only adds to my confusion, about what made Garbo such a superstar.....? Most of Garbo's performances are slow, sluggish & dated (with a minor exception of ''Ninotchka'') Otherwise, every Garbo's performance, is the same performance..... Same acting, same pace...... In my opinion, the most overrated, and undeservingly legendary actress of all time....... Watch this film, is you're really, really serious fans of Garbo & Montgomery...... Even so, you'll be disappointed......