Greta Garbo had declined a role in the 1927 film Women Love Diamonds (seven reels) directed by Edmund Goulding, which was to star Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lionel Barrymore and Owen Moore, it not having met with her approval. Garbo had asked that Sjostrom direct, as had Gish earlier. Of Greta Garbo Victor Sjostrom had said, "She thinks above her eyes. Certain great actors posses what seems to be an uncanny ability to register thought- Lon Chaney was one- Garbo is another. They seem to literally absorb impressions...Garbo is more sensitive to emotions than film is to light, (and) you see it through her eyes." Lon Chaney, who in 1928 had appeared on the sets of Laugh, Clown, Laugh (Herbert Brenon) with Loretta Young, While the City Sleeps (Jack Conway, eight reels) with Anita Page and two films ditected by Tod Browning, The Big City (seven reels)with Betty Compson and West of Zanzibar (seven reels) with Mary Nolan, is quoted as having said, "I told Garbo that mystery served me well and it would do as much for her." The Divine Woman (Victor Seastrom, eight reels), one of the three films directed by Victor Sjostrom in 1928, was photographed by Oliver Marsh, who had photographed the silent film Camille. Based on the play Starlight by Gladys Unger, who had also written an early revision of the screenplay, the script had been transferred between several writers before the final rewrite was given to Dorothy Farnum. The titles to the film were to be written by John Colton and the film was edited by Conrad Nevrig. In his book, Greta Garbo, A Cinematic Legacy, Mark A. Vieira relates his conversation with Clarence Sinclair Bull about the original negatives of the portraits of Greta Garbo taken by the photographer. Sinclair had used a code on the edge of each photo with the date of each session and from these the date of the shooting of each sequence in each particular film can be found. The author Mark Vieira was kind enough to e-mail two pages of photos scanned from these original negatives to the present author. The second letter was just as unexpected as the first and had read, "More for you to have fun with." | 
Still photograph of Greta Garbo from the shooting of film The Painted Veil scanned from the original negative and sent via e-mail by author Mark A Vieira. |
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Greta Garbo
