Probably most notable for being the film in which Greta Garbo actually says, "I want to be alone," GH surely has one of the finest classical casts ever assembled in Garbo, two Barrymores, a young Joan Crawford, and Wallace Berry. All of them turn in excellent performances--though given that the film dates from 1932, the acting style is more theatrical than cinematic (especially in Garbo and Lionel Barrymore's cases).
The slow pacing conflicts with an otherwise IMO fairly contemporary treatment: the film is not light or comedic, and I was unable to guess at all at the eventual outcomes in store for any of the characters. It reminded me somewhat of a foreign film, rather than American, and more a Chekovian play or a Dostoyevskian novel than in fact anything else.
If you like the classics and haven't seen this one, I recommend it.
