Greta Garbo: Divine Star

by David Bret

Though there have been numerous biographies of Greta Garbo, this is the first to fully investigate the two so-called missing periods in the life of this most mysterious and enigmatic of all the Hollywood stars. The first, during the late 1920s, when Garbo disappeared completely for several months, forcing the studio to employ a lookalike, was almost certainly to conceal a pregnancy. The second occurred during World War II, when Garbo was employed by British intelligence to track down Nazi sympathizers. In Greta Divine Star , David Bret has acquired a large amount of previously unsourced material along with anecdotes from friends and colleagues of the star which have never before been published. For the first time, he paints a complete portrait of her childhood and youth in Sweden. Bret has also sourced copies of all Garbo's films—with the exception The Divine Woman , of which no print survives, including the silent—before scenes were trimmed or cut. David Bret is one of Britain's leading showbusiness biographers. His many, highly successful, biographies include those of Edith Piaf, Doris Day, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn, and Mario Lanza.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Film

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

David Bret is a French-born British author of showbiz biographies. He chiefly writes on the private life of film stars and singers.

Reviews

[David Allwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author David Bret had written many Hollywood’s biographies, and the reader is usually assured of a reliable actors story, as listed on the wrapper. ‘Greta Garbo: Divine Star’ is another by this author. Bret does a proficient job of compiling and describing Garbo’s Swedish childhood and her early film career, her move to Hollywood, and her ultimate success in a series of MGM productions, until 1941. Garbo was an eccentric and captivating character and the author provides an engaging profile of the actors’ staunch need for privacy and isolation throughout this period. Garbo, however, left her movie career and Hollywood, retiring to a life of relative seclusion for 49 years but this phase of her life only has cursory coverage within a couple of chapters. In many ways, this is the most fascinating part of Garbo’s life. Any author can compile a filmography but an exploratory insight into a long and private life has far more interest and is needed for a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Despite this imbalance, Bret’s Greta Garbo biography is highly readable and a sound source of reference of her film career.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to have to agree with the other reviewer of this book that it was not very well written. I have never read a book on Garbo before this so I learned some new things but the author seems to have written gossip and hearsay about other movie stars while he makes Garbo stand on a pedestal. There were also so many grammar and spelling mistakes (I know the author is British so I know many words were spelled in their English) it became unbearable to read. Someone needs to write a decent bio on Garbo with new research no one based on old research and gossip.

[Hopkin Royse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed how gossipy this is but the author was often too biased in his descriptions

[David Muller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story of one woman's life from Sweden to Hollywood and back. Much gossip and innuendo, seemingly verified, and enough to change one's thinking about the entire Hollywood legend syndrome and star-making in general. Fake news indeed!

[Rose Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would give this no stars if that was an option. Not very well-written, no bibliography, no endnotes. It's hard to imagine that any real effort at all went into this. It struck me as nothing other than a rehashed mish-mash of stuff gleaned from earlier biographies and decades-old gossip. A pity really, because I love Garbo and was eagerly waiting to read this book. But the author adds nothing new to one's knowledge of her life or her movies or anything about her.

[Seth Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an insightful novel into the mind of a woman who was strong and confident in her sexuality. While she had many affairs with both sexes, it seems she leaned heavily towards women. I thought the author did a great job with the details and keeping the book fluid so that it was easy to follow.