<P> After nearly a year of negotiations, Garbo agreed to renew her contract with MGM on the condition she would star in Queen Christina and her salary would be increased to $300,000 per film . The film's screenplay had been written by Viertel, and although MGM had been reluctant to make the movie, they relented at Garbo's insistence . For her leading man, MGM suggested Charles Boyer or Laurence Olivier, but Garbo rejected both, preferring her former co-star and lover, John Gilbert . The studio balked at the idea of casting Gilbert, fearing his declining popularity would hurt the film's profits, but Garbo prevailed . Queen Christina was a lavish production, becoming one of the studio's biggest productions at the time . Publicized as "Garbo returns", the film premiered in December 1933 to critical acclaim and box office triumph and became the highest - grossing film of the year . The movie, however, met with controversy upon its release; censors objected to the scenes in which Garbo disguised herself as a man and kissed a female co-star . </P> <P> Although her domestic popularity was undiminished in the early 1930s, high profits for Garbo's films after Queen Christina in 1933 depended on the foreign market for their success . The type of historical and melodramatic films she began to make on the advice of Viertel were highly successful abroad but considerably less so in the United States . In the midst of the Great Depression, American screen audiences seemed to favor "home - grown" screen couples, such as Clark Gable and Jean Harlow . </P> <P> In 1935, David O. Selznick wanted to cast her as the dying heiress in Dark Victory, but Garbo chose Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1935) in which she played another of her renowned roles . Her critically acclaimed performance won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress . The film was internationally successful and did better than MGM expected domestically . Still, its profit was significantly diminished because of her exorbitant salary . Garbo selected George Cukor's romantic drama Camille (1936) as her next project . Thalberg cast her opposite talents Robert Taylor and former co-star, Lionel Barrymore . Cukor carefully crafted Garbo's portrayal of Marguerite Gautier, a lower - class woman, who becomes the world - renowned mistress Camille . Production was marred, however, by the sudden death of Thalberg, then only thirty - seven, which plunged the Hollywood studios into a "state of profound shock," writes David Bret . Garbo had grown close to Thalberg and his wife, Norma Shearer, and had often dropped by their house unannounced . Her grief for Thalberg, some believe, was more profound than for John Gilbert, who died earlier that same year . His death also added to the sombre mood required for the closing scenes of Camille . When the film premiered in New York on 12 December 1936, it became an international success, Garbo's first major success in three years . She won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress award for her performance, and she was again nominated for an Academy Award . </P> <P> Garbo's follow - up project was Clarence Brown's lavish production of Conquest (1937) opposite Charles Boyer . The plot was the dramatized romance between Napoleon and Marie Walewska . It was MGM's biggest and most - publicized movie of 1937, but upon its release, it lost more than $1 million at the box office, becoming one of the studio's biggest failures of the decade . Garbo's popularity had considerably dropped, and when her contract expired soon thereafter, she returned briefly to Sweden . On 3 May 1938, Garbo was among the many stars--including Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Luise Rainer, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río and others--dubbed to be "Box Office Poison" in an article published by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners of America . </P>

Who said she has eyes in the back of her head