Editing Greta Garbo (section)

===1941–1948: Last work and retirement===

[[File:twofaced woman.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Garbo and [[Melvyn Douglas]] in ''[[Two-Faced Woman]]'' (1941)]]

With George Cukor's ''[[Two-Faced Woman]]'' (1941), MGM attempted to capitalize on Garbo's success in ''Ninotchka'' by re-teaming her with Melvyn Douglas in another romantic comedy which sought to transform her into a chic, modern woman. She played a "double" role that featured her dancing the [[rhumba]], swimming, and skiing. The film was a critical failure, but, contrary to popular belief, it performed reasonably well at the box office.{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=573}} Garbo referred to the film as "my grave".{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955c|p=129}} ''Two-Faced Woman'' was her last film; she was thirty-six and had made 28 feature films in a span of 16 years.

Although Garbo felt humiliated by the negative reviews of ''Two-Faced Woman'', she did not intend to retire at first.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=381}}<!-- {{Sfn|Vieira|1994|p=267}} (ref does not exist) --> But her films depended on the European market, and when it fell through because of the war, finding a vehicle was problematic for MGM.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=268}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=281}} Garbo signed a one-picture deal in 1942 to make ''The Girl from Leningrad'', but the project quickly dissolved.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=268}} She still thought she would continue when the war was over,{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=268}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=383}} though she was ambivalent and indecisive about returning to the screen. [[Salka Viertel]], Garbo's close friend and collaborator, said in 1945: "Greta is impatient to work. But on the other side, she's afraid of it."{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=270}} Garbo also worried about her age. "Time leaves traces on our small faces and bodies. It's not the same anymore, being able to pull it off."{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=270}} George Cukor, director of ''Two-Faced Woman'', and often blamed for its failure, said: "People often glibly say that the failure of ''Two-Faced Woman'' finished Garbo's career. That's a grotesque over-simplification. It certainly threw her, but I think that what really happened was that she just gave up. She didn't want to go on."{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=383}}

Still, Garbo signed a contract in 1948 with producer [[Walter Wanger]], who had produced ''Queen Christina'', to shoot a picture based on [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]'s ''La Duchesse de Langeais''. [[Max Ophüls]] was slated to adapt and direct.<ref name="Reid2006p44" /><ref name="Kellow2004p338" /><ref name="ForrestKoos2002p151-152" /> She made several [[screen test]]s, learned the script, and arrived in Rome in the summer of 1949 to shoot the picture. However, the financing failed to materialize, and the project was abandoned.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955c|p=130}} The screen tests—the last time Garbo stepped in front of a movie camera—were thought to have been lost for 41 years until they were re-discovered in 1990 by film historians [[Leonard Maltin]] and [[Jeanine Basinger]].{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=426}} Parts of the footage were included in the 2005 [[Turner Classic Movies|TCM]] documentary ''Garbo''.<ref name="TCM-GarboDoc" />

In 1949, she was offered the role of fictional silent-film star Norma Desmond in ''[[Sunset Boulevard (film)|Sunset Boulevard]]'', directed by ''Ninotchka'' co-writer [[Billy Wilder]]. However, after a meeting with film producer [[Charles Brackett]], she insisted that she had no interest in the part whatsoever.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Susman |first1=Gary |title='Sunset Blvd.': 15 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About the Hollywood Classic |url=https://www.moviefone.com/2015/08/10/sunset-boulevard-facts/ |website=moviefone |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=25 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225103203/https://www.moviefone.com/2015/08/10/sunset-boulevard-facts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

She was offered many roles both in the 1940s and throughout her retirement years but rejected all but a few of them. In the few instances when she did accept them, the slightest problem led her to drop out.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=271}} Although she refused throughout her life to talk to friends about her reasons for retiring, four years before her death, she told Swedish biographer Sven Broman: "I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work. There were many days when I had to force myself to go to the studio&nbsp;... I really wanted to live another life."{{Sfn|Broman|1990|p=271}}