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"Garbo talks!" the ads proclaimed, upon the star's 1930 talking picture debut in Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie." "Garbo laughs!" they exclaimed, when she turned to "Ninotchka" in 1939. In both cases, the exclamation marks seem merited; "Ninotchka," especially, presents a delectable Garbo and remains sterling entertainment. But times change, tastes change, and the world can change mighty fast. Two years later, M-G-M brought back Garbo with her "Nintochka" leading man, Melvyn Douglas, in Two-Faced Woman [Warner Archive]. "Go gay with Garbo!" says the ad campaign. Hmmm.

Here was a '30s-style screwball comedy, but 1941 was no time for screwball comedy; the deco Park Ave. trappings — which never did look all too realistic in the midst of the Depression — must have seemed jaw-droppingly inapt when the film was unspooled. What's more, Garbo gives what you might call a Carole Lombard performance and looks mighty uncomfortable in the process. Game, yes; but so uncomfortable that you can understand how the 35-year-old legend might have taken one look at "Two-Faced Woman," thought "I want to be alone," and instantly decided to return before the camera nevermore.

Which is not to say that the film, a new release in Warner's Archive Collection, is not worth a look. Garbo and Douglas, who did so very well in "Ninotchka," remain charming and talented but they can't budge this material. Of course, they don't have director Ernst Lubitsch and screenwriter Billy Wilder here; M-G-M gave them George Cukor and the screenwriting team of S.N. Behrman, Salka Viertel and George Oppenheimer (who I would guess didn't collaborate, exactly).

The story is about a sophisticated New York magazine editor (Melvyn) who — on a ski trip out West — falls (most literally) for a Swedish ski instructor (Greta). When his boss whisks him to New York, Garbo — masquerading as her wild twin sister — flies East to win him back. The humor of the thing, in theory, is in seeing Garbo with her hair down; they even put her in an evening gown she is literally falling out of. And she dances, too, a big Latin-influenced nightclub number staged by Bob Alton (just back from choreographing the Broadway premiere of Pal Joey).

Along with the stars and that dance number, there is some ridiculous ski footage. Most interesting to me, anyway, is the chance to see Ruth Gordon at the beginning of her screen career. (She was 44 already, but even so.) Gordon had made two films the year before, but in period pieces; here is Gordon as she must have looked during her days as a top Broadway star. She plays Douglas' secretary, and holds her own against Garbo. And Garbo fans take note: Warner Archive has released two more of her films, "Romance" and "Torrent."

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Warner Archive gives us yet another intriguing item which aimed to replicate an earlier hit. Vincente Minnelli's 1952 "The Bad and the Beautiful," starring Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas, was a big M-G-M hit which took a handful of Oscars. Ten years later, Minnelli reunited with Douglas and screenwriter Charles Schnee (who won one of them "B&B" Oscars) for 2 Weeks in Another Town [Warner Archive]. This "from the Great Best-seller by Irwin Shaw," as it said in the ads; shot on location in Rome, although nowhere near as vibrantly as in William Wyler's "Roman Holiday"; and featuring Minnelli's penchant for design (in Cinemascope and Metrocolor). And oh, yes; Minnelli, Schnee, and producer John Houseman manage to incorporate footage from "The Bad and the Beautiful."

The film is about a formerly great Hollywood star, just out of the loony bin; a maniacal but washed up director, played by Edward G. Robinson; and an out-of-control ex-wife in the guise of Cyd Charisse, who gives a pretty strange performance. Hidden away in the wild Roman party scene at the end is an 18-year-old singer on the bandstand, playing the role of the Chanteuse. Look close: Leslie Uggams.