Camille ***** (1936, Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Daniell) – Classic Movie Review 1985

Director George Cukor’s 1937 vintage tragic romance movie stars Greta Garbo, perfectly cast and at her most luminous finest. After two famous classic silent movie versions in 1921 and 1927, finally there is a talkie classic.

Garbo works her wonders to behold as Alexandre Dumas’s heroine Marguerite Gauthier, an 1840s Parisian lady-of-the-night courtesan, a tart with a heart of gold, who falls deeply in love with the young noble Armand Duval (Robert Taylor). But when Armand’s father begs her not to marry Armand and ruin his career, she leaves her lover. And, when she‘s dying of consumption, Marguerite sacrifices herself to prove her true love of Armand.

Taylor (real name Spangler Arlington Brugh) is pretty but wooden as the young man who truly loves her; Lionel Barrymore overacts amusingly as Armand’s crusty father, Monsieur Duval; but Henry Daniell is much more stylish as the wicked, callous Baron de Varville, Garbo’s abandoned lover who just wants her.

Marguerite is a courtesan in Paris. She  a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When A. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Marguerite discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her. 

Cukor knows exactly how to direct actors and a supposed ‘woman’s picture’ such as this, and MGM gives it its best shot with the lavish production and the repertory company of busy support players. But it’s all eyes on the great Garbo, moving subtly from passionate romancing to feverish dying. The movie is photographed by Garbo’s trusted cinematographer William H Daniels, who lenses her to look at her loveliest. Throughout her MGM career, Garbo insisted that Daniels was her cinematographer. 

Also among the cast are Elizabeth Allan, Lenore Ulric, Laura Hope Crews, Rex O’Malley, Jessie Ralph, E E Clive, Phyllis Barry, Lita Chevret and Elspeth Dudgeon.

The debut of Joan Leslie, only 12, as Marie Jeanette: her film career was over at the age of 31, leaving the profession to bring up her twin daughters. She performed under her real name of Joan Brodel, until adopting ‘Joan Leslie’ for High Sierra (1941). She resumed acting after her daughters grew up, mostly in TV, working up to the 1991 TV movie Fire in the Dark.

Director Ray C Smallwood’s famed 1921 silent version of Alexandre Dumas’s heroine Marguerite Gautier stars Alla Nazimova as the lady-of-the-night with a heart of gold, who’s dying of consumption and sacrifices herself to prove her true love of young noble Armand (Rudolph Valentino).

Director Fred Niblo’s famed 1927 silent version of Alexandre Dumas’s heroine Marguerite Gautier stars Norma Talmadge as the lady-of-the-night with a heart of gold, who’s dying of consumption and sacrifices herself to prove her true love of young noble Armand (Gilbert Roland).

It was remade as Lady of the Camelias (La Dame aux Camélias) in 1981 with Isabelle Huppert.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1985

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