Year of Release: 1936Country of Origin: USA
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore
Plot outline: A Parisian courtesan must choose between the young man who loves her and the callous baron who wants her, even as her own health begins to fail (IMDb).
Based on the 1848 novel and the 1852 play La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias) by Alexandre Dumas, fils (French for son), Camille is a classic romance that teaches high respect for precious values in life. Alexandre Dumas, fils was the illegitimate child of novelist Alexandre Dumas. At that time, the law allowed the father to take the son away from his mother. As a result, in almost all of his writings, Dumas, fils was inspired by his mother agony to write about tragic female characters. Verdi's 1853 famous opera, La Traviata, was based on this Dumas, fils' play. The movie industry has also made a lot of adaptations of the play, but the one that usually comes into mind is the movie by George Cukor with Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor. Garbo is in her favourite role and one of her finest performances. She performs with her voice, body and face. She illuminates the screen from start to finish, from frolicsome flirtatious scenes to heartbreaking dying scenes. She is luminous, mysterious, cruel and weak at the same time. Robert Taylor is gorgeous as a love-smitten callow young man. But, he does not have the emotional depth to be a convincing love object for a woman of Garbo's dimensions. On the other hand, Henry Daniell is a perfect choice for callous Baron De Varville. His cruel strength makes him a more equal partner for Garbo than Taylor. Daniell continued on his career to be one of Hollywood's greatest villains. While Lionel Barrymore, though not given much screen time, is memorable in the scene of his meeting with Garbo. What a moving dialogue of two different worlds: Marguerite attached to love and emotions and Monsieur Duval to reputation and social ties. Great comic relief is provided by Laura Hope Crews as frivolous Prudence and Lenore Ulric as envious Olympe ... what a pair of vultures (!) Two great scenes that I cannot forget are: 1) The scene when Gaston, Marguerite's true friend, is putting a beautiful bunch of camellias at her side while she is dying in her bed ... what a touching moment. 2) The last scene when Armand holds Marguerite, her inspiring words about spiritual love and her last look to her beloved before she closes her eyes. It's rich with details, it's magic (!)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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