source: Camille

source: Camille

I didnt care for this film one bit. overlong..unbelievable and mediocre. the best thing about it was jessie ralph,,,henry daniel......laura hope crewes.....BUT IT PROVE TO ME ONE THING. ROBERT TAYLOR DOES NOT HOLD A CANDLE TO MR. TYRONE POWER IN LOOKS AND IN ACTING. what is the fuss over greta garbo.....pretty yes.....but dam does she overact and have an annoying voice. as for the movie im usually very sensitive well...i didnt cry at all at the final death scene. couldnt wait for it to end. i cried more with the film OLD YELLER..... .

Most Greta Garbo fans rank this as her finest work--and it probably is. Not only is she highly competent in the title role, but the supporting cast shines just as brightly--everyone from Laura Hope Crewes to Henry Daniell to Lionel Barrymore. And Robert Taylor is the ideal romantic hero at the peak of his darkly handsome good looks. He and Garbo make a wonderful pair. George Cukor's direction is full of richly observed details of behavior, never flinching from the occasional coarseness of the characters. All of the technical work is above reproach and those familiar with the story of the Lady of the Camelias will not be disappointed. Lionel Barrymore makes a brief but effective appearance midway through the film. His scene with Garbo is delicately played and gives added credence to Garbo's nobility in letting her lover go. Biggest drawback is the film's pace--some editing may have helped--but the final result is still impressive.

Overdone acting, as if silent screen stars were performing with exaggerated expressions and movements to make up for a silent film's lack of sound despite having it. Did not get better as it got older. Seems to be another factory produced over dramatic version of a novel no one actually reads anymore (or then).

A gorgeously produced romance, in the best sense of the term, "Camille" is a prime example of the type of film that causes viewers to lament "that they just do not make them like this anymore." Of course, how could a film like this be made again? The incomparable Garbo is gone, as are director George Cukor, producer Irving Thalberg, studio-mogul Louis B. Mayer, the Metro Goldwyn Mayer sound stages and back lot, and even the Hollywood studio system. Fortunately, the fruits of the old studio system live on, and those who love the movies can still relish such gems as "Camille." With George Cukor guiding her performance and William Daniels lighting her face, Greta Garbo never looked better or had a finer role than Marguerite Gautier. The word "luminous" is often over used, but it is appropriate here to describe how Garbo literally illuminates the screen with her presence throughout the film. From her flirtatious scenes early in the film to her final days, where her skin seems to have taken on the translucence of death, she dominates the movie. With few exceptions, Garbo has little competition on screen. Henry Daniell is outstanding as the Baron de Varville, whose villainy is obscured by a gentlemanly veneer and great wealth. Laura Hope Crews shamelessly tries to steal her scenes as the selfish Prudence, and Jessie Ralph holds her own as the maid. However, while he certainly looks the part, Robert Taylor does not have the emotional depth to be a convincing love object for a woman of Garbo's dimensions. The cruel strength of Henry Daniell made him a more equal partner for Garbo than the love-smitten Robert Taylor. The imbalance was repeated from Garbo's film of the previous year, "Anna Karenina," in which again a strong, if overbearing, Basil Rathbone matched Garbo in a way that the indecisive Frederic March did not. Despite any small reservations, "Camille" remains a fine example of the best of the Hollywood studio system in its Golden Era. The sumptuous art direction and lavish costumes indicate the high production values of the period for an A-list film for one of MGM's most valuable stars. Well adapted from a literary work by a team of writers that included James Hilton, the movie is matchless entertainment. While "Camille" was likely produced as a "woman's film," Garbo and Cukor broadened the film's appeal and elevated their work to classic status.

When you think of the lavish 30s films of MGM, Camille is near the top of the list. Great story and flawless production here boasting perhaps the most shimmering of Greta Garbo's ethereal performances as Marguerita Gautier (Camille). Familiar and much filmed story, this is nevertheless the best of them all. Matching Garbor is the hopelessly romantic Robert Taylor in his best 30s role. Also good are Lionel Barrymore, Henry Daniell, and Jessie Ralph as the maid. Great comic relief is provided by Laura Hope Crews (Prudence)and Lenore Ulric (Olympe)--what a pair of vultures! But the center of this gorgeous film is Garbo. She is so frail looking, her voice so soft. Garbo plays Marguerite as a frailty incarnate. She never overacts the part as most do with the endless coughing and fainting. One of George Cukor's triumphs. Rex O'Malley and Elizabeth Allan are dull but have small parts. I also spotted Eily Malyon and Zeffie Tilbury, and Joan Leslie is listed in the credits. I think this is Garbo's best performance, but she lost the Oscar to Luise Rainer for The Good Earth. Also nominated that year: Irene Dunne (The Awful Truth), Barbara Stanwyck (Stella Dallas), and Janet Gaynor (A Star Is Born). Wow----how could you choose just one?

Quite dull. Based on the Alexandre Dumas fils novel and play, and set in France in the mid-1800s, a story of romance and social machinations. And that's all it is really. Just one long examination of mid-1800s upper class types and social intrigues and manipulation. Complete with the inevitable duel. It all feels so stuffy, irrational and overwrought, especially by today's standards. Who knew relationships were so complicated in the 1800s...? Really only for people who like 1800s romances and period pieces.

What can you say about a thirty-one year-old woman who died? That she was carefree, gay, romantique? That she danced divinely? And why not -- she was played by the divine Greta Garbo? That she was invented (or refashioned) by the son of the guy who wrote "The Three Musketeers"? That she captured the attention of the meta-handsome Robert Taylor? That Robert Taylor's real name was Spangler Arlington Brugh? That she suffered from one of those diseases that are periodically romanticized? That in the 1960s it might have been schizophrenia but in 1847 Europe it was tuberculosis? That tuberculosis, like pregnancy, was supposed to transfigure a woman's beauty? That it was believed to make her thin, pale, waif-like, alluringly enervated? That Dumas fils book was so successful he dramatized it and Verdi turned it into an opera? That in Charles Jackson's 1944 novel "The Lost Weekend," the protagonist watches this movie and is moved to tears by it? That the author of that novel was bisexual? That the director of this movie was gay? That Truman Capote sneaked into Garbo's New York apartment and reported to The New Yorker that one of her abstract paintings was hanging upside down in the vestibule? That Truman Capote was gay? That Garbo's most devoted fans probably contain a disproportionate number of gay guys? That that last generalization strikes even me, its own author, as a little Olympian? That Greta Garbo always struck me as a little beefy? That here she does a good job of acting casually reckless? That these tragic love stories in which someone -- usually the woman -- dies a death that we don't see as disfiguring are getting a little tiresome? That I'm still struggling to recover from Erich Segal's "Love Story" of 1970? That the first sentence of "Love Story" is, "What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?" That Robert Taylor had about ten years during which he tried to act from a position other than "default," which was snarling, masculine, a little coarse? That in "Westward the Women" he even gets to use a bull whip on a dozen ladies who are pulling his Conestoga for him? The answer to these questions is obvious and clear. I don't know.

The luminous Greta Garbo in one of her best remembered roles. In this she is the tragic heroine who is dabbling with fate with Robert Taylor (who seems to be wearing more make-up than Greta!) while moving towards the inevitable weepie conclusion. Certainly Garbo was best in these kind of other-worldly roles, in another place and time, than she was in the few contemporary features she attempted. Not a great actress, but a beautiful woman and a true star who the camera clearly loved. Taylor would move out of romances and musicals into more typically heroic roles by the end of the 1930s, but he's a good romantic lead here. And I mustn't forget the pleasure of seeing Henry Daniell, one of Hollywood's greatest villains. Filmed with the commonplace MGM gloss of the time, ‘Camille' delivers on all levels - if you're looking for an escapist, teary, film with lots of close-ups and a nice slow pace. It belongs square in that first decade of the talkies and this sort of thing fell out of fashion after the Second World War.