CAMILLE

USA, 1936

Director: George Cukor

Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corp.; black and white, 35mm; running time: 115 minutes, some sources state 108 minutes. Released 1936. Filmed in the MGM studios.

Producer: Irving G. Thalberg, some sources list David Lewis; screenplay: Zoe Akins, Frances Marion, and James Hilton, from the novel and play La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas (fils); photography: William Daniels and Karl Freund; editor: Margaret Booth; music: Herbert Stothart; costume designer: Adrian.

Cast: Greta Garbo (Marguerite Gautier/Camille); Robert Taylor (Armand Duval); Lionel Barrymore (Monsieur Duval); Henry Daniell (Baron de Varville); Lenore Ulric (Olympe); Jessie Ralph (Nanine); Laura Hope Crews (Prudence Duvernoy); Elizabeth Allan (Nichette); Russell Hardie (Gustave).

Awards: New York Film Critics' Award, Best Actress (Garbo), 1937.

Publications

Books:

Bainbridge, John, Garbo, New York, 1955.

Conway, Michael, and others, The Films of Greta Garbo, New York, 1963.

Langlois, Henri, and others, Hommage à George Cukor, Paris, 1963.

Durgnat, Raymond, and John Kobal, Greta Garbo, New York, 1965.

Carey, Gary, Cukor and Company: The Films of George Cukor andHis Collaborators, New York, 1971.

Corliss, Richard, Greta Garbo, London, 1976.

Phillips, Gene D., George Cukor, Boston, 1982.

Bernadoni, James, George Cukor: A Critical Study and Filmography, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1985.

McGilligan, Patrick, George Cukor, a Double Life: A Biography ofthe Gentleman Director, New York, 1991.

Levy, Emanuel, George Cukor, Master of Elegance: Hollywood'sLegendary Director and His Stars, New York, 1994.

Articles:

New York Times, 23 January 1937.

Variety, (New York), 27 January 1937.

"How Cukor Directs Garbo," in Lion's Roar (Hollywood), November 1941.

Huff, Theodore, "The Career of Greta Garbo," in Films in Review (New York), December 1951.

Tynan, Kenneth, "Garbo," in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1954.

Prouse, Derek, in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1955.

Tozzi, Romano, "George Cukor," in Films in Review (New York), February 1958.

Brooks, Louise, "Gish and Garbo—the Executive War on Stars," in Sight and Sound (London), Winter 1958–59.

Reid, John, "So He Became a Lady's Man," in Films and Filming (London), August 1960.

Reid, John, "Women and Still More Women," in Films and Filming (London), September 1960.

Guez, Gilbert, "George Cukor: de Garbo a Marilyn il a instaure le Star-System," in Cinémonde (Paris), 1 January 1963.

Bowers, Ronald, "Robert Taylor," in Films in Review (New York), January 1963.

"Cukor Issue" of Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), February 1964.

Gillett, John, and David Robinson, "Conversation with George Cukor," in Sight and Sound (London), Autumn 1965.

Nordberg, Carl Eric, "Greta Garbo's Secret," in Film Comment (New York), Summer 1970.

Phillips, Gene D., "George Cukor: An Interview," in Film Comment (New York), Spring 1972.

Grisolia, M., "George Cukor ou comment le desir vient aux femmes," in Cinéma (Paris), February 1974.

Powers, James, editor, "Dialogue on Film: George Cukor," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), February 1978.

Bodeen, DeWitt, in Magill's Survey of Cinema 1, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1980.

Bodeen, DeWitt, "George Cukor," in Films in Review (New York), November 1981.

Palni, D., "Le Roman de Marguerite Gautier," in Cinéma (Paris), May 1981.

Radio Times (London), 7 September 1985.

Lippe, Richard, "Cukor and Garbo," in CineAction (Toronto), no. 35, 1994.

Garbo's Camille not only contains her best screen performance, but hers remains the definitive Camille. No actress in her right mind would dare do a re-make, because she would be inviting comparisons with the Garbo performance, which would not be to her advantage. In fact, some years ago, when Tallulah Bankhead was asked, along with other stars of the stage, to name what she considered the greatest of all theatrical performances, she led off instantly with "Garbo in Camille," and no one argued her choice.

The role of Camille has always been thought of as the supreme test for the dramatic actress, just as Hamlet has become "a consummation devoutly wished" for the actor. As a character, she not only runs the gamut of emotion, she explores every facet of all emotion. Cukor saw Camille again after a long period of time, and remarked of Garbo's performance: "I was staggered [by] her lightness of touch the wantonness, the perversity of the way she played Camille, she played it as if she was the author of her own misery." Even Irving Thalberg, seeing her performance, remarked that she had never been so good. It was the scene where she sits in a box in the theatre, and Cukor demurred, "Irving, how can you tell? She's just sitting there," to which Thalberg remarked, "I know, but she's unguarded." The key to her entire performance of Marguerite Gautier, the Parisian cocotte known among her coterie as "Camille," can be summed up in that one word—"unguarded," held safe against all time. It was in the finest tradition of thoughtful restraint in acting for the camera.

In the theatre, the story of Marguerite Gautier has been acted by all the greats, including Eleonora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt. On the screen, its various versions starred such actresses as Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara, Nazimova, and Norma Talmadge. American actresses resisted it as a talking role. Garbo alone, with Cukor's faith in her, wanted to do the part, knowing that it could be her greatest, and it was. Henry James wrote of the story that it had been written by Alexandre Dumas fils when he was only 25, and added: "The play has been blown about the world at a fearful rate, but has never lost its happy juvenility, a charm that nothing can vulgarize. It is all champagne and tears, fresh perversity, fresh credulity, fresh passion, fresh pain. It carries with it an April air!"

In 1855, an American actress, Matilda Heron, was in Paris, and saw La Dame aux camélias played there. She made her own acting version, called it Camille, or The Fate of a Coquette, and played it all over the English-speaking world. She married, and gave birth to a daughter known as Bijou Heron, who married Henry Miller. Their son, Gilbert Miller, was one of the best producers Broadway and London ever knew. The stories surrounding Camille onstage and in films are endless, and involve nearly every important player's name. Either as Camille or as The Lady of the Camellias, it has been played by all the best actresses from Tallulah Bankhead to Ethel Barrymore, from Eva Le Gallienne to Lillian Gish, so that what they created onstage was revealed in the performance Garbo brought to the screen.

With her the part became not just about a heroine who lives well but unwisely; she became a beautiful worldly creature fated to find real love with a young man, whom she deserts because she knows that in staying with him, she is ruining his life. The lovers are reunited at her deathbed, and the audience always dissolves in tears. Seeing Garbo's death scene, an admirer remarked, "What a pity that Garbo had to die! We shan't see her again." After that last fadeout, it was not easy to believe that at least two of Garbo's best roles were still ahead, with her performances as Marie Waleska, Napoleon's love, in Conquest, and in the title role of Lubitsch's Ninotchka. Camille, however, remained her triumph for all time. It was her finest hour.

—DeWitt Bodeen

Camille [La Dame aux Camélias]. This dramatization of Alexandre Dumas fils's novel was first acted in France in 1852 and brought to America the following year by Jean M. Davenport in her own version, which she called Camille; or, The Fate of a Coquette. The story remains well known, largely because of the ongoing popularity of the opera La Traviata, which was based on the French original. A courtesan named Marguerite Gautier finds true love with young Armand Duval and prepares to give up her questionable ways. However, Duval's family is scandalized and his father persuades her to sacrifice her love for the sake of Armand's family. She leads Armand to believe she has been unfaithful, but the separation strains Marguerite beyond endurance, and she dies in the arms of the forgiving Armand. The first great American Marguerite was Matilda Heron, who for many years had no rival in the part. Afterward Clara Morris was equally popular and the play was one of the triumphs of Sarah Bernhardt's tours. As late as the early 1930s the work remained a favorite with playgoers, proving one of Eva Le Gallienne's biggest successes at the Civic Repertory Theatre. However, a major 1963 revival with Susan Strasberg was a quick failure.

Camille ♀ (French) form of Camilla, now also used in the English-speaking world.

Camille ♂, ♀ (French) From Latin Camillus. See Camilla.

Camille •bill, Brazil, brill, Camille, chill, cookchill, dill, distil (US distill), downhill, drill, Edgehill, Estoril, fill, freewill, frill, fulfil (US fulfill), Gill, goodwill, grill, grille, hill, ill, instil, kill, krill, mil, mill, nil, Phil, pill, quadrille, quill, rill, Seville, shill, shrill, sill, skill, spadille, spill, squill, still, stock-still, swill, thill, thrill, till, trill, twill, until, uphill, will •hwyl • bank bill • handbill • waxbill •playbill, waybill •cranesbill • sibyl • crossbill • sawbill •hornbill • storksbill • shoebill •spoonbill • duckbill • razorbill •gerbil • wind chill • Churchill • idyll •daffodil • back-fill • landfill • monofil •fibrefill (US fiberfill) • chlorophyll •bluegill