Camille, 1936, is playing on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday, July 28 at 6 a.m. est. Not closed captioned. This is the love story of all love stories and shouldn’t be missed.
This film further proves that the assembly-line system of Hollywood studios back then should also be taken seriously in terms of artistry. Just because movies were produced run-of-the-mill doesn’t mean that they weren’t paid critical attention to by their makers. The usual impression on studio-era Hollywood is: take a formulaic narrative style, maybe adapt a stage play for the screen, blend in a handful of stars from the stable and the films rake in the profit at the box office. Not quite, that’s the easy perception. George Cukor, another of those versatile directors, made it apparent with Camille that filmmaking as an art may still flourish despite (and even within) certain parameters. Camille is beautiful, in so many respects. And it’s not just because of Greta Garbo.
Sure, the acting is amazing, the casting is perfect. Garbo is luminous, mysterious, cruel, and weak at the same time. Robert Taylor surrenders himself to be the heartbreakingly young and vulnerable Armand. Henry Daniell’s coldness and sadism is utterly human and familiar. The others are just plain wonderful. The writing contains so much wit and humor, devotion and pain – but it never overstates anything. The rapport and tensions between lovers, friends, and enemies are palpable and consistent. The actions flow so naturally, just like every scene, that checking for historical inconsistencies seem far beside the point.
There is so much that I love about Camille that it’s hard to enumerate them all, but with every little discovery comes the realization that this is “but” a studio production, so it makes the experience more exquisite. Camille is a gentle, poignant romantic movie that, like Garbo, takes its place delicately and self-effacingly in the history of American cinema, but makes itself indelible in the heart and mind of the lovelorn individual viewer. Review by tsarevna for the IMDb.
Some behind-the scenes photos from Camille.
Making Marguerite’s Dresses:
Robert Taylor Actor 
This is a classic film so many people over the years have thought of it as the ultimate expression of what the golden age of the cinema was all about.
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You’re right, Andrew. I don’t think it has ever been surpassed. Thanks for writing. Judith
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Kind of you to reply l wanted you to know l post your articles to the Robert Taylor Facebook sites and to the general film sites on Facebook.
I enjoy your lovely articles l would love to see background lnformation on one of my favourite films Quo Vadis with Robert Taylor as someone who loves ancient history l find the sets and the whole look of the film like visiting the Roman world in a rather wonderful time machine.
Any chance of a ln depth look at the film and how the research was done who did the sets and so on.
Thank you
Andrew
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