Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1937)

16 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST CAMILLE— Continued "The tragic love story . . . will never cease to hold audiences enthralled, and this picture is an exquisite production of the immortal classic. The costumes, the sets and Greta Garbo herself are completely beautiful. . . [It is] a conspicuous example of the best in motion picture art. Adolescents, 12-16: too mature a theme; children, 8-12: no." + + Motion Pict R p5 Ja '37 "A rare treat for adult audiences." + + Nat Council of Jewish Women D 23 '36 "Adults." Nat Legion of Decency D 31 '36 "A: excellent; Y: mature; C: no interest." Parents' M p40 Mr '37 "It's hard to describe the picture accurately without using a great many [superlatives]. Incomparable is the word for Miss Garbo. . . We don't ever begrudge grandma and grandpa their experience of seeing Sarah Bernhardt and Eleanora Duse in 'Camille;' we'll take Garbo in this movie version any day. . . What you see in this picture, and what you'll remember, is the screen's First Lady playing a difficult role in an ancient and sometimes threadbare and absurd play, and doing it so well that it all seems beautiful and unbearably tragic, and as new as today." + + Scholastic p29 F 18 '37 "A lavish production well directed and excellently acted. The work of Miss Garbo, Mr. Taylor and Henry Daniell is outstanding, and the picture as a whole entirely satisfactory. Recommended to the Committee on Exceptional Photoplays. Mature. Outstanding." + + Wkly Guide Ja 2 '37 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews " [Garbo' s] impersonation here is further proof of her greatness as an actress, for while the actual narrative is not nearly as engrossing as many others on the same angle — and its several really dramatic points are only too familiarMiss Garbo acts as though it had just been written for her. . . Mr. Taylor as Armand Duval, is handsome, but a little too perfect in appearance." Mordaunt Hall + Boston Transcript p6 F 20 '37 "Garbo's 'Camille' may vary from many of its predecessors, but it has a fine character of its own. . . But one may question whether Robert Taylor, handsome and popular as he may be, has quite the experience or ability to stand him in good stead against the memory of other Armands." Laura Elston Canadian M p25 F '37 "Adults & mature young people." Christian Science Monitor pl7 Mr 6 '37 "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, acutely aware of the import of capable support, surrounded their two stars strongly, and although both Miss Garbo's and Mr. Taylor's work is as fine as any of their bright careers, their dozen attendants make meritorious characterizations which frequently shine in the same light as the top luminaries. . . Though the famous old tale has been told and retold, its present massive staging, the brilliant costuming of the period, the sterling nature of the photography create a new freshness for the perennial charm of the play." J. P. Cunningham -f Commonweal p388 Ja 29 '37 "Greta Garbo is magnificent, and Robert Taylor better than he has ever been before. Together they infuse life, emotional power, and fervour into the dated story, the trimmings of which are not nearly as good as the main issue. Worth seeing for the superb performance of Garbo." + Film Wkly p31 Mr 6 '37 "We have had quite a number of outstanding productions this season, but none which outranks 'Camille' for visual beauty and expert story-telling. It had progressed so far under his guidance that we may accept it as another tribute to the genius of the late Irving Thalberg, something to crowd in among the memories of the other great things he did while with us. 'Camille' has served opera, the stage, and previously the screen, but never before was presented so imposingly as Metro offers it to us now." 4 + Hollywood Spec p5 D 19 '36 "Greta Garbo's Lady of the Camellias is the most interesting performance of Marguerite Gautier your Beverly Hills has ever caught, from Bernhardt and Duse to Jane Cowl and Eva Le Gallienne. . . Robert Taylor will surprise you. His Armand is the best thing he has done for the Hollywood cameras, possessing surprising authority and charm for one of so little experience. . . 'Camille' lags a bit, even drags — but Garbo and Taylor are there, at their best. And are their love scenes torrid!" (4 stars) Liberty p59 F 6 '37 "[It has] excellent performances by Greta Garbo, as the exalted drab, and Robert Taylor, the screen's current catnip, as the Armand awash in romance. The Hollywood preview was an orgy of sniffles and tears. The whole roster of leading women, starred and unstarred, could have been combed without finding one more eminently right for the title role than Garbo. This brings about the real possibility that her 'Camille' is her best acting role to date. . . It is a beautiful picture, wringing wet with tears. It ought to give satisfying fits of weeping to all, no matter what it may do in a critical way." 4 Lit Digest p23 Ja 2 '37 Manchester Guardian p6 Mr 4 '37 "Now there is a flimsy play. But I shall remember the whole of it which I saw with Eva Le Gallienne as Camille more agreeably than I shall remember these fragments of it in which the moving camera is so busy taking close-ups of Greta Garbo. Her acting is superb, particularly when she dies, but that is not the point. The point is that the techniques of the film are irrelevant to its total effect; and that a fine array of talent has been squandered on something which is actually less absorbing than any one of ten 'regular' movies I could name." Mark Van Doren Nation pl94 F 13 '37 "Dumas' play was interpreted as an appeal against bourgeois morality. . . Judging from the politely diluted version directed by Cukor you'd never realize the above. . . Garbo achieves her finest performance. . . Her ability to scale mimetics to cinema size is simply phenomenal." New Theatre & Film p58 Mr '37 "The incomparable Greta Garbo has returned to the screen in a breath-takingly beautiful and superbly modulated portrayal. . . She floods a romantic museum piece with glamour and artistry, making it a haunting and moving photoplay by the sheer magic of her acting. . . Mr. Cukor, who may be remembered for his splendid realization of 'Romeo and Juliet' on the screen, has done a sensitive and visually absorbing job of staging, and Miss Garbo's assistants out-do themselves. . . Mr. Taylor, considering his inexperience, is surprisingly good. . . In no sense of disparagement, I should say that Miss Garbo has made him play far beyond the talent he has previously shown. The others in the cast have been selected knowingly. . . With scarcely an exception, they follow the mood and tempo that Miss Garbo establishes, giving 'Camille' a far more reverent and sure performance than it deserves." Howard Barnes + + N Y Herald Tribune p8 Ja 23 '37 "This is the period which so becomes Greta Garbo. . . She cannot make Marguerite Gautier an admirable character. She can, however, and certainly she does make her charming, warmhearted and., as she undoubtedly was, slightly theatrical, it is a portrait in the romantic school, and, if pretty rather than moving, still one well fitted to the Camille tradition. Robert Taylor is a happy choice for Armand. In his + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -| Fair; \ Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor