The Lady of the Camellias

A tragic story of love, loss, and love again is the 1936 George Cuckor film Camille puts together a group of amazing actors to retell a classic novel. This film has gone on to be one of the most praised love stories, even making Time magazine's list of 100 Best Movies of All Time. If you want to watch this film, you can start here.

The original story is titled "The Lady of the Camellias", referring to the camellia flower the main character always carries. The name Camille was derived from the flower and is what the story is more commonly known as today. The novel was written by Alexandre Dumas, but not the Alexandre Dumas famous for writing The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo. The author of Camille is that author's son with his mistress, Parisian dressmaker Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay. The younger Alexander was taken away from his mother at a very young age to live with his father. The story of Camille was partially based on the struggles of Dumas's own mother, but more based on the story of Marie du Plessis, perhaps the most famous French courtesan who ever lived.

The story follows Marguerite Gautier (Greta Garbo) who is born into a poor family but works her way up using her charms to become the Dame Camille. Encouraged by Prudence Duvernoy (Laura Hope Crews), who is the person Camille might become in her old age, Camille is to meet and then seduce the Baron de Varville (Henry Daniell), displacing rival courtesan Olympe (Lenore Ulric). Of course, Camille spies the wrong man and believes the baron is the handsome Armand Duval (Robert Taylor), who she instantly falls in love with her. Camille is kept by the Baron but still loves Armand, who thinks Camille only cares for material possessions. Eventually, Camille leaves the Baron to be with Armand, but Armand's father (Lionel Barrymore) points out to Camille that her reputation will ruin Armand's chance at getting a better life forever. Camille pretends not to love Armand, sending him away. Yet when her consumption begins to grow worse, Camille is convinced that Armand will come back to her.

It is easy how to see that the film Moulin Rouge basically completed ripped off the entire plot of this film, which in turn ripped of the book, but more clever analyses have been made. For more background information on the film itself, you can look at this page from filmsite.org. The Dusted Off blog does this interesting comparison of Camille to modern day Bollywood films.

For more reviews of this film, you can look here at the 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die blogspot. The Classic Film Guide has this review of the film more in the context of the time period. The Garbo Forever fan site has this review of the film as well. And here is one of the original trailers for the film:

And you thought your family was loopy...

Though this film does not take place around any holiday, the sentiments in it echo the spirit of what the holidays are all about. The 1938 film You Can't Take It With You, by Frank Capra, shows an early taste of what was to come later in his most famous film, Its A Wonderful Life. In fact, multiple cast members from Its A Wonderful Life show up in this film. The movie is based on a Pulitzer winning play of the same name by two acclaimed writers, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Capra made his film while the award-winning play was still running on Broadway.

The film centers around the eccentric, dysfunctional Sycamore family, headed by patriarch Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff (Lionel Barrymore), who enjoys whatever life throws his way, walks in the park, brings home strangers, and attends graduations, weddings, and other celebrations just for the fun of it. This is a stark contrast to the character of Potter he plays later. Grandpa's daughter Penny is a playwright and painter, her husband Paul makes fireworks in the basement, and grandaughters Essie (Ann Miller) is a ballerina while Alice (Jean Arthur) works as a secretary downtown. The family also live with Russian Boris Kohlekhov (Mischa Auer) who teaches Essie ballet, housekeeper Rheba, her boyfriend Poppins, and a strange, wonderful cast of characters. Capra's feathered friend Jimmy the Raven also makes cameo appearances. As it turns out, Alice has fallen for Tony Kirby (James Stewart) and the two plan to get married. The hitch is Tony's powerful father, businessman Anthony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold), who cares only about money thinks Alice isn't good enough for his son, and is also in the process of running the Sycamores and all their neighbors off their properties. It is up to the Sycamores to teach Anthony Kirby what is most important in life.

This is the first film James Stewart and Frank Capra made together, starting one of the

greatest actor/director pairings in history. The film won two Oscars, one for Best Director and another for Best Picture, out of the seven nominations it received. The play version is still widely performed and the film is popular, though perhaps not as well known its counterpart, perhaps the most widely known Christmas film ever.

As films are, not everyone likes them or sees them from the same perspective. There are a few sites that have reviewed this film that can offer you second, third, and so-on opinions about the film. The first is from Deeper Into Movies, which can be found here. The site, Daily Film Dose, has done another review, which you can read here. Website Piddleville.com has a review of the film and so does the Oscar Guy on his site. I encourage you to read these other opinions and respond with your own.