Camille(1936).

Camille(1936). Director: George Cukor. Produced: Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman, from a screenplay by James Hilton, Zoe Akins and Frances Marion. The picture is based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph, Henry Daniell, and Laura Hope Crews.

The film inspired Milton Benjamin to write a song called "I'll Love Like Robert Taylor, Be My Greta Garbo." Portions of the film, including the final scene, are featured in the 1982 musical film Annie after the number "Let's Go To The Movies."

Marguerite Gautier, is known as "the lady of the camellias" because of her love for the flowers. Marguerite's friends know her as a woman whose heart is bigger than her bank account. Though she is given money and jewels by her many suitors, she has trouble keeping up her lifestyle.

Prudence Duvernoy, comes to Marguerite and tells her, she must find a rich man who can take care of her and arranges for her to meet, Baron de Varville. When Prudence leaves the theater box to find de Varville, Armand Duval, who has been in love with Marguerite and has been following her for weeks, joins her.

Because they have never met, she thinks that he is the baron.



 When she is introduced to the real Baron, Marguerite is disappointed, but she still leaves with him. Soon, Marguerite, becomes de Varville's mistress. When he goes on a business trip to Russia, her frail health keeps her home.

At a coach auction, she meets Armand again and is told by her maid, that he came to ask about Marguerite's health every day.

Later, Marguerite invites him to a party at her home, and when she becomes ill, he carries her into her bedroom and tells her that he is deeply in love with her and wants to take care of her. Marguerite, must choose between the young man who loves her and the baron who wants her.

A very romantic film and one of my favorite Garbo performances. The cinematography and costume design are absolutely beautiful. The supporting performances from Lionel Barrymore, Laura Hope Crewes and Maureen O'Sullivan are perfect. Robert Taylor, is very young and handsome. A wonderful classic film you will not soon forget.

Fun Facts:
Greta Garbo's personal favorite of all her films.
Greta Garbo wore bedroom slippers under all her fancy dresses so she could be comfortable.
Film debut of Joan Leslie.

Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1908 – 27 July 1990) was an English actress who worked in both England and Hollywood, making about 50 films over more than a quarter century.

She made her movie debut in 1931, first appearing in Alibi. 1935 was her most memorable year in Hollywood, when she not only distinguished herself in two memorable Dickens' adaptations as David's young mother in, David Copperfield and as Lucie Manette in Jack Conway's, A Tale of Two Cities, but was also featured in, Mark of the Vampire.

By the 1950s, Allan had made the transition to character parts. Particularly memorable is her appearance in, The Heart of the Matter (1953). In 1958, she appeared as Boris Karloff's wife in, The Haunted Strangler.

Pre-Code: Mata Hari(1931).

Mata Hari(1931). A Pre-Code film loosely based on the life of Mata Hari (the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), an exotic dancer/courtesan executed for espionage during World War I. The film stars Greta Garbo in the title role. The film is credited with popularizing the legend of Mata Hari. The third and final film in which Ramon Novarro and Lewis Stone both appeared, though they have no scenes together.

During World War I, after the execution of a group of convicted spies, Dubois, chief of the French Spy Bureau, vows that he will someday find enough evidence to prosecute France's greatest enemy, Mata Hari, a famous dancer, who lives a double life as a German spy.

Mata, receives her assignments from a man named Andriani, who wants her to use her charms to learn more about the secret messages and maps detailing Russian troop movements, from the French and Russian officers.

Soon after meeting Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff of the Russian Imperial Air Force, a flier who was had a successful flight over German lines to bring back a secret message, Mata begins an affair and falls in love  with him. At first Mata, does not know that Alexis has the secret documents she has been ordered to steal.

Later, when Mata learns that Alexis is carrying the secret documents, she sleeps with him and darkens the apartment so that her fellow agents can take the papers, copy them and return them before anybody notices.  Andriani,  has Carlotta, one of his spies, killed for falling in love on the job. He then tells Mata that she must continue her relationship with Alexis.

Looking for a way to find the evidence he needs against Mata, Dubois tells  her ex-lover General Shubin, that Mata has been having an affair with Alexis, hoping out of jealousy he will expose her treachery.

Shubin, does confront Mata, and Mata tries to prove that she does not love Alexis by showing Shubin the secret photographs she stole from the lieutenant. Not believing her, Shubin calls the embassy to have Mata arrested, but Mata shoots him so she can get away.

As Mata, leaves the murder scene, Andriani tells her that her Paris assignment is over and that she must now go to Amsterdam . Andriani, also informs her that Alexis has been injured in an airplane crash and has been hospitalized. He then forbids her to visit Alexis, Mata resigns so she can be with Alexis. At his bedside, Mata promises the blinded Alexis that she will never leave him. As soon as Mata leaves the hospital, she is arrested by Dubois and put on trial for murder and espionage.Will she be able to prevent Alexis from ever knowing about her crimes and avoid execution?

 

I really enjoyed this dramatic love story and thought Great Garbo, looked beautiful performing the exciting role as a double agent.

Karen Morley (December 12, 1909 – March 8, 2003). After working at the Pasadena Playhouse, she came to the attention of the director Clarence Brown when he was looking for an actress to stand-in for Greta Garbo in screen tests.

This led to a contract with MGM and roles in such films as Mata Hari (1931), Scarface (1932), The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Arsene Lupin (1933) and Dinner at Eight (1933).

 In 1934, Morley left MGM after arguments about her roles and her private life. Her first film after leaving MGM was Our Daily Bread (1934), directed by King Vidor. She continued to work as a freelance performer, and appeared in Michael Curtiz's Black Fury, and The Littlest Rebel with Shirley Temple.

Without the support of a studio, her roles became less frequent, however she played a supporting role in Pride and Prejudice (1940). Her career came to an end in 1947, when she testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to answer questions about her alleged American Communist Party membership. She maintained her political activism for the rest of her life. In 1954, she ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of New York on the American Labor Party ticket. After being blacklisted in Hollywood by the studio bosses, she was never able to rebuild her acting career. In December 1999, at the age of 90, she appeared in the magazine Vanity Fair in an article about blacklist survivors.

Lionel Barrymore.

Lionel Barrymore (April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954).Lionel and Doris, were living in Paris in 1908, so Lionel could attended art school and where their first baby, Ethel, was born. He soon began performing in films, The Battle (1911), The New York Hat (1912).

He also performed in the film, Friends and Three Friends (1913). In 1915 he co-starred with, Lillian Russell in a movie called, Wildfire.

The last silent film he directed was called, Life's Whirlpool (1917), which starred his sister, Ethel. In early 1920, Barrymore reprised his title role in the stage play, The Copperhead (1920), in a Paramount film of the same name.

Before the formation of MGM in 1924, Barrymore became good friends with Louis B. Mayer, at Metro Pictures. He made many silent movies for Metro, most of them now lost. He occasionally freelanced, returning to Griffith in 1924 to film, America. His last film for Griffith was, Drums of Love(1928).

After Lionel and Doris divorced in 1923, he married Irene Fenwick. The two went to Italy to film, The Eternal City for Metro Pictures, combining work with their honeymoon. In 1924 he went to Germany to star in British producer/director Herbert Wilcox's Anglo-German co-production Decameron Nights, filmed at UFA's Babelsberg studios outside Berlin. Before his marriage to Irene, he and his brother John stopped talking because Irene had been one of John's lovers. The brothers didn't speak for two years and weren't seen together until the premiere of John's film, Don Juan(1926).

In 1924, he left Broadway for Hollywood. He starred as Frederick Harmon in the film, Fifty-Fifty (1925) opposite Hope Hampton and Louise Glaum and made several other movies with Boris Karloff such as, The Bells.

After 1926, he worked almost exclusively for MGM and performed with actors such as: John Gilbert, Lon Chaney, Sr., Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and his brother John.

On the occasional loan-out, Barrymore had a huge hit with Gloria Swanson in 1928's Sadie Thompson and the film, Drums of Love.

Sadie Thompson Video: First of 7.

In 1929, he returned to directing films. During this early sound film period, he made, His Glorious Night with John Gilbert, Madame X starring Ruth Chatterton and Rogue Song, Laurel and Hardy's first color film.

Barrymore returned to acting in front of the camera in 1931. In that year, he won an Academy Award for his role as an alcoholic lawyer in, A Free Soul (1931), after being nominated in 1930 for Best Director for Madame X. He played characters, like the evil Rasputin in the 1932 Rasputin and the Empress (in which he co-starred with John Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore) and Oliver Jordan in, Dinner at Eight (1933) also with John Barrymore, although they had no scenes together).

During the 1930s and 1940s, he became stereotyped as, cranky, but.. sweet elderly men, in the films: The Mysterious Island (1929), Grand Hotel (1932), Captains Courageous (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Duel in the Sun (1946), and Key Largo (1948).

In a series of Doctor Kildare movies in the 1930s and 1940s, he played the Doctor Gillespie, repeating the role he'd created in the radio series throughout the 1940s. He also played the title role in another 1940s radio series, Mayor of the Town.

Barrymore, had broken his hip in an accident and performed his role as Gillespie in a wheelchair later, his worsening arthritis kept him in the chair. The injury also kept him from his playing Ebenezer Scrooge, in the 1938 MGM film version of A Christmas Carol, a role Barrymore played every year on the radio from 1934 through 1953.

His final film appearance was a cameo in Main Street to Broadway, an MGM musical comedy released in 1953. His sister Ethel also performed in the film.

Maybe one of his best known roles, was as Mr. Potter, the miserly banker in, It's a Wonderful Life (1946)opposite James Stewart.

 

 The role suggested that of the "unreformed" stage of Barrymore's "Scrooge" characterization. Lionel's wife, Irene, died on Christmas Eve of 1936 and Lionel did not perform his annual Scrooge that year.John filled in as Scrooge for his grieving brother. He wanted to perform on television in the 1950s but wanted to remain loyal to his old friend and employer Louis B. Mayer and MGM.

Barrymore was also a composer. His works ranged from solo piano pieces to "Tableau Russe." His piano compositions, "Scherzo Grotesque" and "Song Without Words", were published by G. Schirmer in 1945.

Barrymore was also a very skillful graphic artist. For years, he had a art studio attached to his home in Los Angeles. His etchings and drawings are treasured by collectors around the world.

On Borrowed Time(1939).

On Borrowed Time(1939). The film is based on a novel by Lawrence Edward Watkin. Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Barrymore plays Julian Northrup, a wheelchair user (Barrymore had broken his hip twice and was now using a wheelchair, though he continued to act), who, with his wife Nellie, played by Bondi, are raising their orphaned grandson, Pud.


The story begins when, Death, who comes in the form of Mr. Brink, hitches a ride with Dr. James Northrup and his wife, causing a tragic car accident. They leave behind a young son Pud in the care of his grandparents, Julian Northrup and Nellie. Pud's aunt, Demetria Riffle, an old maid, pretends to care about the boy, but really only wants his inheritance. Gramps, knows exactly what she is up to.

When Mr. Brink comes for Gramps, he tricks him into the apple tree. Mr. Brink is not able to come down from the tree, because only Gramps has the power to free him. After their pet cocker spaniel dies after touching the tree, Gramps has a fence built round the tree to protect others.

Dr. Evans, soon believes that Death is trapped up in the apple tree, when several of his cases of certain death do not happen. Evans tries to disprove Gramps's story, but nothing dies, except a mouse that touches the apple tree. Evans begs Gramps to let Brink down. Saying that a world without death would cause people with incurable diseases, to suffer. Gramps, thinks about his own old age, but still cannot let Brink out of the apple tree.

The next day, Evans comes with papers to commit Gramps and turn Pud over to Demetria, convincing Gramps to let Brink out of the tree. After he breaks the news to Pud about his decision to go with Brink, Pud cries that saying he wants to go with Mr. Brink, too. Heartbroken, when Gramps tells him he can't come, Pud runs away. Gramps, pretends that Mr. Brink has said that Demetria and the sheriff are due to die soon. Marcia Giles, Gramps's housekeeper, also pretends that she heard it too, frightening Demetria and the sheriff into leaving. While Marcia and Gramps are looking for Pud. Mr. Brink calls him a "baby calf." Pud trying to climb the tree falls to the ground and is paralyzed. Will Gramps now call Mr. Brink from the tree?

This is a wonderful, magical, movie, with some very heartbreaking scenes. A movie you will not soon forget. One of my favorite Lionel Barrymore performances.

 

Beulah Bondi (May 3, 1889 – January 11, 1981). She made her Broadway debut in Kenneth S. Webb's "One of the Family" at the 49th Street Theatre on December 21, 1925. She next performed in, Maxwell Anderson's "Saturday's Children" in 1926. It was Bondi's performance in Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Street Scene," which opened at the Playhouse Theatre on January 10, 1929, that brought Bondi to the movies at the age of 43. Her debut movie role was as "Emma Jones" in Elmer Rice's Street Scene (1931), which starred Sylvia Sidney, and in which Bondi reprised her stage role, followed by "Mrs. Davidson" in Rain (1932), which starred Joan Crawford and Walter Huston.She was one of the first five women to be nominated for an Academy Award in the newly-created category of "Best Supporting Actress" for her work in The Gorgeous Hussy, although she lost the award to Gale Sondergaard. Two years later, she was nominated again for Of Human Hearts, and lost again, but her reputation as a character actress kept her working. She would most often be seen in the role of the mother of the star of the film for the rest of her career, with the exception of Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) as the abandoned Depression-era 'Ma' Cooper. She often played mature roles in her early film career even though she was only in her early 40s. Bondi played James Stewart’s mother in four films: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts and Vivacious Lady.