FILM · 1936 · USA
Camille
- Directed by
- George Cukor
- Runtime
- 109 min
- Studio
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
22 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier, who begins a sumptuous romance with Armand Duval.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (22)
- #001
Camille was Greta Garbo's personal favorite among all her films.
- #002
Many found Greta Garbo's process as an actor incomprehensible, but no one questioned the results because they expressed her. Her habit was to work on a performance in advance, in private whenever possible. Having too many eyes on her in front of the camera made her uneasy. As George Cukor once explained, "[Garbo] said that when she acted she had in her mind a kind of ideal picture — something she created herself — and that she never saw the rushes because she was always disappointed by what she saw. But she said that when she acted she could imagine certain things, and that when she saw people watching her from outside the set she felt like an ass, like someone grimacing with too much paint on her face. It stopped her imagination."
- #003
The scene in which Marguerite kisses Armand all over his face was originally Greta Garbo's idea.
- #004
At times George Cukor was able to use Greta Garbo's natural coolness to the film's advantage, as in the scene early in the film where Marguerite goes to the theater. He explained: "I wanted to show that Marguerite was a public woman and that she went to the theater to be seen. She had to pass through a crowded men's lobby… I wanted her to enter so as to display herself, as if she were in a parade for customers. At first Garbo walked quite fast, as if she didn't want to be seen. I could have said, 'Walk a little more boldly, a little more slowly,' but I didn't. I realized she was right. She could enter, and you already knew perfectly well that the men would look at her."
- #005
To be both comfortable and more natural in her acting, Greta Garbo wore bedroom slippers under all of her elaborate dresses.
- #006
Greta Garbo by nature disliked having too many people on set and kept those present at arm's length. Yet, though without much warmth, she made an effort to put Robert Taylor at ease. It was all part of her method. George Cukor recalled: "Garbo didn't talk much to Robert Taylor. She was polite but distant. She had to be told that he was an ideal young man, and she knew that if they became friends she would learn that he was just a good boy."
- #007
Although Greta Garbo liked George Cukor, he had a habit on set that bothered her. During a scene he would sit behind the camera and say the words along with the actors, sometimes making hand and facial gestures. Garbo lost no time in saying she found this extremely distracting and asked him to stop. Even so, she and Cukor worked quite well together and came to hold deep respect for each other over the course of the shoot.
- #008
Costume designer Adrian adapted some of the hats to keep Greta Garbo's famous profile visible, whatever the Paris fashion of the time was.
- #009
The role of Monsieur Duval was originally designed for Lionel Barrymore's brother, John Barrymore.
- #010
In the book George Cukor Interviews, George Cukor discussed how his real-life experience may have influenced Greta Garbo's performance in her final scene: "While we were shooting Camille my mother had just died and I was there during her last conscious moments, and I think I had a special awareness. I may have passed something on to Garbo almost without realizing it. You don't tell her to say 'I am strong,' but somehow you find yourself creating an atmosphere in which she can say it that way."
- #011
The play first opened in Paris on February 2, 1852. Alexandre Dumas fils created the character of Marguerite based on a woman with whom he had a relationship for 11 months. She died at the age of 23. The film inspired Milton Benjamin to write and publish a song in 1936 titled "I'll Love Like Robert Taylor, Be My Greta Garbo."
- #012
According to studio records, the film was a box-office success that earned MGM a profit of $388,000 ($8.75 million in 2025).
- #013
It was Joan Leslie's first film.
- #014
The film's world premiere was held on December 12, 1936, at the Plaza Theatre on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, California, which was also the theater's grand opening night. Robert Taylor attended the gala.
- #015
The film was shown in Annie (1982).
- #016
It was the last of four films featuring both Greta Garbo and Lionel Barrymore.
- #017
The music, with an original score by Herbert Stothart, generally includes a dramatic theme from Verdi's "La Traviata" (the famous Italian opera adaptation of Dumas's novel) and music from Chopin's piano works (interestingly, in 1978 a ballet inspired by the novel and set to Chopin's music would be presented).
- #018
It was included on the American Film Institute's 2002 list of America's Greatest 100 Love Story Films.
- #019
It was included on the American Film Institute's 1998 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Greatest American Films.
- #020
Camille appears in Words and Music (1948), where its film poster is shown, and in the scene in which Richard Rodgers (played by Tom Drake) goes to a theater to see the film.
- #021
This plot resembles that of Moulin Rouge (2001), which stars Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and Richard Roxburgh.
- #022
Camille received its first television broadcasts on Saturday, March 16, 1957, on WXIX (Channel 19) (Newport, KY) in Cincinnati; on Sunday, April 7, 1957, on WCBS (Channel 2) and KING (Channel 5) in both New York City and Seattle; and on Tuesday, April 9, 1957, on WFIL (Channel 6) in Philadelphia. It first aired in Portland, OR, on May 7, 1957, on KGW (Channel 8); in Minneapolis on May 22, 1957, on KMGM (Channel 9); in Los Angeles on May 24, 1957, on KTTV (Channel 11); in New Haven, CT, on June 4, 1957, on WNHC (Channel 8); in Altoona, PA, on June 11, 1957, on WFBG (Channel 10); in Honolulu on July 4, 1957, on KHVH (Channel 13); in Phoenix on July 18, 1957, on KPHO (Channel 5); and in Chicago on September 14, 1957, on WBBM (Channel 2); it first aired in San Francisco on October 11, 1958, on KGO (Channel 7).
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