Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Camille Blu-ray Movie Review

♬ Pretty white people with problems. ♬

Reviewed by Randy Miller III March 9, 2023

George Cukor's 1936 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' Camille, a remake of the 1921 silent film starring Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino (included on this Blu-ray as an extra, but don't get too excited), is perhaps best remembered for featuring the most well-known leading role of elusive Greta Garbo, who would retreat from acting just five years later. Garbo's steady portrayal of doomed French courtesan Marguerite Gautier is right in line with her usual brand: emotive, expressive, and slightly unpredictable with a strong whiff of melancholy, which serendipitously fits in snugly with this somber period melodrama that should appeal to die-hard fans of both Garbo and the genre as a whole.

Well-known in Paris and the surrounding areas, Marguerite's generous lifestyle overshadows her financial planning, where extravagant gifts and other means of reckless spending have left her with little remaining money. (Her frequent bouts with "consumption", now known as tuberculosis, are the reason: Marguerite knows her days are numbered and prefers to live them as such.) As Marguerite's health competes with her plans, she nonetheless jumps at the chance to be introduced to wealthy Baron de Varville (Henry Daniell) in the hopes of continuing her way of life. Mistaken identity leads her to handsome Armand Duval (Robert Taylor), a kind but decidedly less wealthy man and, although her initial M.O. leads Marguerite to the real Baron, Armand's gentle but persistent nature may prompt a change of heart.

What follows is a tangled web of class boundaries, professed love, sickness, health, and other hits on the rocky road to Camille's memorably bittersweet ending. It's not a totally captivating experience for unfair reasons explained below, but most genre fans will consider it 109 minutes well spent: Camille is slow-moving but rarely dull, with admittedly solid supporting performances by the likes of Lionel Barrymore (It's a Wonderful Life), Jessie Ralph (After the Thin Man), and Laura Hope Crews (Gone With the Wind), as well as suitably great production and costume design.

I'll be completely up front, though, and admit that my main hang-ups with Camille are entirely due to personal bias: I'm not a fan of Greta Garbo and the completely overblown mythos surrounding her fiery but short-lived Hollywood career, nor is stuffy upper-class melodrama my cup of tea. Otherwise, Camille is a serviceable romantic drama that checks all the necessary boxes for genre fans, with my only other nitpick being its frequent use of exaggerated acting. (This can be at least partially forgiven, since most of its cast and crew began their careers in the silent era, when over-the-top movement and facial expressions were par for the course.) In any case, you'll know within the first ten minutes if Camille is in fact your bag, baby, since the film unabashedly wears the source material on its sleeve.

The ever-reliable Warner Archive brings Camille to Blu-ray with another of their top-tier restorations, this one being noteworthy due to the terrific results they've achieved using less-than-ideal source material. Add in equally impressive restored audio and a few well-meaning extras and you've got a solid package for established fans.

Camille Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Don't balk at the four-star rating for a boutique label that routinely scores even higher: Camille actually fares extremely well in the video department, thanks as always to Warner Archive's unwavering ability to stitch together multiple source elements... even when the original negative isn't one of them. A reliable source informs me that this 1080p transfer is derived from a new 4K scan of a dupe negative made all the way back in 1936, with select sequences swapped for their equivalents from a fine grain master positive. Yes, both elements are a few steps away from perfection... but under the circumstances, what we get here is a smoothly pleasing presentation of Camille that occasionally reaches into the upper tier of Warner Archive's best transfers in recent memory. As the first 19 screenshots suggest, detail and contrast levels tend to waver from scene to scene, with occasionally harsher grain levels and even a few chunkier noise patterns that nonetheless give almost every shot a suitably textured, film-like appearance. Depth is even quite impressive at times with nicely resolved black levels, though rare amounts of posterization can be picked out in a few of its darker patches. Even with these occasional hiccups, this is still terrific restoration work that clearly surpasses all previous home video editions, giving die-hard fans of Camille an easy reason to upgrade on its pure visual merits alone.

Camille Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio fares even better than expected, as this DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track -- a split one-channel mix that preserves Camille's mono roots -- is sourced from a 1960s-era safety track positive that was itself created from the original nitrate track negative. That's a roundabout way of saying that Camille's audio presentation is again as good as expected under the circumstances; Warner Archive's careful restoration work has erased almost every trace of age-related wear-and-tear, leaving in its wake a smooth and almost perfectly trouble-free track that, again, easily surpasses previous home video editions. Of course most films from this era don't have near the same level of dynamic range as those even a decade or two younger, but Camille easily competes with other vintage catalog titles in the areas of overall fidelity and cleanliness, earning this Blu-ray another easy check in the "win" column.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, but not the extras. This is annoying since the DVD that they were sourced from did in fact have optional subtitles available. It's perhaps my only ongoing hang-up regarding Warner Archive releases, and one that I hope is finally addressed at some point.

Camille Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with original poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts of any kind. Its bonus features seem to mimic those found on earlier DVD releases, for better or for worse.

• 1921 Silent Version (69:53) - This earlier silent version of Camille, directed by Ray C. Smallwood, stars Russian-born Alla Nazimova (who also produced) and Rudolph Valentino, the latter of whom died young only five years later from a condition that was later named after him. It's a capable version of the original story, all things considered -- maybe even better than the main feature in some respects -- and certainly worth a watch for both fans of the 1936 adaptation and silent films in general. Sadly, it's not much to look at: we get a straight port of whatever ancient source material was used for Warner Bros.' 2005 DVD, which also included this silent version as a bonus feature. It's in very rough shape and full of compression artifacts, including interlacing which causes frequent motion blur. Screenshots #21-25 are direct captures of how it appears on this Blu-ray.

• "Leo is On the Air" Radio Promo (14:13) - This audio-only bonus feature, part of the studio's long-running promotional radio series, promotes Camille with plenty of fanfare and sound clips from the film.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:25) - "Garbo -- the most fabulous personality of our time!" Well, that's debatable, even if we're just limiting the choices to women. Maybe... I don't know, Eleanor Roosevelt or Frida Kahlo?

Camille Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

George Cukor's Camille is a production that still holds weight, although your degree of personal enjoyment may hinge on both (1) admiration for star Greta Garbo and (2) tolerance of stuffy, upper-class melodrama. While I'm admittedly not a fan of either, the film's excellent production design, supporting characters, and slow-burning intrigue still make Camille accessible enough period fare, with Warner Archive's new Blu-ray helping to support the film's inarguable visual strengths. The full-length 1921 silent version is even included as a bonus feature, but it's in decidedly worse condition. Overall, this is a package clearly recommended to die-hard fans but newcomers should try before they buy.