Word: walewska
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Conquest (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). For several years Greta Garbo has been toying with the notion of doing a screen play based on the love affair between Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie Countess Walewska of Poland. The notion was in the Hollywood tradition, for most producers like royal historical episodes for an important star. They give the star dignity. If dignity is its purpose, Conquest admirably succeeds. It moves with the fateful and august tread of history itself. Its huge, expensive panorama (running time: 2½ hours, cost: $2,000,000) embraces a quarter of a century and three-quarters of Europe...
...next hour Screenwriters Samuel Hoffenstein, Salka Viertel and S. N. Behrman seem undecided what to do for story matter. They fall back on the facts taught in schools about their hero's life. Napoleon divorces Josephine (out of camera range). He arranges to wed Habsburg Marie Louise. Marie Walewska is disgusted. Says she: "'The savior of Europe has become a son-in-law." Not until after the retreat from Moscow does Marie have much more to do with the Emperor, except for bearing him a son. At Elba they are reunited and Marie agrees to take a message...
Central character of the novel is Napoleon. Heroine is his Polish mistress, 20-year-old, blonde, serious-minded Marie Walewska. By rubberizing history, pseudonymous English Author Pilgrim contrives a cinematic tale based on the ten months which marked the height of Napoleon's career, the beginning of his skid toward Waterloo as a result of his Spanish campaign...