Garbo + Camille + GIFs

With the aid of the very silly internet and the very silly people casting things onto it, hand over fist, it now appears it's even possible to crudely tell the tale of the otherwise sublime film "Camille", just with the use of the "animated GIF".  Probably something that shouldn't really be attempted if one has any respect for this great film... any sensitivity at all... any taste whatsoever... mais voilà!

Adrian's negligées

Norma Shearer in "Riptide", 1934.  The actress had such a great on-screen fondness for pale, barely-there, bias-cut satin gowns - quite
interchangeably evening frocks or negligées - that her coworkers referred to them all as "Norma's nightgowns".

Jean Harlow in straw-beads and marabout for "Dinner at Eight", 1933.  Adrian's most outrageous and most revealing negligées were
appropriately reserved for Harlow.

Greta Garbo in "Mata Hari", 1931.  As the photo reveals, this was a nightgown that really wasn't.  So much - or little - in fact, that this whole
seduction scene was soon cut from the film; we now merely see the un-self-conscious Swede waking the next morning, her un-negligée
discretely hidden by the bedclothes and a spray of orchids from her only recently departed lover.

Garbo and orchids, Mata Hari, 1931

(Two screen captures.)

Garbo, portraits for Camille, by Clarence Sinclair Bull, 1936

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Clarence Sinclair Bull (May 22, 1896, Sun River, Montana - June 8, 1979, Los Angeles), one of the greatest portrait photographers of "Golden Age" Hollywood.  He was the head of the stills department at MGM for almost forty years, and was Garbo's preferred photographer for nearly her entire American career, from 1926 to 1941.

Though you see very little of it in these "head shots", the gown is by Adrian.

Garbo, A Woman of Affairs, 1928

Garbo smiles....

Greta Garbo, Camille, 1936 - "Gowns by Adrian"

With the ubiquitous - and always wonderful - Henry Daniell

Two great "Latin Lovers" of the silent screen - one born, one fabricated - Moreno and Cortez

Antonio Moreno

Ricardo Cortez

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Antonio Moreno (September 26, 1887, Madrid – February 15, 1967, Beverly Hills), born Antonio Garrido Monteagudo, was a popular matinee idol by 1915 and remained so throughout the Twenties.  When sound came in, his heavy accent proved a handicap.  He turned to directing and made several popular films in Mexico, then returned to the States and transitioned into character parts.  He went on to have 151 screen credits.

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Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1900, New York City – April 28, 1977, New York City), born Jacob Krantz to Jewish parents, was an amateur boxer and worked on Wall Street before turning to acting.  By the mid-Twenties he was a popular leading man and transitioned easily when the "talkies" arrived.  Later, as his career wound down, he retired from films and returned, successfully, to Wall Street.  His screen career totaled 102 films.

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Trivia:  Ricardo Cortez starred with Greta Garbo in her first American film, The Torrent, in 1926.  He was her first and last co-star to have his name above hers in the title credits.  Garbo always had top billing after this, her first film.  As to Cortez' faked Spanish origins, when rumors started up that he wasn't what his name implied, the studio tried to put it across that he was actually French, before finally making the "admission" that he was really born in Vienna.

Antonio Moreno starred with Greta Garbo in her second American film, The Temptress, also in 1926.  After a considerable amount of footage was exposed, the film's director, Garbo's mentor Mauritz Stiller, was fired and the film entirely re-shot.  Many extant stills from The Temptress are actually from the aborted version, showing Garbo in different costumes and Moreno without a mustache.

Moreno, sans moustache, with Garbo in a scene not repeated in the second version of The Temptress.

Mauritz Stiller directing Garbo and Moreno in the unfinished first version of The Temptress.

A rather racy scene from the completed film.