CONQUEST

CONQUEST
(USA 1937)
ALTERNATE TITLES
Maria Walewska (GERMANY, FRANCE, SWEDEN & UK) Maria Walewska (DENAMRK, ITALY, PORTUGAL) La Conquista ( VENEZUELA) Gräfin Walewska (AUSTRIA) Kreivitär Walewska (FINLAND) Madame Valewska (BRAZIL) Pani Walewska (POLAND)
FILM SCENES

COMPANY
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) MGM Production: 983
CREDITS
Directed by Clarence Brown. Produced by Bernard H. Hyman. Screenplay by Samuel Hoffenstein, Salka Viertel and S.N. Behrman. Based on the novel Pani Walewska by Waclaw Gasiorowski and a dramatization by Helen Jerome. Photographed by Karl Freund. Edited by Tom Held. Musical score by Herbert Stothart. Recording supervised by Douglas Shearer. Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons; Associates: William A. Homing and Edwin B. Willis. Gowns by Adrian.
TECHNICAL SPECS
113 Minutes
CAST
Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Reginald Owen, Alan Marshall, Henry Stephenson, Leif Erickson, Dame May Whitty, Marie Ouspenskaya, C. Henry Gordon, Claude Gillingwater, Vladimir Sokoloff, George Houston, Sc otty Beckett...
GARBO'S CHARACTER
Countess Marie Walewska
FILM POSTER
More HERE!
SYNOPSIS
In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte (Charles Boyer) visits Poland. At a state ball, he sees Countess Marie Walewska (Greta Garbo) and is attracted to her. When she is asked by Poland's leaders to visit Napoleon to gain his aid in making Poland independent, she reluctantly agrees. She has an affair with him, and when her husband, Count Walewski (Henry Stephenson), finds out, he divorces her. Marie becomes Napoleon's mistress and leaves with him. However, she sees him losing his love for her and the cause of freedom and, in its stead, gaining a love for power. She hopes to marry him, but when Talleyrand (Reginald Owen) arranges his marriage to the Hapsburg princess Marie Louise, her hopes are gone. Marie Walewska bears Napoleon a son. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, she takes their son to see him. Marie and Napoleon say their last farewells before he is taken into exile at St. Helena.
QUOTES FROM THE FILM
(in Treatment)
AUDIO-FILE
More HERE!
MOVIE PROGRAM
More HERE!
MOVIE ADVERTISMENTS
More HERE!
PREMIERED/RELEASED
remiere date: November 5, 1937 (Capitol Theatre in New York) Release Date USA: October 22, 1937 Rele ase Date in Germany: 23.3.5.50. – TV : 6.1.73/2.5.73 (ZDF)
LOBBYCARDS
See HERE!
PRODUCTION
Production Dates: May–August 1937 Production Location: USA
MOVIE STILLS
The Stills were made during the production by William Grimes . 131 Movie Stills were shot. More HERE!
TRIVIA
Conquest was Garbo only film with Charles Boyer. Garbo's salary was $500,000 Filmed in 127 days. Garbo's most expensive film. Garbo's least successful MGM film. This film lost more money for MGM than any other of its films during the period from 1920 to 1949. Charles Boyer as was nominated for an Oskar as Best Actor. The film was also nomination for an Oskar as Best Art Direction. When MGM announced that Garbo will star as Napoleon's lover Marie Walweska, Paramount tried to make a film about Josephine, wife of Napoleon, starring Marlene Dietrich. The Film was first planned straight after Anna Karenina. According to Salka Viertel, Irving Thalberg had thought its political background “too complicated for American audiences, but became interested after I had suggested Charles Boyer to play Napoleon.” Alla Nazimova was offered the role of Countess Pelagia Walewska in Conquest, but she had to turn it down to fulfill her tour obligations.
THE REAL MATA HARI
Marie, Countess Walewski (or Walewska) born Laczynska (1786 - 1817) Polish countess, wife of Count A. Walewski and mistress of Napoleon I Bonaparte and mother of Napoleon's only son. At the age of eighteen, Marie Laczynska married Count Athenasius Walewski, her senior by several years, by whom she had a son in 1805. Two years later, in January of 1807, she became acquainted with the emperor of the French and they started a passionate affair.
BACKGROUND STORY
(in Treatment)
BUSINESS DATA
Budget: 2.732.000 Dollar. Gross: USA:730.000 Dollar; Non-USA: 1.411.000 Dollar; World: 2.141.000 Dollar. Loss: 1.397.000 Dollar. Garbo's Salary: $500,000
PORTRAITS
Clarence Sinclair Bull made the portraits of Garbo for the film, on September 2, 1937. More HERE!
REVIEWS
John Mosher for The New Yorker:
Madame Garbo's elegant anemia, I fear, can pall a little. Her performance seems static, though the story covers a period of years. Beautiful, fragile, and tired, she stands in the first scene among the Cossacks invading her husband's house; and quite unchanged, fragile and tired still, she waves her last farewell to Napoleon, as though she would assert and try to prove that loyalty is but a symptom of exhaustion. I think that for the first time Madame Garbo has a leading man who contributes more to the interest and vitality of the film than she does. She is, we may assume, grateful for such assistance.
SIMILAR FILMS
(in Treatment)
FAN ART
See more HERE!
PICTURE FROM THE FILM-SET
Director Cukor and Garbo More HERE!
STORY FROM THE FILM-SET
(in Treatment)
ALTERNATE SCENES
One day before filming started, Greta wrote a letter to her friend Salka Viertel. Viertel was working on the screen-play and Garbo wrote her: "I was thinking about the Napoleon story and was going to ask you something that you probably would not like. I have a great longing for trousers and if I ask you in time maybe you can put in a little sequence with the trousers, maybe her dressed as soldier, going to Napoleon's tent, at night, or something. I am sorry not to contribute anything more, but it is merely to remind you about the trousers."
WORKING TITLES
The Walewska Story Walewska
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
Based on the book Pani Walewska by Waclaw Gasiorowski. The film is also inspired by a dramatization about Walewska written by Helen Jerome.
DVD/VHS
Available on DVD (PAL only) & VHS. See HERE!
	SOURCE
	Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy – by Mark A. Vieira (Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York 2005). This is the best and most accurate book about Garbo's-Films.
	OTHER SOURCES
	Karen Swenson – A life Apart Barry Paris – Garbo IMDB – International Movie Database plus many other books, magazines and internet sites.


	Film - Introduction