Conquest Series: Charles Boyer and The Art of Seduction [May 23 – 27] Director: Clarence Brown, Country: USA, Release: 1937, Runtime: 113
Marie Walewska is a real historic figure who remains much-beloved in her native Poland. Yet the purpose of this entertaining yarn is not historical fact, operating on a preposterous (if not hilarious) premise that Walewska was urged by the Polish government to sleep with Napoleon to save her native country. Principally adapted by well-known playwright S.N. Behrman from the novel Pani Walewska by Polish writer Waclaw Gasiorowski, Conquest evidently languished on MGM’s story department shelves waiting for an actor skilled enough to play Napoleon opposite the divine Greta Garbo. Boyer, a star on the rise following the release of History Is Made at Night, allegedly demanded and got an enormous fee to play the role.
The onscreen romance plays out quite well against a backdrop of intrigue, big battles, shameful divorce and attacks by Cossacks. Not a hit initially, the film holds up well, and Garbo, who purringly refers to her beloved as “Napoleone” (not to be confused with the famous dessert), shines in her scenes with her conqueror, though their acting styles could not be more different. The panache and charm of Boyer’s performance earned the actor his first of four Oscar nominations, while The New Yorker proclaimed that for the first time Garbo had “a leading man who contributes more to the interest and vitality of the film than she does.”
