CONQUEST

MGM, 1937.  Directed by Clarence Brown.  Camera:  Karl Freund.  With Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Reginald Owen, Alan Marshal, Henry Stephenson, Leif Erickson, Dame Mae Whitty, Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Henry Gordon, Claude Gillingwater, Vladimir Sokoloff, George Houston, Alexander Akimoff, Stanley Andrews, Oscar Apfel, Scotty Beckett, Arthur Belasco, Joseph E. Bernard, Betty Blythe, Sidney Bracey, Ed Brady, Henry Brandon, Horace G. Brown, Yakima Canutt, Aileen Carlyle, Lane Chandler, Albert Conti, Harry Cording, D'Arcy Corrigan, George Cowl, George Davis, Guy D'Ennery, Kay Deslys, Carlos De Valdez, Dr. Farid, Jean Fenwick, Paul Fix, Eddie Foster, Christian J. Frank, Rosina Galli, Jack George, George Givot, Grace Goodall, Robert Graves, Ben Hall, Ralf Harolde, Winifred Harris, Lew Harvey, Tom Herbert, Ramsay Hill, Shep Houghton, Olaf Hytten, Mitchell Ingraham, Noble Johnson, Pasha Khan, Henry Kolker, Adia Kuznetzoff, Frank Lackteen, Ethan Laidlaw, Ivan Lebedeff, Mitchell Lewis, Wilfred Lucas, Fred Malatesta, Francisco Marán, James A. Marcus, Alphonse Martell, Francis McDonald, Frank McGlynn, Jr., Lois Meredith, Charles Middleton, Art Miles, Sue Moore, Louis Natheaux, Dennis O'Keefe, Paul Parry, Edward Peil, Sr., Lee Phelps, Norman Phillips, Jr., John Picorri, Lee Prather, Bodil Rosing, Harry Semels, Philip Sleeman, George Sorel, Larry Steers, Paul Sutton, Ken Terell, Cyril Thornton, Laura Treadwell, Jacques Vanaire, Roland Varno, Dorothy Vaughan, Robert Warwick, Eric Wilton, Ian Wolfe, George Zucco.

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

In Eastern Poland, in January 1807, the home of the Count Walewska and his wife Marie is overrun by pillaging Russian soldiers who make fun of the young countess and her aging husband.  Soon after they leave, Marie's brother Paul Lachinski arrives and enthralls Marie with tales of the French Emperor Napoleon, whose armies have just arrived in Poland.

Later, Marie briefly encounters the emperor near a church and is as impressed with him as he is with her.  Two months later, Marie and her husband are formally introduced to Napoleon at a ball at the Poniatowski Palace in Warsaw, and she is pleased that he does not reveal their earlier brief meeting, but is uneasy about his obvious attraction to her.  When he sends notes to her proclaiming his admiration and suggesting that her responsiveness would benefit her country, she is upset and confides in her husband.  He wants to take her away but, when some of the Polish leaders beg Marie to give in to Napoleon to save their country, she decides to go to him.

When she returns to the count, he leaves her.  Soon Napoleon and his personal staff take quarters in Marie's home.  Although she is antagonistic toward him at first, her sympathy for his inner loneliness soon softens her feelings and she returns his love.  They become more and more happily in love, but her happiness is marred by her brother's adverse reaction to their relationship and by Napoleon's long absences.

Two years later, while Napoleon seeks a divorce from his wife, the count obtains an annulment of his marriage, and Marie secretly awaits the birth of her child.  She is summoned to Vienna to join Napoleon but, when she arrives, she learns that Napoleon is planning to marry the Princess Marie Louise of Austria in the hopes of establishing a strong dynasty.  Though she is shattered, Marie accepts Napoleon's marriage and leaves him to have her child alone.

During the course of the next few years, Napoleon suffers many defeats.  His army is forced to retreat from their position in Moscow and, despite a last attempt to recapture his former empire, he eventually loses everything at the Battle of Waterloo.  In his final exile on the island of Elba, he sends for Marie.  She and her son Alexandre go to him and stay with him until he dies.

American Film Institute Catalog

Additional photos courtesy of Gary