COLIN FIRTH IN

GENRE: drama

DIRECTOR: Desmon Davies

SCREENPLAY: Blanche Hanalis, based on Alexander Dumas' (fils) play "La dame aux camelias", 1851. Translated paperback edition, with many black and white pictures from this and previous adoptions, published by Signet Classics 1984. [ISBN 0-451-52398-9]

PRODUCER: Norman Rosemont [Note: writer and producer are the same as for The Secret Garden, made a few years later.]

PRINCIPAL CAST: Greta Scacchi [Marguerite Gautier], Colin Firth [Armand Duval], John Gielgud [Duke de Charles], Ben Kingsley [Duval], Billie Whitelaw [Prudence] et al

THE FILM is about Marguerite Gautier, a beautiful Paris courtesan, who finds true love in Armand Duval, the headstrong son of a prominent French family. But their love is a scandal and has no future.

For every devoted Firth fan this Camille is a must, of course. It is indeed interesting to watch Colin as Armand, who in some scenes have an expression on his face that very well could be described as a "young Darcy"... but this version of Dumas' play La dame aux camelias doesn't engage me like - for example - George Cukor's Camille from 1937, starring Greta Garbo as Marguerite and the rising newcomer Robert Taylor as Armand. (Rudolph Valentino played Armand in an early silent movie 1921. And both Eleanora Duse [1893] and Sarah Bernhardt [1913] have been highly acclaimed for their stage performances as Marguerite in Camille. )

VIDEO: NTSC video. The Museum of Television and Radio in New York City has a video of this film available to the public.