"Conquest" does what a lot of movies from the 1930s did: take a historical subject and turn it into a dreary romantic melodrama that feels like every other dreary romantic melodrama ever made.
I've really liked Greta Garbo in some things (hello "Ninotchka"), but roles like the one she plays in this movie were what she was most often given, and they're my least favorite. She yearns and sighs stoically like no one's business, but it's boring. Charles Boyer is another actor I've never really taken to. He gets the juicy role of Napoleon and won an Oscar nomination for it, but every other actor nominated with him that year (I've seen all of them) were more impressive.
"Conquest" won a second Oscar nomination for its art direction, courtesy of the billion times nominated Cedric Gibbons and his partner in this one, William Horning.
Grade: B-
I've really liked Greta Garbo in some things (hello "Ninotchka"), but roles like the one she plays in this movie were what she was most often given, and they're my least favorite. She yearns and sighs stoically like no one's business, but it's boring. Charles Boyer is another actor I've never really taken to. He gets the juicy role of Napoleon and won an Oscar nomination for it, but every other actor nominated with him that year (I've seen all of them) were more impressive.
"Conquest" won a second Oscar nomination for its art direction, courtesy of the billion times nominated Cedric Gibbons and his partner in this one, William Horning.
Grade: B-