Greta Garbo never won an Oscar for a specific role (she received a special one in 1954), but the New York film critics did give her their best actress gong for what is now one of her most famous performances, as the doomed heroine in George Cukor's sumptuous film of the younger Alexandre Dumas's classic play and novel. She certainly pulls out all the stops, whether expressing her love for young Armand (Robert Taylor), or modelling a glamorous wardrobe, or finally breathing her last in one of cinema's most celebrated death scenes. No one can die like Garbo. Cukor handles the whole thing with confidence, but it is Garbo's movie all the way.

Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier, who begins a sumptuous romance with Armand Duval.