Norma Talmadge - Career Decline

Career Decline

Talmadge's last film for First National was Camille (1926), an adaptation of an Alexandre Dumas, fils novel later remade by Greta Garbo. During filming, Talmadge fell in love with leading man Gilbert Roland. She asked Schenck for a divorce, but he was not ready to grant it. Despite his personal feelings, he was not going to break up a moneymaking team, however, and continued casting Roland in Talmadge's next three films released by United Artists. Talmadge and Schenck separated, though he continued producing her films. He was now president of the prestigious but theater-poor United Artists Corporation, and the rest of Talmadge's films were released for that company. UA’s distribution problems, however, began to erode her popularity. Her first films for this studio, The Dove (1927) and The Woman Disputed (1928), were box-office failures and ended up being her last silent movies. (The latter film was shown before a highly appreciative audience at the 2010 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.)

By the time Woman Disputed (1928) was released, the talking film revolution had begun, and Talmadge began taking voice lessons in preparation. She worked diligently with voice coaches for over a year so she could make her sound debut. Her first talkie, New York Nights (1929), showed that she could speak and act acceptably in talkies. While her performance was considered to be good, the film was not. Talmadge next took on the role of Madame Du Barry in the 1930 film DuBarry, Woman of Passion. With incompetent direction and Talmadge's inexperience at a role requiring very demanding vocal acting, the film was a failure, in spite of the elaborate sets by William Cameron Menzies.

On March 29, 1929, at the bungalow of Mary Pickford, United Artists brought together Talmadge, Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, Dolores del Río and D.W. Griffith to speak on the radio show The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove that Griffith could meet the challenge of talking movies.

Talmadge's sister Constance sent her a telegram with this advice: "Quit pressing your luck, baby. The critics can't knock those trust funds Mama set up for us". As time passed, it became increasingly clear that the public was no longer interested in its old favorites, and Talmadge was seen as an icon of the past. Talmadge had been increasingly bored with filmmaking before the talkie challenge came along, and this setback seems to have discouraged her from further attempts.

She still had two more films left on her United Artists contract. Samuel Goldwyn announced he had bought The Greeks Had a Word for It for her in late 1930, and she reportedly did some stage rehearsals for it in New York, but within a few months, she asked to be released from her contract. She never again appeared on screen.