A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

Directed by Jack Conway. Starring Ronald Colman, Donald Woods, Edna May Oliver, Elizabeth Allan, Blanche Yurka, Walter Catlett, Claude Gillingwater, Reginald Owen, Basil Rathbone, Mitchell Lewis, Henry B. Walthall, Lucille La Verne, Fritz Leiber.

Charles Dickens’ novel of the “best of times…worst of times” leading up to the French Revolution is adapted for the silver screen. Sweeping, well-staged presentation, though overly crowded at times due to uneven pruning of Dickens’ typically expansive collection of minor characters and sub-plots. Colman and Yurka stand out in the cast—the former as the heavy-drinking cynic, Sydney Carton, who chooses the ultimate sacrifice; the latter as the revenge-obsessed knitting-stalwart, Madame Defarge. Rathbone is also memorable as a pitilessly snobbish aristocrat. Flaws in pacing and organization are vindicated by the indelible climax. On the page, Englishman Carton and Frenchman Charles Darnay (Woods) are practically twins, but in the film, they are not similar enough to be mistaken for one another—Colman would go on to play lookalikes in The Prisoner of Zenda, though.

81/100