A Tale of Two Cities

1935

Action / Drama / History / Romance

11
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 83% · 14 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 83% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.8/10 10 6823 6.8K

london, england paris, france based on novel or book self sacrifice redemption french revolution

Plot summary

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

Director

Jack Conway Photo
Jack Conway

Top cast

May Beatty Photo
May Beatty as Aristocrat
Forrester Harvey Photo
Forrester Harvey as Joe
Tully Marshall Photo
Tully Marshall as Woodcutter
Sam Flint Photo
Sam Flint as Aristocrat
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.13 GB
988*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 2
2.1 GB
1472*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by evanston_dad 8 / 10

Storming the Bastille, 1930s Style

I haven't read Charles Dickens' famous novel since high school, so I can't remember how faithful this film adaptation is. I'm sure much is excised from the book, as it would have to be in any adaptation that isn't 15 hours long. But as a stand-alone film, this version of "A Tale of Two Cities" is an awfully good one, and contains a lot of entertainment value. Ronald Colman does most of the heavy lifting and is superb in the lead role. But two stand outs from the supporting cast are Blanche Yurka as the infamous Madame De Farge, the personification of an activist spirit taken to monstrous extremes, and Edna May Oliver, a proper English lady who won't let a few thousand French revolutionaries intimidate her. The best scene of the film is the smack down between the two characters, one of the best cat fights committed to celluloid."A Tale of Two Cities" received two Oscar nominations in 1936, one for Best Picture in a year with ten nominees, and the other for its film editing, courtesy of Conrad Nervig, the man who won the very first film editing award when the category was introduced in 1934.Grade: A
Reviewed by st-shot 9 / 10

The best Hollywood Dickens

With the exception of David Copperfield this is probably Hollywood's most accomplished treatment of a Charles Dickens work. Sumptuously mounted and produced in grand MGM style it has the the perfect voice and charm of Ronald Colman as Sidney Carton, a stalwart supporting cast and magnificently choreographed large scale crowd scenes depicting the out of control energy and fury of the revolt and subsequent reign of terror. Colman's charming cynic wins us over early given he is surrounded by just cause with a Dicken's roster of pompous bores and hypocrites caught up in their own self importance. He drinks and offends but who can blame him. The sardonic wit of the film extends beyond Carton though by way of Dickens "cinematic" descriptive style that sharply conveys through both character and setting distracting dark humor over the grim proceedings by intermingling comic portraits with the sober cruel personages while making incisive social commentary. A laudable supporting cast consisting of Reginald Owen, Edna May Oliver, Billy Bevan, Blanche Yurka's Madame DeFarge and Basil Rathbone's venal Marquis de Evermonde truly do bring the pages to life, though I will admit an Oliver, Yurka death match near the end does take liberties with the tome. Oliver Marsh's photography is commendable throughout whether conveying panorama in the excellently edited storming of the Bastille and raucous courtroom scenes or the tight tension filled cramped ominously lit interiors of cells or the De Farge wine shop. With Colman in the lead and every MGM department clicking on all cylinders Tale of Two Cities remains fresh and vital 75 years later. It is one of those rear films that embraces rather than wrestle with a classic literary work which it does here with grandeur and confidence.
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