A Tale of Two Cities (1935) Film Review

A Tale of Two Cities (1935) Director: Jack Conway

“It’s a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.
It’s a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”

★★★★★

David O. Selznick’s final MGM before he broke away to start his own production company, Jack Conway’s production of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities is widely regarded as the best film version of the novel ever created (this was one of two separate David O. Selznick film adaptations of Charles Dickens in 1935, the other being David Copperfield which was directed by George Cukor). It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Film Editing by the Academy Awards. It was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film.

A Tale of Two Cities is about Lucie Manette (Elizabeth Allan), a Londoner who learns that her long-lost father is actually alive and has been suffering in the Bastille in Paris for years. She travels to Paris when he is freed and she nurses his fragile psyche back to health. Along the way, she meets Charles Darnay, an aristocrat who is sympathetic to the French people, many of whom have been oppressed by the Parisian aristocracy. He is framed for treason by Sidney Carton but is let off the hook when he is found not guilty. Both Carton and Darnay fall in love with Manette, but she chooses Darnay and they are married.

Then the Reign of Terror begins to take over France with a famous and powerful scene of the great masses of Frenchmen storming the Bastille in Paris. Darnay is tricked by a partly fraudulent letter sent from a friendly aristocrat to lure him to Paris. He is captured and charged for the crimes of his notorious uncle, the Marquis du Evremonde. Carton devises a plan to rescue Darnay, by replacing him in his cell. In doing so, Carton believes he is redeeming himself for his earlier sins. In the end, he sacrifices himself as a hero to the guillotine in Paris.

A Tale of Two Cities is a powerful, suspenseful, and tender film that beautifully captures the plight of a hero during a time of great duress. Though it may not get its full due among the consensus of critics, A Tale of Two Cities film sill deserves to find its place among the greats.

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Credits:

• Director: Jack Conway
• Written by: W. P. Lipscomb and S. N. Behrman
• Based on: A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens
• Produced by: David O. Selznick
• Cinematography: Oliver T. Marsh
• Edited by: Conrad A. Nervig
• Music by: Herbert Stothart
• Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Starring:
  • Ronald Colman…..Sydney Carton
  • Elizabeth Allan…..Lucie Manette