A Tale Of Two Cities (1935)

Set just before and during the 18th century French Revolution, a dissolute attorney (Ronald Colman) becomes infatuated with the fiancee (Elizabeth Allan) of a Frenchman (the dull Donald Woods) accused of treason against England. His devotion to her causes him to make the ultimate sacrifice. Based on the classic novel by Charles Dickens, this is a wonderful focused adaptation done in the lustrous MGM style of the 1930s. It's a rather Readers Digest compacted version of the novel and some of the acting is pretty bad but the director Jack Conway (LIBELED LADY) does a credible job of bringing Dickens' novel to a cinematic life. Colman manages to actually act and not rely on his voice do all the work for him. Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur are credited with directing the revolution sequences. There's a wealth of rich supporting performances with two that stand out: Blanche Yurka's demonic Madame De Farge, fervently knitting away as the blood bath that followed splashes around her and Edna May Oliver as Allan's fierce and proud English companion. There's a nice Herbert Stothart underscore which fortunately uses restraint in its use of La Marseillaise, one shudders to think if Max Steiner had scored the film. With Basil Rathbone, Reginald Owen, Henry B. Walthall, H.B. Warner, Lucille La Verne as the cackling witch The Vengeance and Isabel Jewell who just about breaks your heart as the condemned seamstress.