A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Another literary classic gets the Hollywood treatment . What this 1935 version of "A Tale of Two Cities" lacks in sophistication it certainly makes up for in vigour. Jack Conway directed, (though Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur are credited with the handling of the crowd scenes, which are magnificent), and Ronald Colman is a splendid Sydney Carton doing a far, far better thing than he had ever done, The supporting cast are something of a mish-mash; Elizabeth Allan and Donald Woods are drips as Lucie and Charles Darnay but Edna May Oliver is terrific as Miss Pross and Blanche Yurka, a suitably terrifying Madame De Farge, knitting shrouds like there's no tomorrow which, of course, for many there wasn't. Subtle it isn't but even now it's still one of the most enjoyable epics of its period and vastly superior to the tepid British remake with Dirk Bogarde playing both Carton and Darnay.