A Tale of Two Cities

David O. Selznick is still best remembered as the producer of the classic "Gone With The Wind", however his work goes much further back at MGM and earlier at RKO where he was responsible for such efforts as "King Kong", "David Copperfield", "The Prisoner of Zenda", and "A Star is Born" among others. Never however did he produce a finer effort than here in his 1935 version of "A Tale of Two Cities". The film provided Ronald Colman with possibly his greatest role as the frivolous lawyer Sydney Carton who in the face of the bloody French Revolution learns about life and duty and makes the ultimate sacrifice for the well being of those he has grown to love. Colman, always a superb actor is a perfect choice as Carton and he brings to the role not only his beautifully trained voice and presentation but also a real understanding of what the character was about both in the earlier scenes as a drunken no good and later in the exciting scenes during the outbreak of the revolution where he develops a sense of the rightness of some things in the face of adversity. The story of "A Tale of Two Cities", is a well known one of two men both in love with the same women with one (Carton) undergoing the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the woman he loves but can never possess. This tale is played out against the colourful but dangerous tapestry of the revolution in France in 1789. Selznick pulled out all the stops with this film which boasts production values unsurpassed at the time. Recreated vividly for the camera are the scenes depicting the storming of the Bastille (involving thousands of extras filmed entirely on the MGM backlot), revolutionary Paris in all its opulence and squalor, the bogus revolutionary tribunals which condemmned thousands of innocent people to the death sentence and most vividly the ghastly executions by the infamous Guillotine.

Apart from Ronald Colman's towering central performance the film has many other unforgettable performances which really capture the wonderful richness of Charles Dicken's characters. The beautiful Elizabeth Allan also had one of her best roles as Lucie Manette the object of Carton's affection who falls in love with and marries Charles Darney ( handsome Donald Woods), a naive young French aristocrat who ultimately leds Carton to his destiny in revolutionary Paris when he exchanges places with him on the eve of his execution for being an "enemy" of the Republic. Legendary character actress Edna May Oliver had I firmly believe her best remembered role here as the bossy Miss Pross, the guardian of Lucie who goes through all the visitudes of the revolution to stay by the side of and protect her "Lady bird". She is wonderful in her playing and really is one of the main outstanding elements that make "A Tale of Two Cities" the classic it is. Basil Rathbone plays to the hilt his detestable villian role of the Marquis St. Evermonde who is Charles Darnay's uncle. Working with a totally horrid character , being the superb actor he was, Rathbone manages to create a wonderfully memorable villian that is at the basis of the whole story. The scene of his carriage running over a peasant boy and the Marquise being annoyed that it might have upset his horses is a tragically memorable moment typical of Dicken's pen when writing about the clash of the social classes but to today's viewer like myself it will bring tears to your eyes over the wretched conditions the peasantry lived under at this time. Equally memorable are the actors and actresses playing the peasants in the story. Of all the unforgettable performances of the notorius Madame Defarge over the years none have elicpsed Blanche Yurka's frentic playing of the desperate revolutionary out for revenge. She is both frightening and tragic when one learns of her families fate at the hands of the Marquise St. Evremonde.The vision of her endlessly knitting while people go to their deaths is one of the dramatic highights of this stirring tale. Lucille La Verne (the voice of the wicked witch in Disney's classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"), Reginald Owen, Mitchell Lewis and Henry B. Walthall complete the sterling cast and provide the story with a wealth of beautiful characterisations.

As a history lesson this version of "A Tale of Two Cities", with its historically accurate look and feel for the times really cannot be bettered. I love it most of all the versions as it shows all the departments of the legendary MGM studios combining in one totally polished production from the great years of Hollywood movie making. A film on this scale could barely be attempted today and it says alot for the genius of David O. Selnick's vision, and the performances by Ronald Colman and supporting cast that it has become "THE" definitive version of Charles Dicken's classic novel. Sit back and allow yourself to be swept away by the colour and tragedy of the French Revolution in David O. Selznick's classic "A Tale of Two Cities".