Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301977753
Format: NTSC
ISBN: 6301977750
Label: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Manufacturer: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Release Date: 1990-11-28
Running Time: 128
Studio: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Theatrical Release Date: 1935-12-25

Ronald Colman isn't even on screen for the most famous lines of his career ("It's a far, far better thing I do..."), but such is the power of the moment and the performance that everybody remembers it anyway. A Tale of Two Cities was the follow-up for producer David O. Selznick and high-class studio MGM to their hit adaptation of another Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations. While not scaling the heights of that impeccable production, Tale gives a tight, straightforward reading of Dickens' story of the French Revolution. Colman plays the drunken romantic Sydney Carton, who pines for the lovely Lucie Manette (Elizabeth Allan) even though she marries former French aristocrat Charles Darnay (Donald Woods). Meanwhile, back in Paris, the Revolution erupts, and Darnay is fated for the guillotine... perhaps. Along with Colman's expert study in melancholy, the film is crammed with fragrant supporting players, such as Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen, and the uniquely unsettling Blanche Yurka as the endlessly-knitting Madame Defarge. In a handful of scenes, Basil Rathbone makes the Marquis de Evremonde the quintessence of clueless privilege ("With what I get from these peasants, I can hardly afford to pay my perfume bill"). Journeyman director Jack Conway doesn't have the lovely touch that George Cukor brought to Copperfield, but Selznick hired him because "the picture is melodrama, it must have pace and it must 'pack a wallop.'" It still does. Footnote to film history: Selznick's assistant, Val Lewton, supervised the Revolutionary montage, and hired director Jacques Tourneur for the job; later they would team up on Lewton's great run of B-horror pictures, beginning with Cat People. --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: The epitome of classic
Comment: This is a magnificent film of a wonderful book. The casting and acting are superb. Ronald Coleman as Sidney Carton has his best role. Edna Mae Oliver almost steals the movie as Miss Pross. She dominates every scene she is in. The lady who plays Mdm. DeFarge created a film character that any other actress could only envy. The storming of the Bastile had to be a major advance in epic filming for its day.

Most importantly, this film represents a value and quality in film that is never equalled in today's "see it and forget it" movies. I have not seen any other versions of "A Tale of Two Cities," but this is the gold standard.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I can't believe it
Comment: I cannot believe the movie got to my home so promptly. Everything the site said was true. The product came completely packaged and brand new. I can't say anything but positive things at it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Greatest Version of A Tale of Two Cities Ever!
Comment: This movie is by far the best of A Tale of Two Cities. It was made by the great MGM studios and David O. Selznick the same year and about the same time that they made David Copperfield was. I can only imagine how fun it must been creating these two wonderful films on the backlot at the same time. Many of the same character actors are in both pictures. This picture is the one I prefer. After all it has the wonderful Ronald Colman as the charismatic Sydney. How could Lucy prefer Charles over him? Ok, I know that Sydney drinks but he has style! I personally prefer this film over the book but don't tell anyone. Ok?!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Two Cities
Comment: Perhaps the line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." shall echo in the recesses of my mind forever and always make me long for such a wonderful opening to a book as Charles Dickens did with his masterpiece "A Tale of Two Cities". However; if the book didn't enthrall me enough the 1935 movie absolutely glued me to this tale of heroism by an ordinary but incredible man. The ability exhibited in this movie to bring such vivid images to the screen like Madame Defarge knitting as royalties heads are lopped off are incredible. Add to that the scene when Ronald Coleman recites his "It's a far, far better thing I do, ..., far better rest that I go to". If you don't have tear jerking at your cheek I think perhaps you should join the Defarge knitting club. I shouldn't be surprised though with David O. Selznick at the helm of the production and John Conway directing. It is a masterpiece of a movie that I think even Dickens would have stamped his seal of approval on. I highly recommend this movie to bring the book alive for you. Excellent DVD with great replayability. If you enjoyed this, catch "Great Expectations"(1947) and "The Scarlet Pimpernel"(1935). - C. Luster

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Tale of Two Cities
Comment: Excellent performance by actors especially Ronald Colman, Blanch Yurka and Basil Rathbone. Great story based on historic facts

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