Bloated, big-budget soaper from MGM, shrill with treacly, over-the-top melodrama. This grabs your throat as if intent on choking you. Nothing is left to the imagination. Subtlety is ground into dust. Heroes and villains, good and evil, are starkly black and white. Of incidental interest are brilliant crowd scenes, the storming of the Bastille, devised by Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur (cf., their horror, B-movie collaborations in the '40s).

I consider Dickens one of my favorite authors, but the truth is I've only read a few of his works. I haven't read "A Tale of Two Cities," but I was not surprised to find it a very compelling story, populated by memorable, likable characters, graced with intriguing drama, and commenting on the cruelty and injustice perpetuated by both sides of the French Revolution. Some characterizations and flourishes are a bit too much (the storming of the Bastille, although wonderfully constructed by Lewton and Tourneur, is marred by some over-the-top titles) but for the most part it's a rock solid film, easily watchable and quite enjoyable. Excellent production value and strong performances. It made me want to read the novel, which is perhaps the finest thing an adaptation can accomplish.

This is a movie you must see. Period. If you don't see it, you will be the less for it. If you have seen it, see it again.You will appreciate freedom, justice, liberty, and sacrifice as you have never appreciated them before.Colman is unbeaten in his role as Carton. Madame DeFarge is both a woman of abounding evil and deep tragedy, the true fruits of injustice and inequality. And Miss Pross, would that we all were so brave. The whole plot reveals the need for justice and equality in life, and the horrible price that is always paid when they are suppressed for too long. There always comes a point where even the people with the best of intentions are swept away by the anger.A great movie, one of the 10 best.

"A Tale of Two Cities" is a beautiful historical drama, true to the Dickens novel as produced by David O. Selznick. Released in 1935, it stars Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton, Elizabeth Allan as Lucy, Basil Rathbone, Donald Woods, Blanche Yurka, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen and Isabel Jewell.No point in repeating the story. Colman's Sydney Carton is his best-remembered role - a sad alcoholic whose only joy in life is the beautiful Lucy and later on, her child. Carton is a man without much purpose, who doesn't really know why he's on earth and doesn't feel that he's worth much. In his self-sacrifice, he finds the meaning in life he has sought. Colman never overdid as an actor - if anything, he underplayed, and there was always a gentleness and a pathos to his performances. He's perfect as Carton. Elizabeth Allan is a beautiful, strong Lucy. Donald Woods, who plays her husband, the lucky Charles Darnay, seems a little out of place, however. As the cruel Lord Evremonde, Basil Rathbone is excellent. Two character actresses, Edna May Oliver and Blanche Yurka, hand in lively performances that really help make the film.This film version definitely reflects Dickens' point of view about the French Revolution, which isn't everyone's, but in remaining faithful to the novel, of course, Dickens' point of view is obvious. It is a great film to show in a literature class rather than a history class. It would be wonderful if this and some other classics could be introduced to students somehow. Too much Transformers and the like can't be that good for the soul.