The cities are London and Paris during the George III era, but A Tale of Two Cities is also the story of two men who loved the same woman, but she could only love one of them.
The first man is Charles Darnay who is an aristocrat, heir to the title of Marquis St.Evremonde. As written by Charles Dickens and played by Donald Woods, Darnay is a man schooled in the Enlightenment teachings of Voltaire and sees a lot of the injustices perpetrated by people like his uncle Basil Rathbone. When Elizabeth Allan brings over her father Henry B. Walthall who has been imprisoned in the Bastille, she meets Woods on the boat and they're crushing out on each other big time.
The second man is Sydney Carton and Ronald Colman in the biography that his daughter Juliet wrote about him said that Carton was one of his favorite parts. A man of undeniable legal talents, but who in mid life has given way to cynicism and drunken dissipation, Colman makes this classical literary character very human indeed and one who in moments of despair, someone we can identify with.
They both love Allan, but she only loves Woods. In the end seeing his life amounts to a whole lot of nothing, with no family or friends, Colman makes a big sacrifice for Allan's happiness.
Of course this all done in the background of Georgian London and the French Revolution. Thomas Carlyle's history and this novel by Dickens is how we in the English speaking world have viewed the French Revolution. It's a classic case of over reaction on a grand scale.
David O. Selznick made some brilliant casting choices as Charles Dickens's classic characters come to life on the big screen. My favorites besides Colman are Blanche Yurka as Madame DeFarge and Edna May Oliver as Miss Pross.
Blanche Yurka is maybe the best study in literature about how hate and malice can twist a human being. She's so crazy to wipe out all the aristocrats it extends to women and small children. The point Dickens made about Charles Darnay is that he in fact did repudiate the life and views of Basil Rathbone, but that makes no difference to Yurka. It's Yurka's best known role.
Edna May Oliver as Miss Pross gets one of her two or three best known roles. She was an American from New England and classically trained, trained so well to play all these English literary characters like the Aunt in David Copperfield, Lady Catherine DeBurgh in Pride and Prejudice and of course Miss Pross. When these two tangle, the most famous chick fight in literature comes alive on the screen.
Colman gets the thespian honors here though. My favorite scene with him is in the Bastille and going to the Guillotine when he comforts Isabell Jewell whose only crime is that she was a loyal servant and seamstress to an aristocrat. It's Ronald Colman at his best.
When you see this version of A Tale of Two Cities you will realize that there aren't any far far better things Ronald Colman ever did.
The first man is Charles Darnay who is an aristocrat, heir to the title of Marquis St.Evremonde. As written by Charles Dickens and played by Donald Woods, Darnay is a man schooled in the Enlightenment teachings of Voltaire and sees a lot of the injustices perpetrated by people like his uncle Basil Rathbone. When Elizabeth Allan brings over her father Henry B. Walthall who has been imprisoned in the Bastille, she meets Woods on the boat and they're crushing out on each other big time.
The second man is Sydney Carton and Ronald Colman in the biography that his daughter Juliet wrote about him said that Carton was one of his favorite parts. A man of undeniable legal talents, but who in mid life has given way to cynicism and drunken dissipation, Colman makes this classical literary character very human indeed and one who in moments of despair, someone we can identify with.
They both love Allan, but she only loves Woods. In the end seeing his life amounts to a whole lot of nothing, with no family or friends, Colman makes a big sacrifice for Allan's happiness.
Of course this all done in the background of Georgian London and the French Revolution. Thomas Carlyle's history and this novel by Dickens is how we in the English speaking world have viewed the French Revolution. It's a classic case of over reaction on a grand scale.
David O. Selznick made some brilliant casting choices as Charles Dickens's classic characters come to life on the big screen. My favorites besides Colman are Blanche Yurka as Madame DeFarge and Edna May Oliver as Miss Pross.
Blanche Yurka is maybe the best study in literature about how hate and malice can twist a human being. She's so crazy to wipe out all the aristocrats it extends to women and small children. The point Dickens made about Charles Darnay is that he in fact did repudiate the life and views of Basil Rathbone, but that makes no difference to Yurka. It's Yurka's best known role.
Edna May Oliver as Miss Pross gets one of her two or three best known roles. She was an American from New England and classically trained, trained so well to play all these English literary characters like the Aunt in David Copperfield, Lady Catherine DeBurgh in Pride and Prejudice and of course Miss Pross. When these two tangle, the most famous chick fight in literature comes alive on the screen.
Colman gets the thespian honors here though. My favorite scene with him is in the Bastille and going to the Guillotine when he comforts Isabell Jewell whose only crime is that she was a loyal servant and seamstress to an aristocrat. It's Ronald Colman at his best.
When you see this version of A Tale of Two Cities you will realize that there aren't any far far better things Ronald Colman ever did.