This Josef von Sternberg adaptation of Dostoevsky's great novel is like a precis or a comic book version of the original and some of the supporting performances are very poor, (even Mrs. Patrick Campbell proves herself an old ham), and yet it's distinguished by Lucien Ballard's brilliant cinematography and by an excellent Raskolnikov from Peter Lorre and a terrific Porfiry from the great and somewhat underrated Edward Arnold. Of course, if you can forget the source material you can simply enjoy it as a decent enough murder yarn but one without any depth. Unfortunately it's very difficult to separate what we're watching from Dostoevsky's novel and you would be right in thinking that this is just a travesty. Still, it's impossible to dismiss it if only for those performances from Lorre and Arnold though you would never count it as one of von Sternberg's better films.
Review of Crime and Punishment
