Prismark10 This is a straightforward version shot in black and white with some location shooting at Loire Valley in France. Pinewood Studios is used effectively enough, it is uniformly well acted and Bogarde gives an effective enough performance as the lead and a young Christopher Lee is a hiss-able French Aristocrat.The story deals with the strands of the two most notable characters in the novel by Charles Dickens. Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French aristocrat who turns his back to the life of wealth and privilege but falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution when the reign of terror begins.Carton is an English barrister with a taste for drink who attempts to redeem his misspent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife.There is not much humour in the film because of the subject matter but the pared down story does do the film justice.

lawrence_elliott "Tale of Two Cities" is one of those overworked and tired tales that has been over told dozens of times ad nausea! However, this rendition is glorious. Only the Ronald Colman version is slightly better, but Dirk Bogarde fits this role perfectly, as he does most of his other roles in film. Although most of the versions of "Tale of Two Cities" are boring, much like the tired renditions of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, this version is like the Herbert Von Karajan or Carlos Kleiber orchestrations that are spectacular and inspiring, as if played for the very first time. There are beautifully crafted scenes in this film that create an interest in the humanity of the characters. This is truly a wonderful film.One of the most powerful ending's to a film I have ever seen, similar to the sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross, this is a film you must see and you will be glad you did. You will ask yourself, how many people could make such a sacrifice for the one they love? I know I couldn't. The courage of these characters' is awe-inspiring and as one of the character's says, Sydney Carton (Bogarde) shows the best that is in us, and is the best of us, in desperate times. A Super Hero in a great film! See this one! If you have a heart, you will have a lump in your throat and your eyes will be moist at the end of this one!

ianlouisiana Mr Dirk Bogarde was impossibly handsome in 1958.Photographed by Ernest Steward who,along with director Ralph Thomas,was to have a long professional association with him,he was,at 38,at the peak of his physical beauty,and well on the way along his journey from matinée idol to serious actor.In "A Tale of Two Cities" he plays Sidney Carton,a rather louche London lawyer who finds redemption in the turmoil of the French Revolution.It is as near a perfect adaptation of Dickens' novel as you could hope to find,and one of the masterpieces of 1950s British Cinema. Prior to the arrival of the Italian neo - realist movement and the French "Nouvelle Vague" we made a significant number of stylish and literate films that defined the term "British Cinema" to the rest of the world. ATOTC is one such film.Mr Bogarde,along with Mr Kenneth More and Mr Jack Hawkins,would guarantee "House Full" signs outside cinemas all over the country.These men epitomised all the virtues that the English attributed to themselves - interestingly mainly the middle-class ones.Once Mr Albert Finney had appeared in his vest in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" we were regaled with whippet and Woodbine sagas that were still dragging on when Mr Hugh Grant came on the scene to reclaim the night for the Volvo and 2 labradors brigade. Sidney Carton's values were perhaps more easily understood by audiences in 1958 than today.In love with another man's fiancée he makes no attempt to seduce her despite the fact that she is clearly fond of him. He is an honourable man,a concept as beyond the grasp of a modern audience as that of suttee.He sacrifices his life to save his erstwhile rival.You can almost hear the chorus of "Yeah,right!". Of the triumvirate of English actors on top of the heap in 1958 only Mr Bogarde could possibly have played him.Mr More would have been too chirpy,Mr Hawkins too intense.So it was left to the youngest of the three to play one of the nineteenth century's most popular fictional heroes and to speak Charles Dickens' best known valediction,which he does exquisitely.

sandra small As an avid admirer of nineteenth century novelist Charles Dickens' work, with an interest in the French Revolution, then I felt compelled to watch this Rank adaptation of; A Tale of Two Cities, directed by Ralph Thomas. Although I have not yet read the original novel, I got the impression that this film adaptation of; A Tale of Two Cities stuck as much as possible to the original novel as Dickens intended it to be.We see in this film adaptation of; A Tale of Two Cities the social origins which culminated in the French Revolution. It illustrates the traditional aristocratic 'ruling class's' demise. The demise of the French aristocracy resulted in a reaction by them, where their fears and anxiety pertaining to their precarious position in society culminated in the mistreatment of the ordinary people of France, otherwise referred to as; 'serfs'. Encouraged by the American War of Independence, and influenced by the intellectual elite of The Enlightnement movement culminated in the French Serfs rebelling against the causes of their imposed position within an undemocratic, feudal society, which permitted their mistreatment by the aristocracy. It is the factors of mistreatment and being restrained by their inability to change their situation via the democratic processes we have today, which caused the French serfs to overthrow the aristocratic ruling class at that time in the Eighteenth Century. The over-throwing of the French aristocracy subsequently made way for a new elitist ruling class to emerge in the form of industrialists and businessmen, thereby creating a new type of class consciousness for modernity.As to the acting in the film, it is an eclectic bunch of British character actors playing the parts. This is exemplified by the part played by Dirk Bogarte, who makes the character he plays a portrayal of himself, as opposed to immersing himself into the character, and becoming it! Bogarte illustrates that he is able to become the character he plays in such films as; The Blue Lamp' (1950), where he acts the part of villain Tom Riley with a real and definite intensity. If there was to be any accolades for acting in; A Tale of Two Cities, it would go to the actor, Christopher Lee who played the part of the bombastic French nobleman,Marquis St. Evremonde .If the film is going to be defined as worthy of watching, it is due to the director's ability to keep close to the original Dickens novel.