A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities (1958)

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

Date of release
1958-02-07
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (22)
Runtime
1h 55m
Genres
Drama, History, Romance
Director
Ralph Thomas

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: A Tale of Two Cities
  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios

A Tale of Two Cities is a 1958 British film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin. It is a period drama based on parts of Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

Production

Thomas Clarke wrote the script. He had read the novel at school and "had been disappointed by a book that a lesser author might have written; but I could appreciate its potential as a period action film and readily undertook to script." Clarke said he had no wish to see the 1935 version until he wrote the script as "there is always the danger in a remake that one might steal another screenwriter’s innovation under the impression that it was part…

Ralph Thomas insisted on the film being shot in black and white as he felt the book "was written in black and white, and it's got to be made in black and white." He was influenced by a French film Casque d'Or set in a similar period which was in black and white. Box says that were influenced by Gervaise as well.

Borgarde said “We all felt right from the beginning that the only way to make this film was as a documentary.” Thomas added, "For that reason, we decided against making it in colour because this would destroy the stark realism we are trying to get.”

Even in black and white the film was the most expensive British production of its year.

Dorothy Tutin said "I didn’t think I was right for the part: it needed to be a blonde, beautiful girl like Virginia McKenna. I knew the novel well, so I was never going to turn it down, I just never felt I was quite right visually. I think Dirk really got me the part and I think he was wrong, although I enjoyed the filming in France until I got ill, and I did enjoy working with Dirk, who was extremely nice."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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