A Tale of Two Cities

Plot synopsis:
=== Book the First: Recalled to Life ===
Dickens's famous opening sentence introduces the universal approach of the book, the French Revolution, and the drama depicted within:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
In 1775, a man flags down the nightly mail-coach on its route from London to Dover. The man is Jerry Cruncher, an employee of Tellson's Bank in London; he carries a message for Jarvis Lorry, a passenger and one of the bank's managers. Mr. Lorry sends Jerry back to deliver a cryptic response to the bank: "Recalled to Life." The message refers to Alexandre Manette, a French physician who has been released from the Bastille after an 18-year imprisonment. Once Mr. Lorry arrives in Dover, he meets with Dr. Manette's daughter Lucie and her governess, Miss Pross. Lucie has believed her father to be dead, and faints at the news that he is alive; Mr. Lorry takes her to France to reunite with him.
In the Paris neighborhood of Saint Antoine, Dr. Manette has been given lodgings by his former servant Ernest Defarge and his wife Therese, owners of a wine shop. Mr. Lorry and Lucie find him in a small garret, where he spends much of his time making shoes—a skill he learned in prison, which he uses to distract himself from his thoughts, and which has become an obsession for him. He does not recognize Lucie at first but does eventually see the resemblance to her mother through her blue eyes and long golden hair, a strand of which he found on his sleeve when he was imprisoned. Mr. Lorry and Lucie take him back to England.
=== Book the Second: The Golden Thread ===
In 1780, French émigré Charles Darnay is on trial for treason against the British Crown. The key witnesses against him are two British spies, John Barsad and Roger Cly, who claim that Darnay gave information about British troops in North America to the French. Barsad states that he would recognize Darnay anywhere, at which point Darnay's defense counsel, Stryver, directs attention to Sydney Carton, a barrister present in the courtroom who looks almost identical to him. With Barsad's eyewitness testimony now discredited, Darnay is acquitted.
In Paris, the hated and abusive Marquis St. Evrémonde orders his carriage driven recklessly fast through the crowded streets, hitting and killing the child of a peasant, Gaspard. The Marquis throws a coin to Gaspard to compensate him for his loss, and Defarge comforts the distraught father, having observed the incident. As the Marquis's coach drives off, the coin is flung back into his coach by an unknown hand, enraging the Marquis.
Arriving at his country château, the marquis meets with his nephew and heir, Darnay. Out of disgust with his aristocratic family, Darnay has shed his real surname and adopted an anglicized version of his mother's maiden name, D'Aulnais. The following passage records the Marquis' principles of aristocratic superiority:
"Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof," looking up to it, "shuts out the sky."
That night, Gaspard, who followed the Marquis to his château by riding on the underside of the carriage, stabs and kills him in his sleep. Gaspard leaves a note on the knife saying, "Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from JACQUES." After nearly a year on the run, he is caught and hanged above the village well.
In London, Darnay gets Dr. Manette's permission to wed Lucie; but Carton confesses his love to Lucie as well. Knowing she will not love him in return, Carton promises to "embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you". Stryver, the barrister who defended Darnay and with whom Carton has a working relationship, considers proposing marriage to Lucie, but Mr. Lorry talks him out of the idea.
On the morning of the marriage, Darnay reveals his real name and family lineage to Dr. Manette, a detail he had been asked to withhold until that day. In consequence, Dr. Manette reverts to his obsessive shoemaking after the couple leave for their honeymoon. He returns to sanity before their return, and the whole incident is kept secret from Lucie. Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross destroy the shoemaking bench and tools, which Dr. Manette had brought with him from Paris.
As time passes in England, Lucie and Charles begin to raise a family, a son (who dies in childhood) and a daughter, little Lucie. Mr. Lorry finds a second home and a sort of family with the Darnays. Stryver marries a rich widow with three children and becomes even more insufferable as his ambitions begin to be realized. Carton, even though he seldom visits, is accepted as a close friend of the family and becomes a special favourite of little Lucie.
In July 1789, the Defarges help to lead the storming of the Bastille, a symbol of royal tyranny. Defarge enters Dr. Manette's former cell, "One Hundred and Five, North Tower," and searches it thoroughly. Throughout the countryside, local officials and other representatives of the aristocracy are dragged from their homes to be killed, and the St. Evrémonde château is burned to the ground.
In 1792, Mr. Lorry decides to travel to Paris to collect important documents from the Tellson's branch in that city and bring them to London for safekeeping against the chaos of the French Revolution. Darnay intercepts a letter written by Gabelle, one of his uncle's servants who has been imprisoned by the revolutionaries, pleading for the Marquis to help secure his release. Without telling his family or revealing his position as the new Marquis, Darnay sets out for Paris.
=== Book the Third: The Track of a Storm ===
Shortly after Darnay arrives in Paris, he is denounced for being an emigrated aristocrat from France and jailed in La Force Prison. Dr. Manette, Lucie, little Lucie, Jerry, and Miss Pross travel to Paris and meet Mr. Lorry to try to free Darnay. A year and three months pass, and Darnay is finally tried.
Dr. Manette, viewed as a hero for his imprisonment in the Bastille, testifies on Darnay's behalf at his trial. Darnay is released, only to be arrested again later that day. A new trial begins on the following day, under new charges brought by the Defarges and a third individual who is soon revealed as Dr. Manette. He had written an account of his imprisonment at the hands of Darnay's father and hidden it in his cell; Defarge found it while searching the cell during the storming of the Bastille.
While running errands with Jerry, Miss Pross is amazed to see her long-lost brother Solomon, but he does not want to be recognized in public. Carton suddenly steps forward from the shadows and identifies Solomon as Barsad, one of the spies who tried to frame Darnay for treason at his trial in 1780. Jerry remembers that he has seen Solomon with Cly, the other key witness at the trial and that Cly had faked his death to escape England. By threatening to denounce Solomon to the revolutionary tribunal as a Briton, Carton blackmails him into helping with a plan.
At the tribunal, Defarge identifies Darnay as the nephew of the dead Marquis St. Evrémonde and reads Dr. Manette's letter. Defarge had learned Darnay's lineage from Solomon during the latter's visit to the wine shop several years earlier. The letter describes Dr. Manette's imprisonment at the hands of Darnay's father and uncle for trying to report their crimes against a peasant family. Darnay's uncle had become infatuated with a girl, whom he had kidnapped and raped; despite Dr. Manette's attempt to save her, she died. The uncle killed her husband by working him to death, and her father died from a heart attack on being informed of what had happened. Before he died defending the family honour, the brother of the raped peasant had hidden the last member of the family, his younger sister. The Evrémonde brothers imprisoned Dr. Manette after he refused their offer of a bribe to keep quiet. He concludes his letter by condemning the Evrémondes, "them and their descendants, to the last of their race." Dr. Manette is horrified, but he is not allowed to retract his statement. Darnay is sent to the Conciergerie and sentenced to be guillotined the next day.
Carton wanders into the Defarges' wine shop, where he overhears Madame Defarge talking about her plans to have both Lucie and little Lucie condemned. Carton discovers that Madame Defarge was the surviving sister of the peasant family savaged by the Evrémondes. At night, when Dr. Manette returns, shattered after spending the day in many failed attempts to save Darnay's life, he falls into an obsessive search for his shoemaking implements. Carton urges Lorry to flee Paris with Lucie, her father, and Little Lucie, asking them to leave as soon as he joins them in the coach.
Shortly before the executions are to begin, Solomon sneaks Carton into the prison for a visit with Darnay. The two men trade clothes, and Carton drugs Darnay and has Solomon carry him out. Carton has decided to be executed in his place and has given his own identification papers to Mr. Lorry to present on Darnay's behalf. Following Carton's earlier instructions, the family and Mr. Lorry flee to England with the unconscious Darnay, but not before receiving a note from Carton which allows them to pass the France border.
Meanwhile, Madame Defarge, armed with a dagger and pistol, goes to the Manette residence, hoping to apprehend Lucie and little Lucie and bring them in for execution. However, the family is already gone and Miss Pross stays behind to confront and delay Madame Defarge. As the two women struggle, Madame Defarge's pistol discharges, killing her and causing Miss Pross to go permanently deaf from noise and shock.
The novel concludes with the guillotining of Carton. As he is waiting to board the tumbril, he is approached by a seamstress, also condemned to death, who mistakes him for Darnay (with whom she had been imprisoned earlier) but realizes the truth once she sees him at close range. Awed by his unselfish courage and sacrifice, she asks to stay close to him and he agrees. Upon their arrival at the guillotine, Carton comforts her, telling her that their ends will be quick but that there is no Time or Trouble "in the better land where ... [they] will be mercifully sheltered", and she is able to meet her death in peace. Carton's unspoken last thoughts are prophetic:
I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance [a lieutenant of Madame Defarge], the Juryman, the Judge, long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man [Mr. Lorry], so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.
I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both.
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement—and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Frank Lloyd Raises the Dickens with William Farnum.
Frank Lloyd's silent version of Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" may make you wonder why D.W. Griffith didn't direct his own version of the classic (not that he didn't come close, on a few occasions).
Mr. Lloyd's Griffith-like direction is a plus; though, it's somehow not as good as the original.
William Farnum, who was one of the leading actors of the teens, does a fine job in the leading role; seeing Mr. Farnum play both as reluctant French nobleman "Charles Darnay" and English alcoholic lawyer "Sydney Carton" is, today, the main attraction.
While filled with decent performances, the more famous sound re-makes lose something by casting different men in the lead roles.
Beautiful Jewel Carmen has no trouble attracting both men, as "Lucie Manette".
And, Florence Vidor (King's wife) sews up stardom on the way to the guillotine.
"A Tale of Two Cities" was considered a top production in its time, but it doesn't possess the timeless quality you'll find in many other silent movies.****** A Tale of Two Cities (3/11/17) Frank Lloyd ~ William Farnum, Jewel Carmen, Charles Clary, Josef Swickard.
surprisingly good.
Not a great film but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Farnum is excellent in a double role, and Jewel Carmen is sympathetic as Miss Manette.
The film owes a lot to D.
W. Griffith.
The editing style, the plot development, the epic scope and the direction are all, strictly David Wark.
However, give the director (Frank Lloyd) credit; he knew a good thing when he saw it, and even if he did copy Griffith, at least he did it well.
Frank Lloyd eventually became a very capable director with his own style.
Like Griffith he had a way of saying a lot in a few frames and doing it in a satisfying way.
He moves things right along and so is able to keep the interest of even a modern viewer.
If you are a film student, you could learn a lot about artistic economy from watching this film.
However, most of us will just be happy that the director is able to keep our interest, and not waste our time with overly long scenes.
Only in the very last couple of minutes does it drag slightly.
But I suspect that what we see as dragging today, would have been considered art in 1917.
There is also a creative use of double exposures and other effects that give the film a bit of visual excitement.To the average intelligent viewer - don't go too far out of your way, but if you end up seeing it, it will keep your interest better than many modern films and you will be entertained..
It Wasn't The Best of Films.
It Wasn't the Worst of Films.
This well-mounted and visually interesting silent version of the Dickens novel is a good effort, but, of course, it pales before the 1935 version starring Ronald Colman.
As a silent film it suffers from too many title cards -- an artifact, no doubt, of the fondness for the book.
One searches for nice things to say about this movie, but they all have to be qualified as "For 1917."  Good set design for 1917.
Good composition for 1917 and so forth.
Still, the acting is good, the story is there and if you want to see what was good in 1917, you can take a look at this.
Or you could just stick with the 1935 version and I won't fault you..
The Supreme Sacrifice.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (Fox, 1917), directed by Frank Lloyd, marks the second Hollywood screen adaptation to the classic literary novel by Charles Dickens.
Filmed earlier in 1911 starring Maurice Costello in the central character role of both Sydney Carton and his look-a-like double, Charles Darnay, an interesting aspect to the original was that the Dickens story was told in a little under thirty minutes.
While it wouldn't take that long to read the complete novel, this second retelling in present form is a bit longer, around 81 minutes, yet not enough time to capture everything the book had to offer into just one motion picture.
The Carton and Darnay roles this time were played by William Farnum, a name not too well known in recent years, but definitely one of the top leading actors of his day, years before assuming character parts in countless talkies of the thirties and forties, mostly "B" westerns.
While Farnum did have a genuine speaking voice for talkies, he had a fine versatility for the silent screen.With the plot told through passages of inter-titles in the silent film tradition, the story surprisingly opens with "In Saint Antoine where the frowning walls of the Bastille reminded the people of the woes in the threatening days that preceded the French Revolution," rather than the expected, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." The two cities in this story are London and Paris, with Paris being the essence of the plot.
Before the story gets underway, the characters are introduced: Jacque DeFarge (Herschel Mayall), the wine shop keeper of Saint Antoine; Madame DeFarge (Rosita Marstini), his wife, "who knits constantly like fate weaving a web of destiny;" Doctor Alexander Manette (Josef Swickard), the old master of Defarge who, for many years, has been imprisoned in the Bastille.( A flashback taken from his written diary explains the circumstances leading to his unjust imprisonment); Soho, London, the residential district consisting of Jarvis Lorry (Marc Robbins), manager of Tellson's, the leading French and English bank in London; Charles Darnay (William Farnum), one of the many French refugees in Soho and nephew of Marquis St. Evremonde (Charles Clary), one of the most detested aristocrats in France; Lucie (Jewel Carmen), Manette's daughter who believes her father dead, raised by Miss Pross (Olive White) and a ward of Mr. Lorry; and Roger Cly (Ralph Lewis), Darnay's servant.
Though Darnay is sympathetic towards the oppressed poor in Paris, renouncing his uncle's inheritance, he's later arrested for treason, and acquitted in Old Bailey's Court by lawyer, Sydney Carlton (William Farnum), a lonely alcoholic barrister.
With the rein of terror July 14, 1789, starting the French Revolution that sends the condemned to death on the guillotine, it would be one of the mentioned characters to make a supreme sacrifice to save another for its climax.
Other characters in the story consist of Gabelle, agent of the Marquise estate (William Clifford); Lawyer C.J. Stryver (Willard Louis); Gaspard (Harry Devere); and a condemned girl (Florence Vidor).With other screen adaptations to A TALE OF TWO CITIES retold and recaptured decades into the future, with one British made version in 1958 with Dirk Bogarde, the most famous of all is the two hour 1935 MGM epic starring Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton, with the support by a cast of thousands.
Though a project such as this might have been done under notable director, D.W. Griffith, whose ORPHANS OF THE STORM (1921) contained certain similarities to the Dickens novel, Frank Lloyd's direction for 1917 is quite impressive for its time.
Fox Studios would follow this with another literary work, Victor Hugo's LES MISERABLES (1918) also featuring William Farnum.
Sets and costumes for A TALE OF TWO CITIES capture the essence of 18th century Paris, and acting by it principal players are not as overdone nor primitive to what might be commonly expected from actors during that time.
Take notice that one of the title cards misspells Carton's first name of Sydney to Sidney.Unlike many movies of 1917, this edition of A TALE OF TWO CITIES fortunately survives intact.
Though it seems unlikely to have ever been aired on public broadcast television or cable for that matter, it did get distribution to home video in 1997 through Critic's Choice Video with print from the Paul Killiam collection.
Although the cardboard box lists music score composed by Philip Carli, the video, in fact, contains no scoring whatsoever.
Even the print circulating on Youtube gets the silent treatment as well.
Watching silent movies in mute condition can be the worst of times for anyone expecting either piano or organ scoring.
For the best of times movie viewing, simply apply own instrumental recordings from either disc or from an all-music radio station to help with the proceedings in viewing a movie from the silent years.
Sparknotes version of Dickens.
This 1917 adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities is nothing spectacular; however, William Farnum is absolutely great as Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, stealing every scene he's in with great panache.
One wishes the other actors had as much to do.The big problem is that the filmmakers assume the audience has read the book and therefore they assume they only need to hit the major beats of the story without doing much to establish character.
What results is a rather unimpressive narrative experience, though as I said, Farnum keeps things lively, as do a few moments of truly striking composition and lighting.
Otherwise, only silent film nerds and fans of the novel (both of which I'm lucky to be in this instance) will get much out of this movie.