Best Films - 1935
by Andre Soares
Although not as well remembered as other big Old Hollywood productions, David O. Selznick’s film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities is superior to most of the other period dramas made during the studio era. Starring Ronald Colman, directed by MGM’s reliable Jack Conway (Red-Headed Woman, Viva Villa!) and with a literate script by W.P. Lipscomb (Les Misérables, Clive of India) and S.N. Behrman (Queen Christina, Anna Karenina), A Tale of Two Cities is typical Selznick: classy, intelligent entertainment, in a career that includes King Kong (1933), A Star Is Born (1937), Gone with the Wind (1939), Rebecca (1940), and Duel in the Sun (1946).
Yet, what gives A Tale of Two Cities its soul is not the fine period detail or the expected Selznick gloss, but Ronald Colman’s superb star turn as Sidney Carton, a man who holds love above self-survival. Colman was a far, far better actor than most of his contemporaries, and his self-sacrificing Carton is a masterful performance on a par with his better-known work in Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937), Mervyn LeRoy’s Random Harvest (1942), and his Oscar-winning tour de force in George Cukor’s A Double Life (1947).
For her part, Elizabeth Allan (above, with Colman) was far, far more beautiful than most of the bigger stars of the period.
FILM
A Tale of Two Cities
Alice Adams
China Seas
The Gay Deception
The Whole Town’s Talking
DIRECTOR
Jack Conway (A Tale of Two Cities)
Roy del Ruth (Broadway Melody of 1936)
John Ford (The Whole Town’s Talking)
Tay Garnett (China Seas)
Henry Hathaway (Lives of a Bengal Lancer)
Henry Hathaway (Peter Ibbetson)
Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
George Stevens (Alice Adams)
Sam Wood (A Night at the Opera)
William Wyler (The Gay Deception)
ACTOR
Ronald Colman (A Tale of Two Cities)
Robert Donat (The 39 Steps)
Boris Karloff (The Bride of Frankenstein)
Charles Laughton (Mutiny on the Bounty)
Peter Lorre (Mad Love)
Herbert Marshall (If You Could Only Cook)
Ramon Novarro (The Night Is Young)
Edward G. Robinson (The Whole Town’s Talking)
ACTRESS
Katharine Hepburn (Alice Adams)
Jean Arthur (If You Could Only Cook)
Frances Dee (The Gay Deception)
Greta Garbo (Anna Karenina)
Miriam Hopkins (Becky Sharp)
May Robson (Strangers All)
Ginger Rogers (Top Hat)
Genevieve Tobin (Here’s to Romance)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Eric Blore (Top Hat)
Charles Laughton (Les Misérables)
Lennox Pawle (David Copperfield)
Basil Rathbone (Anna Karenina)
Erik Rhodes (Top Hat)
Mickey Rooney (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Sid Silvers (Broadway Melody of 1936)
Robert Wildhack (Broadway Melody of 1936)
Roland Young (David Copperfield)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Ernestine Schuman-Heink (Here’s to Romance)
Jean Arthur (The Whole Town’s Talking)
Fita Benkhoff (Amphitryon - Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück / Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds)
Glenda Farrell (Gold Diggers of 1935)
Hattie McDaniel (Alice Adams)
Edna May Oliver (David Copperfield)
Jessie Ralph (David Copperfield)
Rosalind Russell (Rendezvous)
Adele Sandrock (Amphitryon - Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück / Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds)
Alison Skipworth (The Girl from 10th Avenue)
SCREENPLAY
W.P. Lipscomb & S.N. Behrman (A Tale of Two Cities)
Stephen Avery & Don Hartman (The Gay Deception)
Jules Furthman & James K. McGuinness (China Seas)
Jo Swerling & Robert Riskin (The Whole Town’s Talking)
Dorothy Yost & Mortimer Offner (Alice Adams)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hal Mohr (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Lucien Ballard (Crime and Punishment)
William H. Daniels (Anna Karenina)
Arthur Edeson (Mutiny on the Bounty)
James Wong Howe (The Night Is Young)
Charles B. Lang (Peter Ibbetson)
Chester Lyons & Gregg Toland (Mad Love)
Oliver T. Marsh (A Tale of Two Cities)
Claude Renoir (Toni)
Gregg Toland (The Dark Angel)
ORIGINAL SCORE
Ernst Toch (Peter Ibbetson)
Herbert Stothart (Anna Karenina)
Herbert Stothart (David Copperfield)
Herbert Stothart (A Tale of Two Cities)
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