A Tale of Two Cities
About A Tale of Two Cities
Vitagraph's three reels follow Charles Dickens loosely through the French Revolution. Sydney Carton, played by Maurice Costello, and Lucie Manette, played by Florence Turner, are caught in the Terror. Norma Talmadge plays the seamstress who goes with Carton toward the guillotine. In this version he climbs the scaffold first, and her death is not shown.
Cast & crew
More about A Tale of Two Cities
William J. Humphrey directed Eugene Mullin's scenario. J. Stuart Blackton produced it. General Film Company distributed the three reels on February 21, February 24, and February 25, 1911. Many exhibitors still disliked pictures longer than one reel. The Moving Picture World asked them to run all three together, a practice Vitagraph later used for its longer films.
Themes
Background
In 1911 many nickelodeon programs still changed a reel at a time. Vitagraph's decision to spread Dickens across three release days, and The Moving Picture World's call to show them as one picture, sat in the middle of that argument.
Reviews
The Moving Picture World urged exhibitors to screen the three reels back to back.
Preservation
Reels two and three survive. A copy of those reels runs 20 minutes and 50 seconds. Reel one is not in that copy.
Notes
- Charles Kent plays Dr. Manette. Leo Delaney plays Darnay. William Humphrey also plays the Duke d'Evremonde. William Shea plays Jarvis Lorry.
- Lydia Yeamans Titus made her film debut in the picture. Mabel Normand, Edith Storey, Earle Williams, Helen Gardner, and Anita Stewart are also listed.
- A surviving copy of reels two and three runs 20 minutes and 50 seconds.
Scenes
- Carton goes up to the guillotine ahead of the seamstress played by Norma Talmadge.
Influenced by
- Charles Dickens's novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
