A Tale of Two Cities (1958 film)

Shooting

Filming started 3 July 1957 at Bourges in France for four weeks of location work. The film was shot in the Loire Valley in France, because it was the only place without telegraph poles. Several thousand American soldiers posted nearby in Orléans were used as extras, which was needed as it was harvest time and French people were not as available. "The only way we were able to finish a film this ambitious on such a modest budget was by using a regular crew, so there were no fights, we just tackled it and went on until the finish", said Thomas.^[1]

Box said "it poured with rain the whole bloody time. It was fated from beginning to end. It was unbearably hot until the day we started shooting, and then the heavens opened. All the costumes were wet and everything was muddy and sets fell down in the street. But of course Dirk was very good indeed, and he was certainly handsome!^[8]

Scenes at the home of the Marquis St. Evremonde were shot at the chateau at Valencay on the Loire. English locations were filmed in Buckinghamshire. The rest of the movie was shot at Pinewood.^[5]

John Davis of Rank felt the film had a strong chance of sucess in America calling it "authentic, absorbing and beautifully played by another brilliant cast, this time headed by international favourite Dick Bogarde and the lovely and gifted young actress Dorothy Tutin."^[9] The studio felt that this film and A Night to Remember had a strong chance of appealing in America.^[10]

Critical reception

Variety called it "a good adventure yarn and the French Revolution sequences offer a director lively opportunities for colorful action, which Ralph Thomas has deftly grabbed."^[12]

The Guardian called it "a plain and honest version which makes a decent attempt at putting the complexities of the story into two hours."^[13]

The New York Times wrote "it is mostly a bloodless and sober, albeit meticulous account that is spun here";^[14] The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "an eminently respectable but scarcely distinguished addition to the list of filmed Dickens", noting that Rosalie Crutchley's "tirelessly bloodthirsty Mme Defarge – blatantly theatrical but full of gusto – is particularly welcome. This kind of vividness and life is exactly what the film as a whole lacks.^[15] However, AllMovie found "a respectable adaptation with a sterling lead performance (Bogarde)";^[16] and TV Guide wrote "This version strives for the careful attention to detail that mark the best BBC-produced literary translations today....Perhaps this is not as melodramatic as the Hollywood version, but, to some, it is infinitely more satisfying."^[17]

Thomas claimed "the Russians thought it was the definitive work on Dickens! It was one of Dirk’s best pictures, I think. It was a well-cast picture... Duncan Lamont was a terrific Defarge Christopher Lee’s straight performance as the Marquis was very good, very contained. There was also a marvellous girl, Marie Versin."^[18]

Production designer Carmen Dillon called it "a rotten film, very poor, I’m ashamed of my work on it. TEB Clarke did the script and it wasn’t his cup of tea. Perhaps it should have been made in colour, but it wasn’t good."^[19]

Tutin said "I felt the whole film was a bit slow, lacking energy. I did think it was a good idea to film it in black-and-white, so I’m surprised that Dirk, Ralph and Betty all thought it should have been filmed in colour."^[20]

Dirk Bogarde felt "Clarke did a brilliant job on the adaptation; we had a most impressive cast of (mainly) theatre actors; enormous care was lavished on the authenticity of sets and costumes; we went all the way to Bourges in France and shot the film there. But even though it was a faithful ‘reproduction’ of Dickens, even though we spoke his words and delivered his rather preposterous plot perfectly to the screen, the film failed."^[21]

Box office

The film was a box office disappointment, not making the list of top grossing films at the British box office in 1958.^[22] However it was listed as one of Rank's more successful films that year, along with A Night to Remember, Carve Her Name with Pride, The Wind Cannot Read, Sea of Sand, Just My Luck and Rooney.^[23]

Carmen Dillon said "They lost a lot of money about it, it was bad luck. Betty is such a competent, capable woman, so nice."^[24]

Dirk Bogarde called it "a failure in the cinema" aruging this was because:

(A), they wanted Ronald Colman, and (B), we cut costs and made it in black and white. Although it drove a generation of schoolgirls into hysterics (my breeches were pretty tight) and still sends hordes of Japanese ladies (and some gentlemen) frantic to this day (for the same reason), the effort was not successful. Apart from in Japan, where people have very short legs. Mine were long. As a ‘classic’ adaptation, it could not be faulted, but it did not transfer to the screen of the late fifties. It was not of the time. And, I fear, because of my position in popular cinema then, it just came over as ‘another Dirk Bogarde piece’. OK for the fans, but not really suitable for the nobs. In the UK anyway, my name stuck to a classic was the kiss of death. Abroad it was not. After all, mine was a foreign name, and abroad I had long been accepted as a serious player. I suppose because they had been mercifully spared most of the junk films I had had to make in the early years.^[21]

Thomas later said shooting the film in black and white was a mistake and the commercial after-life of the film would have been stronger if it had been in colour, particularly sales to television. He said the film "was very self indulgent because I wouldn't listen to advice. It's dangerous to have fashion and power and I was fashionable then."^[1] Betty Box said "At that time Rank would have said OK, if I'd told them I wanted to make it in purple. What we didn’t realise was, that very soon, we were going to depend quite a lot on television sales. And they paid nothing for black-and-white. So we dropped £100,000 straight away, which, in those days, was a lot of money."^[25]