Anna Karenina (1935)
by Clarence Brown
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Actor: Freddie Bartholomew, Fredric March, Greta Garbo, Maureen O'Sullivan, May RobsonDirector: Clarence Brown
Brand: GARBO,GRETA
Cinematographer: William H. Daniels
Editor: Robert Kern
Producer: David O. Selznick
Writer: Clemence Dane
Writer: Leo Tolstoy
Writer: S.N. Behrman
Writer: Salka Viertel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Silent, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Anna Karenina (1935)
DVD Review: Lavish Production and Great Photography
Summary: 3 Stars
"Anna Karenina" is a 1935 film based on a Leon Tolstoy novel. Tolstoy published the novel in serialized form from 1873 to 1877, and it's said to be a rendering of the true life story of Maria Hartung, the eldest daughter of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Many critics consider the 800+ page novel one of the top 10 ever written.
The novel first appeared in operas and plays beginning in the early 1900s. The first film adaptation was "Love", a 1927 silent film starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. Garbo had been in nearly 20 silent films, starting as early as 1920. Her best known silent film prior to "Love" was "Flesh and the Devil" (1926) which was directed by Clarence Brown. She was nominated 3 times for an Oscar ("Anna Christie", "Camille", and "Ninotchka") but never won. She is listed #5 on the AFI's list of Greatest Actresses.
The great Frederic March co-stars as Garbo's lover. March won an Oscar for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931) and "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), and earned three more nominations. He won the Golden Globe for "Death of a Salesman" (1951) and earned two more nominations. He won two Tonys ("Years Ago" and "Long Days Journey Into Night"). He appeared in more than 50 films between 1921 and 1973. Personally I think his best performance was as Matthew Brady in "Inherit the Wind" (1960). He claimed he wasn't "overwhelmed" by Garbo's beauty and thought that "women were more attracted to her than men." March does an excellent job min this film. He looks like a younger brother to John Barrymore.
Suave Basil Rathbone plays Garbo's husband. No one has ever been better at playing the villain or the rouge than Rathbone. His performances in "David Copperfield" (1935), "Captain Blood" (1935), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1935), "Robin Hood" (1938), "Tower of London" (1939), and "The Mark of Zorro" (1940) are classic. He was twice nominated for an Oscar ("Romeo and Juliet" and "If I Were King"). He's probably best remembered as the heroic Sherlock Holmes in the 14 films he made between 1939 and 1946. Rathbone gives a sympathetic performance as Garbo's cuckolded husband.
The beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan is best remembered as Tarzan's Jane. She played Jane 6 times between 1932 and 1942, but she played many other roles during that time, including "Tugboat Annie" (1933), "The Thin Man" (1934), "Cardinal Richelieu" (1935), "A Day at the Races" (1937), "A Yank at Oxford" (1938), and "Pride and Prejudice" (1940). She slowed down in the 40s to devote time to her husband and 7 children, one of whom is the actress Mia Farrow. O'Sullivan plays Garbo's sister and does a sweet job in the little time she has on screen.
Freddie Bartholomew plays Garbo's son. Freddie was one of the most famous child actors of the 1930s, appearing in "David Copperfield" (1935), "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1`936), "Captains Courageous" (1937) and "Kidnapped" (1938). Freddie gives his usual endearing performance.
Reginald Owen plays Prince Stiva, Garbo's brother. Owen was a distinguished actor who appeared in over 100 films including playing Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" (1938), Admiral Boom in "Mary Poppins" (1964) and General Teagler in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1972). He had the distinction of playing both Sherlock Holmes ("A study in Scarlet") and Dr. Watson ("Sherlock Holmes") and played King Louis XV in 3 different films. Own does his usual credible job.
Clarence Brown directs. Brown was a well known silent film director ("Last of the Mohicans", "Flesh and the Devil"). He was nominated for an Oscar 5 times ("Anna Christie", "A Free Soul", "The Human Comedy", "National Velvet", and "The Yearling") but never won. His films earned 38 Oscar nominations and 9 wins, but never for Director. This was his third film with Garbo and they would work together on three more films. He loved working with actresses, and also worked with Joan Crawford 6 times. The film tends to drag at times, and at other times the pacing is uneven. Scenes appear that are hours and then months apart, with no apparent rationale.
Williams Daniels is the cinematographer. Garbo insisted he shoot all her films, which he did, except for 2 ("Conquest", "Two-faced Woman") which turned out to be flops at the box office. When not working with Garbo, Daniels was a favorite of Erich von Stroheim, who was Garbo's favorite director (even though she made 6 films with Brown). Daniels lensed more than 150 films. He was nominated 3 times ("Anna Christie", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "How the West was Won") and won once ("Naked City" in 1948). Daniels' photography is exceptional. It's one of the best parts of the film.
David Selznick produced for MGM. Selznick is best remembered for "Gone with the Wind" (1939), but he was nominated for 8 other Oscars for films as diverse as "Viva Villa" (1934), "David Copperfield" (1935), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1936), "A Star is Born" (1937), "Rebecca" (1940) and "Spellbound" (1945). Beyond these, he was also involved in one capacity or another in such classics as "A Farewell to Arms" (1957) and "The Third Man" (1949) among the nearly 90 films he produced. The production values in this film are excellent. One can feel the opulence.
Garbo won Best Actress from the New York Film Critics and Brown won Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film festival. There were no Oscar nominations. The NY Times called the film "ably produced and comparatively mature" and said that "Basil Rathbone is excellent as the husband and there are good performances by Reginald Owen, O'Sullivan and Phoebe Foster."
The film is certainly worth viewing for the photography, the lavish settings, and the generally good acting. I think Garbo's performance is the weakest, and that's a problem when she is in almost every scene, but everyone else does an exceptional job.
Description of Anna Karenina (1935)
Tolstoy's book of passion and the doomed love of a woman who forsakes her husband and son for a dashing military officer.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 6-SEP-2005
Media Type: DVD
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