''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a 1911

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

produced by

Vitagraph Studios Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...

, loosely based on the 1859 novel by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

Release and reception

The film's three reels were respectively released on February 21, 24, and 25, 1911. Many film exhibitors at this time were hesitant to screen pictures of more than one reel, believing that audiences would not tolerate anything longer. '' The Moving Picture World'', however, called for all three reels of ''A Tale of Two Cities'' to be screened back-to-back, which possibly inspired Vitagraph to issue its future multi-reel pictures as a single release. According to ''The Moving Picture World'', the staging of the first reel "is little short of sumptuous. There is shown a care in the attention to details which stamps the picture as an unusually faithful reproduction and affords opportunity for those who have read and loved Dickens in the books to see his story move before them, much, perhaps, as it moved before him during its composition." The magazine later listed ''A Tale of Two Cities'' among a group of films that adapted classic subjects, positing that these adaptations represented an upward trend of artistic quality in the film industry. The director Rex Ingram wrote in 1922: "In 1913, when I was studying drawings and sculpture at the Yale School of Fine Arts, a motion picture play, founded upon Charles Dickens' famous story ''A Tale of Two Cities'', came to New Haven. It followed in the wake of many cut and dried one-reel subjects, and while this picture was necessarily full of imperfections, common to all pioneer films, it marked a tremendous step ahead in the making of them...I left the theatre greatly impressed; absolutely convinced that it would be through the medium of the film play, to the production of which the laws that govern the fine arts had been applied, that a universal understanding and appreciation of art finally would be reached."Quoted in Due to the film's enormous success, Vitagraph reissued ''A Tale of Two Cities'' in 1913.

Cast

Maurice Costello Maurice George Costello (February 22, 1877 – October 29, 1950) was a prominent American vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s who later played a principal role in early American films as leading man, supporting player, and director ...

as Sydney Carton *

Florence Turner Florence Turner (January 6, 1885 – August 28, 1946) was an American actress who became known as the "Vitagraph Girl" in early silent films. Biography Born in New York City, Turner was pushed into appearing on the stage at age three by h ...

as Lucie Manette * John Bunny * Norma Talmadge as The Seamstress *

William J. Humphrey William Jonathan Humphrey (January 2, 1875 – October 4, 1942) was an American actor and film director. Born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, William Humphrey was a well-known member of the early stock company of Vitagraph Studios. Without t ...

as The Duke D'Evremonde * Florence Foley as The Woodcutter's Child * Kenneth Casey as Duke's Son *

Ralph Ince Ralph Waldo Ince (January 16, 1887 – April 10, 1937) was an American pioneer film actor, director and screenwriter whose career began near the dawn of the silent film era. Ralph Ince was the brother of John E. Ince and Thomas H. Ince. Biogra ...

* James W. Morrison as Peasant Brother * Julia Swayne Gordon * Charles Kent as Dr. Manette * Tefft Johnson *Leo Delaney as Darnay * William Shea as Jarvis Lorry * Mabel Normand * Earle Williams *

Edith Storey Edith Storey (March 18, 1892 – October 9, 1967) was an American actress during the silent film era. Early life Storey was born on March 18, 1892, in New York City to William Chase Storey and Minnie Storey (née Thorn). Her younger brother, R ...

* Lillian Walker as Peasant Sister * Helen Gardner * Dorothy Kelly *Edwin R. Phillips *Eleanor Radinoff * Anita Stewart * Lydia Yeamans Titus

Notes

References

Sources

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External links