The Plymouth Playhouse (TV Series) A Tale of Two Cities: Part 2 (1953) User Reviews

The Paris Story - 1789

[chasmilt777 · 7/10 · 10 August 2006]

This 30 minute dramatization presented on "The Plymouth Playhouse" was originally aired on May 10, 1953. The Paris story was Part 2 of the classic "The Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.

This episode 5 of the "ABC Album" was so much better than episode 4 that was aired on early TV the week before. With the French revolution, there was much more excitement, and for being so short , was done rather well.

Judith Evelyn played the role of Therese Defarge. She was very convincing as the French revolutionary. Thanks to IMDb, I noticed that she played several small parts for Alfred Hitchcock, including the movie "Rear Window". Lucille Pierlot played the role of the Seamstress. Look at Part 1, the London story, for the rest of the cast members.

Getting to watch this on DVD made me appreciate how far TV has evolved since the early 1950's. This short was a Historic classic !

As Mel Brooks would call this, The French Mistake.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 4 August 2015]

Lacking the panoramic vision of French peasants storming the Bastille and the whole impact of the guillotine's be-headings, this second part of "Plymouth Playhouse's" version of "A Tale of Two Cities" (called "The Paris Story") suffers from a passionless presentation. Wendell Corey is back as the drunk but noble Sydney Carton, giving a rather bland performance (especially when seen in comparison to both Ronald Colman and Dirk Bogarde in a later British remake), while Judith Evelyn is overly made-up with perfect hair and make-up as the nefarious Madame DeFarge. All one has to do is look at Blanche Yurka's performance in the 1935 version to see how passionately this role should be played, and while Evelyn has the acting chops to do so, it is defeated by the obvious over-indulgence of the make-up chair and hairdresser. "A Tale of Two Cities" should never be cut down to 45 minutes (as it was with this two part anthology TV series version) and lacks the intensity of even the weakest of the few versions of this all-time Dickens classic which still remains my favorite of his stories.