Anna Karenina (1935)

Director:

Clarence Brown

Writers:

Leo Tolstoy (from the novel by)
Clemence Dane (screen play) ...
(more)

Release Date:

25 December 1935 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

The married Anna Karenina falls in love with Count Vronsky despite her husband's refusal to grant a divorce, and both must contend with the social repercussions.

Plot Keywords:

Divorce | Love | Melodrama | Russian Army | Ballet

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Greta Garbo	...	Anna Karenina
Fredric March	...	Vronsky
Freddie Bartholomew	...	Sergei
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Kitty
May Robson	...	Countess Vronsky
Basil Rathbone	...	Karenin
Reginald Owen	...	Stiva
Phoebe Foster	...	Dolly
Reginald Denny	...	Yashvin
Gyles Isham	...	Levin
Joan Marsh	...	Lili
Ethel Griffies	...	Mme. Kartasoff
Harry Beresford	...	Matve
Sarah Padden	...	Governess
Cora Sue Collins	...	Tania
Mary Forbes	...	Princess Sorokina
Joseph R. Tozer	...	Butler (as Joe E. Tozer)
Guy D'Ennery	...	Tutor
Buster Phelps	...	Grisha
Sidney Bracey	...	Vronsky's Valet (as Sidney Bracy)
Harry Allen	...	Cord
Ella Ethridge	...	Anna's Maid
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stanley Andrews	...	Husband - Third Couple (uncredited)
Mischa Auer	...	Mahotin (uncredited)
Betty Blythe	...	Woman (uncredited)
Eugene Burr	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
André Cheron	...	Attaché (uncredited)
Ruth Cherrington	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Davison Clark	...	Station Master (uncredited)
Claudia Coleman	...	Wife - Third Couple (uncredited)
Constance Collier	...	Countess Lidia (uncredited)
Harry Cording	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Gino Corrado	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Carrie Daumery	...	Sick Woman (uncredited)
Carlos De Valdez	...	Butler (uncredited)
Sarah Edwards	...	Wife - Second Couple (uncredited)
Adolph Faylauer	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Sam Flint	...	Husband - Second Couple (uncredited)
Helen Freeman	...	Barbara (uncredited)
Otto Fries	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Mahlon Hamilton	...	Colonel (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Keith Hitchcock	...	Mr. Kartasoff (uncredited)
Olaf Hytten	...	Butler (uncredited)
Isabelle Keith	...	Wife - First Couple (uncredited)
Andrea Leeds	...	Girl in Bar (uncredited)
Francis McDonald	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Bert Moorhouse	...	Racetrack Spectator (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer	...	Racetrack Spectator (uncredited)
Henry Mowbray	...	Husband - First Couple (uncredited)
Joseph North	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Barry Norton	...	Kitty's Suitor (uncredited)
Wedgwood Nowell	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Dennis O'Keefe	...	Best Man (uncredited)
William Orlamond	...	Train Inspector (uncredited)
Barbara Pepper	...	Party Girl (uncredited)
Edward Reinach	...	Racetrack Spectator (uncredited)
Georges Renavent	...	Attaché (uncredited)
Pepi Sinoff	...	Fat Woman (uncredited)
Leonid Snegoff	...	Major-domo (uncredited)
Stephen Soldi	...	Man at Train Station (uncredited)
Pat Somerset	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Larry Steers	...	Officer at Banquet (uncredited)
Dickie Walters	...	Child (uncredited)
Robert Warwick	...	Colonel (uncredited)
Helen Wood	...	Princess Lvov (uncredited)
William Worthington	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)

Directed by
Clarence Brown

Writing credits
Leo Tolstoy		(from the novel by) (as Count Leo Tolstoy)
Clemence Dane		(screen play) and
Salka Viertel		(screen play)
S.N. Behrman		(dialogue adaptation)

Produced by
David O. Selznick	....	producer

Original Music by
Herbert Stothart

Cinematography by
William H. Daniels		(photographed by) (as William Daniels)

Film Editing by
Robert Kern		(film editor) (as Robert J. Kern)

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Costume Design by
Adrian		(gowns)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles Dorian	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Fredric Hope	....	associate art director
Edwin B. Willis	....	associate art director

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Camera and Electrical Department
William Grimes	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Music Department
Wayne Allen	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Charles Maxwell	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Chester Hale	....	mazurka stager
Andrei Tolstoy	....	consultant (as Count Andrey Tolstoy)
Margarete Wallmann	....	ballet stager
Howard Dietz	....	press agent (uncredited)
Erich von Stroheim	....	technical advisor: military sequence (uncredited)
William H. Wright	....	production assistant: David O. Selznick (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (presents) (Clarence Brown's Production) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Madacy Entertainment (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1954) (Austria) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Russian Symphony Choir  vocal and choral effects by
• Western Electric  recording system

Also Known As:

Runtime:

95 min | West Germany:89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:11 (re-release) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #1015) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (re-rating) (1990) | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | New Zealand:PG | Australia:PG | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Aware that her co-star Fredric March was notorious for seducing his leading ladies, Greta Garbo reportedly wore garlic under her clothes and purposely had bad breath in order to stave off his advances.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the horse race, when Count Vronsky falls down, he is wearing a dark jacket, before and after the incident he wears a light colored one.

Quotes:

Karenin:I told my son you were dead. Why do you make me out a tyrant who intervenes between him and you? It's easy for you to play the martyr... and destroy the new life I'm trying to build up for my son and for myself as you destroyed the old. And I shall not permit it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Eugene Onegin, Op. 24)

Memorable adaptation of the Tolstoy classic

Greta Garbo brings great pathos to the role of Tolstoy's tragic heroine, though it's anyone's guess why her Anna would be drawn even remotely to Frederic March's stiff, colorless Count Vronsky. Basil Rathbone, on the other hand, is all that he should be as Anna's cold, unforgiving husband and Freddie Bartholomew is quite fine as their son. It was inevitable that the complete breadth of Tolstoy's massive novel would suffer somewhat in its transfer to the screen and this is most keenly felt in the film's treatment of the secondary love story involving Kitty and Levin, which is all but discarded. Nonetheless, this MGM production, directed by Clarence Brown, is utterly involving. With the very pretty Maureen O'Sullivan as Kitty; Gyles Isham as Levin; and Reginald Owen, Constance Collier, Reginald Denny, May Robson, Ethel Griffies and Phoebe Foster.