Crime and Punishment (1935/I)

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Joseph Anthony (writer)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

22 November 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

I am Sonya! You don't know who or what I am... the police know! They know I'm in love with a murderer! But a woman like me might still save a man's soul!

Plot:

Man is haunted by a murder he's committed.

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Remake | Based On Novel

Cast

Peter Lorre	...	Roderick Raskolnikov
Edward Arnold	...	Insp. Porfiry
Marian Marsh	...	Sonya
Tala Birell	...	Antonya Raskolnikov
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Mrs. Raskolnikov
Robert Allen	...	Dmitri
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Grilov
Gene Lockhart	...	Lushin
Charles Waldron	...	University president
Thurston Hall	...	Editor
Johnny Arthur	...	Clerk
Mrs. Patrick Campbell	...	Pawnbroker
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
A. Gest	...	Clerk
Edith Arnold	...	Nastasya (uncredited)
Michael Arshasky	...	Clerk (uncredited)
George Blagoi	...	Clerk (uncredited)
Nana Bryant	...	Madam (uncredited)
Davison Clark	...	Cop (uncredited)
Frank Fanning	...	Cop (uncredited)
Al Ferguson	...	Cop (uncredited)
Sheldon Jett	...	Tenant who discovers body (uncredited)
Lorimer Johnston	...	Bit (uncredited)
George Lloyd	...	Bit (uncredited)
Michael Mark	...	Painter / prisoner (uncredited)
George McKay	...	Bit (uncredited)
Robert Middlemass	...	Cop (uncredited)
Gene Morgan	...	Drunk (uncredited)
Harry Neilman	...	Cop (uncredited)
Rafaela Ottiano	...	Landlady (uncredited)
Rita Owin	...	Reception Clerk (uncredited)
Russ Powell	...	Porter (uncredited)
Hal Price	...	Porter (uncredited)
Jack H. Richardson	...	Man (uncredited)
Peter Seal	...	Cop (uncredited)
Harry Semels	...	Porter (uncredited)
Kathryn Sheldon	...	Bit (uncredited)
Cecil Weston	...	Secretary (uncredited)
Robert Wilber	...	Waiter (uncredited)

Directed by
Josef von Sternberg

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Joseph Anthony		writer
Fyodor Dostoyevsky		novel "Crime and Punishment"
S.K. Lauren		writer

Produced by
B.P. Schulberg	....	producer

Cinematography by
Lucien Ballard

Film Editing by
Richard Cahoon

Set Decoration by
Stephen Goosson

Costume Design by
Murray Mayer

Sound Department
Lodge Cunningham	....	sound engineer

Music Department
Louis Silvers	....	musical director
R.H. Bassett	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Louis Silvers	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Production Companies

• B.P. Schulberg Productions (for)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• Orbis-Filmverleih (1936) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Company:

B.P. Schulberg Productions

Trivia:

Josef von Sternberg was contractually obligated to make this film, and he disliked it, saying in his autobiography that it was "no more related to the true text of the novel than the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower is related to the Russian environment."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Judging Amy: Crime & Puzzlement (#3.11)" (2001)

As a film adaptation

I have spent my entire adult life reading and teaching the works of Dostoevsky, and as such I often approach film adaptations with a great deal of trepidation. Cinematic adaptations of ambitious Russian novels inherently involve a tremendous amount of compromise and reduction. At worst, they become embarrassing comic-book imitations of the original, and, at best, they become representative distillations, provocative fragments.

If one wants to see the best attempt at the latter, one should see the 1970 Kulidzhanov film version, which hews as close as possible to the original spirit and themes of the novel.

This 1935 von Sternberg version does not fall neatly into either category. It certainly makes some wrenching changes to the original-- not just in terms of plot details (such changes are inevitable for the cinematic form), but even to the thematic spirit of the original (Roderick receiving such high honors at the outset; Roderick entering a such a strident Napoleonic phase _after_ the crime; the momentary 180-degree reversal in Sonia's final speech), but what does come through successfully is a kind of gestalt rumination on the original novel. If Dostoevsky's novel was an exquisitely perfect, ambitious symphony, this film is a jazz rhapsody on the theme of the book; it borrows and rearranges motifs and creates its own new song, a song nothing like the original in particulars, but a worthwhile song on its own merits.

The film certainly seems to make full use of the serendipitous similarity in appearance between Lorre and Napoleon in his most famous portraits (Lorre even hams it up by sliding his hand under his vest at one point, which is the stereotypical Napoleonic gesture). And the decision to set the story in no particular city, it seems to me, was a judicious one, as it eliminates much of the painful artificiality that inevitably comes when Anglophone films attempt to portray Russian society.

In short, I do think this is a worthwhile film if it is judged as a creation unto its own-- not the novel per se, but a kind of Hollywood, proto-noir inspired by the great book.