A Tale of Two Cities

This very early film version of Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" is pretty bad considering they only took 21 minutes to tell the story, though you have to put it in context. For 1911, this is actually a full-length story and no one yet made 90-120 minute films. Versions of other stories such as "Frankenstein" were likewise extremely short and confusing--and best watched by folks who already knew the stories. Additionally, seeing obviously painted backgrounds was the norm for the day and all the nice costumes and attempts to make it look good actually would indicate that this was a prestige film...with a higher than usual budget! So, don't be too quick to dismiss this picture...it's really not that bad considering.

If you want to see the film, it's currently on YouTube and would best be watched on your small computer screen and not on a television using a BlueRay player because in the latter case, the film is very blurry and the intertitle cards are hard to read.