Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Brand: Warner Brothers EAN: 9781419807442 Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC ISBN: 1419807447 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: September 06, 2005 Running Time: 93 minutes Sales Rank: 28089 Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 1935
Product Description: Anna Karenina dutiful wife and doting mother knows contentment but not passion. That changes when she meets ardent Count Vronsky. For him she throws away marriage family social position and finally her life. Leo Tolstoy's novel receives sumptuous treatment in David O. Selznick's production. The cast - including Fredric March (as Vronsky) Basil Rathbone Maureen O'Sullivan and Freddie Bartholomew - is stellar under the direction of Clarence Brown. But the soul of the film is Greta Garbo in a nuanced performance that won the New York Film Critics Best Actress Award. At the height of her art Garbo is unforgettable as a woman helpless in love's thrall and heartbroken at the loss of her son. Her final scene will haunt you.Running Time: 93 min.System Requirements: Running Time 93 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 012569673779
Amazon.com essential video: Garbo won two consecutive New York Film Critics Awards for best actress in this and Camille--an altogether more satisfying selection. At 95 minutes, this handsome David O. Selznick production for MGM hasn't a prayer of doing justice to the rich supporting cast of characters in Tolstoy's thick novel (notably Kitty, through no fault of the perky Maureen O'Sullivan). That was equally true of Clarence Brown's 1927 silent version Love (1927), also starring Garbo, but it was both more passionate and more fluid; Brown's direction here gathers no momentum within scenes or in the film overall. Garbo's quiet 'Too late, too late,' as she realizes early on what a tragedy her obsessive love affair must lead to, is exquisitely doomed; but Fredric March makes a tiresome, even petulant, Vronsky. It's a measure of the film's misdirection that Basil Rathbone, icy-cold as the careerist husband Karenin, inspires more sympathy. At least he's entertaining. --Richard T. Jameson
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Rating: - Anna Karenina
Another Greta Garbo great! Fredrick March and Freddie Bartholomew are equally as great. Greta Garbo plays doomed Anna Karenina. Bored with her cold husband she turns her attention to Count Vronsky she eventually runs away with him. Her powerful husband makes her choose between her lover and her child. Her choice dooms her in the end.
Rating: - Overated missed opportunity
In the Garbo canon, this film surely must rate as the biggest missed opportunity of her career. All the ingredients should have contributed to a memorable film but after a good start, it just doesn't happen.
Maybe it is the short running time. A sweeping novel has been understandably truncated but Anna's relationship with Vronsky is not sufficiently developed so their passion is unconvincing. A number of scenes don't lead anywhere e.g. Kitty's marriage scene.
Maybe it's the cast. Basil Rathbone as her husband rises to Garbo's level, superbly generating some sympathy within a stern and cold character and Reginald Owen is excellent as her brother. Freddie Bartholomew is awful with his acting school diction and delivery. Fredric March starts well, dashing and magnetic, but becomes mechanical and unconvincing as the film develops. Maureen O'Sullivan, no one's idea of a Russian or Garbo's sister, ... Read More
Rating: - a classics illustrated comic book would give you a better impression of tolstoy
garbo is radiant but there is no other reason to watch this highly abridged telling of tolstoys novel. while im used to hollywood (by necessityt) removing whole sections of a loooong book, this is incomprehensible to anyone who hasnt some previous acquaintance with the story. even the usually reliable fredric march and basil rathbone (one of the greatest hams ever) cant save it.
Rating: - Love in an Age of Appearances
As I plow my way through this Great Garbo Signature Collection a few things are becoming somewhat apparent. One, as Garbo got older she grew into her beauty and out of that ghostly look she had in his early films. And two, she is a movie star not a serious actress. As a result this adaptation of "Anna Karenina" is much more a Garbo vehicle than a serious take on a serious piece of Russian literature. Like most of her film entrances this one is marked by an extreme close up, lighting that is way too bright, and actual fanfare that today would just seem silly. The main problem I had was that it was just not very literary. The vocab is at a second grade reading level and the ideas are bold and unambiguous. The book and even the movie are old old old so I will forgive the story for feeling familiar, and you have to appreciate the message they are trying to spread. Here we have Anna, who fought for love, but was crushed under ... Read More
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- Anna Karenina
- Overated missed opportunity
- a classics illustrated comic book would give you a better impression of tolstoy
