Crime and Punishment *** (1935, Harry Baur, Pierre Blanchar, Madeleine Ozeray) – Classic Movie Review 10,222

Director Pierre Chenal’s 1935 black and white crime drama Crime and Punishment [Crime et Châtiment] is the simultaneously filmed French version of the Fyodor Dostoevsky classic novel, while Josef Von Sternberg was making his Hollywood version of Crime and Punishment, with razor-sharp performances by Pierre Blanchar (as the law student Raskolnikov) and Harry Baur (as the Judge Porphyre).

Director Chenal films to advantage in the studio in a handsome production that impressed in its day, but has now slightly faded. Madeleine Ozeray draws the short straw as the hapless prostitute Sonia but Magdeleine Bérubet is notable as the viciously unscrupulous pawnbroker Raskolnikov kills

It is still an impressive movie, though, and very worthwhile for the acting of the two great stars Baur and Blanchar and the infallible story, as well as strong visuals and a haunting score by Arthur Honegger.

Blanchar won the Volpi Cup award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 1935.

Also in the cast are Marcelle Géniat, Madeleine Ozeray, Lucienne Le Marchand, Alexandre Rignault, Magdeleine Bérubet, Aimé Clariond, Sylvie, Georges Douking, Marcel Delaître, and Catherine Hessling.

Crime and Punishment [Crime et Châtiment] is directed by Pierre Chenal, runs 107 minutes is made by Général Productions, is released by Les Grands Spectacles Cinématographiques (1935) (France) and Lenauer International Films (1935) (US), is written by Marcel Aymé, Pierre Chenal, Christian Stengel and Vladimir Strizhevsky, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, is shot in black and white by René Colas and Joseph-Louis Mundwiller, is produced by Michel Kagansky, is scored by Arthur Honegger and is designed by Aimé Bazin.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,222

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