ABSTRACT
Within its first few seconds, MGM’s A Tale of Two Cities invites a parallel between 1785 and New Deal-era America in the process of recovering from its crisis of authority. The film is one of the most acclaimed and vividly remembered of Hollywood's literary adaptations.1 Its social subtext in Depression-era America, however, has never been examined. I believe that an analysis of the film's production history, and of the film product itself, tells us much about the sociological relationship among the popular image of Dickens, production trends, and Depression-era political anxieties, as Hollywood becomes more cognizant of its role as a culture machine. The analysis I am proposing will allow us to reflect as well on Dickens's own methods as a social writer, by contrasting his sentimental conventions with their appropriation by filmmakers addressing a mass audience about its fears of social dislocation.
