Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
EAN: 0024543425793
Format: Black & White
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
MPN: FOXD2242579D
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-04-24
Running Time: 216
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1935-04-20

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 04/24/2007
Victor Hugo's massive novel Les Miserables has spawned many adaptations in many forms over the years, and Twentieth Century Fox can count two respectable versions from its studio heyday. Both are included on this single-disc release. The superior version is the lavish 1935 take, for which producer Darryl F. Zanuck marshaled the studio's resources. While evocatively staged by director Richard Boleslawski and smartly condensed into punchy, vivid scenes, the movie is remembered for its indelible central performances: Fredric March as the hunted Jean Valjean and especially Charles Laughton as his letter-of-the-law pursuer, Inspector Javert. March, a sometimes stagey actor, is at his committed best, notably in the sequence where (in a single-scene second role) he plays the simpleton mistaken for the fugitive Valjean. But Laughton is completely fascinating: cruel and unforgiving, yet neurotic and weak; and Laughton brings out a tortured sexual undercurrent to Javert's pursuit. (Laughton didn't get an Oscar nomination for his performance, but he bagged one the same year for Mutiny on the Bounty; the film itself was nominated in four categories, including nods for Best Picture and Gregg Toland's cinematography.)

The 1952 production is similarly handsome, and director Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) an even more talented filmmaker than Boleslawski. But it misses classic status because of the elusive alchemy of casting. The story may be told serviceably, but Michael Rennie's Christlike Valjean and Robert Newton's steadfast Javert don't catch the magic, giving the result a sort of "Classics Illustrated" quality. But Laughton will haunt your dreams. --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: Les Miserables (1935&1952)
Comment: Both versions in the set are very entertaining but the 1935 version is the best. As a classic reader I would also recomend reading Victor Hugo's book. The movie is a good redition of Hugo's work.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Classic presentation of a Classic
Comment: Two films well worth seeing of a novel well worth reading. The 1935 that I missed as a two year old is far better than most of the films in the theatres today. Fredric March ought not be missed. Great actors, telling a great story. The book is better, but then you have to spend much more time with it. The film gives you a feeling of many parts of life and history with out the pain that was there. You are a prisioner with out the hunger, is the revolution without the blood and in court without the horror. The 1952 film tells the same story almost as well. If you have to choose one make it the 1935.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Les Miserables (1935 & 1952)
Comment: Top notch British acting & directing. Both are classics, but I'd give a slight edge to the 1935 version. Both Charles Laughton & Cedric Hardwicke shine as usual.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The best of all film versions.
Comment: The 1935 version of Les Miserable is the best adaptation of all of the filmed versions. Charles Laughton is magnificent!!! This item is a great value because it has the 1935 version and the 1952 version so you can compare at least two versions back to back. The latest adaptation with Liam Neesom is the worst. I recommend to everyone who reads this review to purchase this item and as soon as it arrives, pop in the 1935 version and be prepared to be amazed( if you haven't already seen it). Next to the book it is perfect. A must see/own movie.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not a 2 disc set
Comment: I was disappointed that the set described as a two-disc set was NOT a two-disc set, but a single disc with a movie on each side. There is no way to tell which side is which so I will have to mark the DVD myself. However, I do enjoy the movies, because Les Miserables is my favorite fictional book.

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