CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

US, 1935, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold, Tala Birell, Marian Marsh, Elizabeth Risdon, Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
Directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Crime and Punishment is the classic Dostoyevsky novel. It was brought to the screen by the Russians most solemnly. With a 3 hour running time, black and white photography and widescreen, moving at a very leisurely and serious pace, it was very much a Soviet presentation of Dostoyevsky’s story and insights.

The film is heavy going but it presents the novel in its entirety and is a good visualisation of it. Josef von Sternberg made a version of it in Hollywood in 1935 and compressed it to about 88 minutes. If is surprising that so many of the elements of Dostoyevsky’s novel are present in the Hollywood version. Many of the details are tellingly portrayed and there is a sense of the momentum of the novel.

Using the black and white photography of the time, Hollywood sets and a small budget cast, director von Sternberg creates the atmosphere quite well despite the American tone and accents.

Peter Lorre, not long from Germany and such films as M, portrays Raskolnikov very well indeed. Edward Arnold, who portrayed many Wall Street villains in Frank Capra's comedies of the '30s, is very good as the police inspector. It is an interesting attempt to portray Dostoyevsky for the popular audience.

1. Audience expectations from knowledge of Dostoyevsky and his reputation, the nature of his novels, their exploration of Russian society, of universal values, transcendent themes? How did the film respond to Dostoyevsky’s reputation?

2. How interesting was the transfer of Dostoyevsky’s novel to a more universal presentation? A Hollywood-style 19th. century Russia? How did the filming of Dostoyevsky’s particularly Russian approach universalise it? Make the theme accessible to a wide audience? Did the Hollywood style and treatment tend to negate the effect of the universal themes?

3. The film as an example of the '30s film making? In the career and reputation of Josef von Sternberg? The importance of Peter Lorre in the role of Raskolnikov? His reputation, the heritage of M?

4. How well did the film present, however briefly, the nature of crime? The personal investment in crime? Crime and its relationship with society? The nature of justice and its administration? The letter and authority of the law? The nature of punishment within the criminal, by others, by society? The theoretical stances of the film? Audience interest in and understanding of these themes?

5. The importance of the initial atmosphere of justice and law, Raskolnikov and receiving his degree, his reputation? Atmosphere of joy, pride? His mother and his sister, his friend? An optimistic opening and the irony of what was to happen?

6. The continued ironies of Raskolnikov's article, his enormous, reputation and yet his poverty, using the newspaper for the holes in his boots, being persecuted by his landlady, by the police? The police making him move on? These symbols of oppressive society and their effect on Raskolnikov and his own idea of his genius? His reaction of bitterness, these characters goading him into a stance outside the law, relying on his own self and arrogance?

7. The portrayal of the pawnbroker: the kind of woman she was, her work, her attitudes towards her clients, greed, style? Her harshness with Sonya? Her attitude towards Raskolnikov and beating him down for the watch? Her lack of feeling? Did the film build up sufficiently for the audience to understand Raskolnikov's motivation in actually killing her?

8. The contrast with Sonya, a pathetic heroine, her story? Her losing the coin and Raskolnikov’s generous impulse? A possibility of salvation through Sonya and generosity? The significance of her gratitude, his attitude towards the pawnbroker? The importance of his return, the actual killing? The clarity of motivations? His behaviour, fear, escape, dropping the earrings, allowing someone else to be victimised for his own crime? The significance of sequences of his moving away and the effect of his action on his conscience?

9. Audience presuppositions about law and justice? Raskolnikov's? The attitude of the police?

10. Raskolnikov's arrogance and yet the irony of his fear, his running? The effect of Sonya? Allowing another man to be arrested? The ultimate effect of Sonya's attitude and her understanding of his crime? Her devotion to him? How did this contribute to his allowing himself to be arrested?

11. The contrast with the inspector, his physical appearance in contrast with Raskolnikov, his humour and joviality? His skill at his work, speculation about the crime, interrogations, his laugh? His attitude towards Raskolnikov, respect, collaboration? The irony of the final crime and punishment situation?

12. The continuation of Raskolnikov's fear,, the irony of his going to the police station and yet it meant only his landlady questioning him? - his attitude towards the officials smoking? The irony of his mother arriving. his sister and her attitude, the suitor and his arrogance and rudeness, the arrival of Sonya and the complications of the family relationships?

13. What was good in the character of Raskolnikov, what was bad?

14. Themes of arrogance, money? Raskolnikov's gaining money from his friend? His arrogance towards the editor of the paper, towards the police? The childishness of his pride?

15. How well did the screenplay build towards the gradual revelation, the involvement of Sonya, the rejection of his sister's suitor, the family and their understanding of what was to happen? Sadness and pain? Sonya’s support?

16. The response to the ending and the visual presentation of Raskolnikov and his eyes lifted towards heaven? In terms of realism, symbolism, the significance of what had happened to him? How interesting an exploration of values, Hollywood style?