Seeking film adaptations after reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment," I had high hopes for this one in particular. Behind the camera, it features Josef von Sternberg, who was no stranger to crime pictures having directed the early gangster flick "Underworld" (1927) and is renowned for his cinematographic compositions. I was intrigued to discover how he might employ the chiaroscuro effects and other lighting tricks that immortalized Marlene Dietrich's star to support themes derived from Dostoevsky's work. Then, cast in front of the camera was Peter Lorre, who had already given the best performance on screen to date of a tormented murderer chased by the police in "M" (1931). He seemed perfect for the role of the protagonist Raskolnikov. Instead, it seems that this project was forced upon von Sternberg to conclude his contract with Columbia Pictures; reportedly, when finished, he considered it a failure, too. Meanwhile, Lorre is merely bellicose for his part. This "Crime and Punishment" is worse than bad; it's disappointing.
And dull. The novel is long-winded, as well as is this film--even though it clocks in at under an hour and a half, but at least the book went somewhere in the end. The film, on the other hand, ends with a clunky thud of abrupt melodramatics as it's played out by an overblown musical crescendo. I'm not surprised that a 1930s Hollywood studio picture wouldn't be well suited to transmuting Dostoevsky's mourning the loss of an aristocratic and religious order and the rise of modern and radical ideas such as Russian nihilism, let alone the protagonist's contempt for a good capitalist like the pawnbroker, but, unfortunately, neither does the film substitute these themes with anything compelling. In fact, Raskolnikov spends much of the proceedings here with his conscience at apparent ease, with his criminal act coming across as a momentary crisis of confidence, from a stout little man with a Napoleon Complex. Added for no good reason to Dostovesky's story is a scene where he's praised upon graduation and another episode where he is ironically made wealthy by his writing. At least had they cut out much of this needless blather, it could've been a tidy little feature of barely more than an hour runtime.
Moreover, despite von Sternberg's usual shadows creeping up every wall and bodily presence, this is visually dull, too. It's obviously filmed on a studio lot--and of the impoverished Columbia Pictures no less--illuminating none of the milieu of Dostovesky's Saint Petersburg and, instead, mostly takes place in boring and cramped flats with lots of talking. Very little is done to lift this production visually beyond the appearance of a stage play. This is particularly disappointing for me after having previously seen the 1923 German silent adaptation of "Raskolnikow," which featured Expressionist sets that seemed to externally reflect the inner torment, if not downright delusions, of its main character. It also doesn't help here that Lorre displays relatively little anguish in the role beyond an annoyance with the cat-and-mouse game played upon him by the inspector. The rest of the characters here, aside from Raskolnikov and the inspector, are a shell of their literary selves, which makes one wonder why some of them were included at all. I'm particularly displeased here with the "Grilov" character, who as Svidrigaïlov in the book was a rather amusing rapscallion, but is an utter bore in his reduced role here as a heavy. Sonya's pivotal part is likewise damaged (and what happened to her two siblings here?), and I don't know why they even bothered including the sister's other suitors, Dmitri and Luzhin, if they were to hardly use them. The true crime here is the adaptation itself, and the punishment awaits those who view it.
The film's 1935 counterpart made in France, "Crime et Châtiment," is an entirely superior adaptation; otherwise, the best versions of the novel I've seen, as included in my ranking, are the aforementioned 1923 film and, for loose reworkings, Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket" (1959) and Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989).
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