A Tale of Two Cities

The film follows the fortunes of a disillusioned young English lawyer, Sydney Carton, whose solace is drink and who bears an uncanny resemblance to a young French aristocrat named Charles Darnay. Carton defends Darnay in an English court on charges of spying made by treacherous informer Barsad, and saves the French aristocrat from an indictment of treason. Later, after a nightly drinking bout, Carlton confesses to Darnay’s fiancée Lucie that he loves her and would do anything to assist her, but demands she keeps his adoration secret.

Darnay returns to France and is greeted by tyrannical Marquis St. Evermonde. With the help of the revolutionary mob in Paris and condemned to die at the guillotine. In response to Lucie’s pleas for help, Carton travels to Paris, visits her husband’s cell, drugs him and substitutes himself for the condemned man. As Darnay is smuggled out of Paris to freedom and a reunion with Lucie by Jarvis, the horse drawn cart taking Carton to his death trundles through the howling mob towards the scaffold. —Britmovie.co.uk