Anna Karenina [VHS] [1948]

Anna Karenina is set in dramatic Russia 1875, Leigh takes the lead as Anna, the film opens with Anna's bother Stefan Oblonsky (Hugh Dempster) discussing with a friend a martial spat that he had with his wife, she has threaten to leave him. He has asked his sister to intervene, Anna immediately takes the train from St Petersburg to Moscow in a bid to help her brother, her company during the train journey is Countess Vronsky (Helen Haye) who herself is on her way to meet her son. Arriving at the station Anna briefly makes the acquaintance of the Countess Son, Count Vronsky (The very young and dashing Kieron Moore) although the meeting was very brief Count Vronsky passion is sparked by Anna's beauty. While Anna is visiting Moscow the Count tries to pursue Anna, although Anna loves the attention and has a wonderful time she keeps her senses for she is already married with child to a very influential man in society.

Anna takes the train back to St Petersburg to meet her husband Alexei Karenina (Ralph Richardson) Alexei is a boring bureaucratic husband who pays little attention to his wife caught in a loveless marriage with nothing in common apart from their son, Anna's mind begins to wander. Count Vronsky had followed Anna back to St Petersburg's in pursuit refusing to give up, he has the knowledge that Anna is unhappy in marriage. Count Vronsky persistence finally pays off, Anna beings an affair at first discretely but soon Anna can bare no more and leaves her husband, in doing so she must pay the consequences of her decision, alienated by her husband and society she is forced to leave with her lover for Venice, Italy but while away Anna feel the Count is bored with his isolated life she now lives in desperate fear of believing her lover will lose interest and abandon her.

They return to Russia but Anna fears grow worst each day, while Count Vronsky can walk among society with out any problems, Anna must pay as punishment, she is caught up in double standards of society she must suffer isolation for cheating on her husband. Her loneliness and fears within, leads to a tragic end.

Directed by Julien Duviver and based on the book by Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina was released in 1947, Vivien Leigh who's captivating beauty and talent should have been perfect for this role, unfortunately compared to her other films Leigh did not put in one of her better performances but that wasn't to say it was a bad one either. The whole cast keep it together throughout with their strong acting skills and has this film ticking over. Worth even viewing for the elegant set decor and of course Cecil Beaton's lavish costume designs.

A.Bowhill

No,it's not a Russian version of STORM IN A TEACUP, an earlier film of Vivien's for Korda, but the ultimate effect could well bear the name. When Tolstoy's heroine openly embarks on a headlong extra-marital affair that scandalises buttoned-up society and devastates her personal life her friend Princess Betty (Martita Hunt) observes that her choice of honesty over discretion inevitably invites tragedy. It must be said that if tragedy is a mountain Vivien picks her way daintily up its slopes, delicately avoiding any pot-holes or crevices, gracefully acknowledging the story like a patroness of the arts but carefully distancing herself from its passion. Kieron Moore as her lover Vronsky escorts her dutifully but seems even less aroused than she is. For all the grief that ensues they would have fared better just keeping it quiet but then Anna would not be a heroine. Ralph Richardson knocks spots off the both of them as the cold husband shaken from his insulated life of politics and status into the most convincing traumas (that's ACTING, my friends). You can tell the film has failed when it verbalises her final thoughts instead of conveying her feelings through the camera. At the last she stands gallantly on the railway-line letting the train knock her down, no pain, no blood, a dying swan sinking into easeful death. And we feel nothing.
Thankfully the life going on around this emotional vacuum is arrestingly depicted, the whirl of Czarist high-society with its balls, soirees, seances and race-meetings, beautifully costumed and shot (save for a cringe-making moment with a model train in the snow). While chunks of the book are jettisoned and some of its issues minimalised there's still room for pleasing spots for Hunt, Marie Lohr, Niall MacGinnis and a touching cameo from Sally Ann Howes as the jilted Kitty. Vivien was a great beauty and a great star-presence but an actress of limited resources. The role of Scarlett O'Hara - a selfish bitch born to survive and dominate - liberated her from gentility and she captured and maintained it superbly. But nothing afterwards had the same inspiration. Anna may have set the tongues wagging but on this occasion she's too rarefied for words. Or tears.

Vivien Leigh is a Very Special "Anna Karenina", and the film becomes the classic novel of Tolstoy a spetacular entertainment!