Product Details

• Actors: Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore, Hugh Dempster, Mary Kerridge
• Directors: Julien Duvivier
• Writers: Julien Duvivier, Guy Morgan, Jean Anouilh, Leo Tolstoy
• Producers: Alexander Korda, Herbert Mason
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English, Italian
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vci/Ffi
• VHS Release Date: June 26, 1995
• Run Time: 139 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303562566
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324,721 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Vivien Leigh is a "Scarlett" woman as tragic heroine Anna Karenina, unhappily married to "colossal bore" Alexei (Ralph Richardson), who neglects her to attend to affairs of state. When Anna meets the dashing Count Vronsky (Kieron Moore), she begins an affair of her own that scandalizes St. Petersburg and leads to her ostracization from high-society circles and, in a heartbreaking scene, her beloved son. Pepe Le Moko director Julien Duvivier's 1948 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's oft-filmed book has stretches that make the film seem as long and cold as a Russian winter night, but the ravishing Leigh as the doomed Anna keeps the fires burning. The "thoughtless and selfish" Anna is a distant relation of the willfull Ms. O'Hara from Gone with the Wind, although her ultimate comeuppance leaves no hope for "another day." This is a high-minded prestige production (Tolstoy gets his name above the title), but it offers the more simple, old fashioned pleasures of a Hollywood melodrama. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Role for Vivien Leigh, July 31, 2002

By 

Carolyn McKenzie "Read-a-holic" (Wauwatosa, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anna Karenina (1948) (DVD)

What a beautiful and talented actress she was! Though most only remember her for Gone With The Wind, Miss Leigh's other roles were equally captivating. My copy of the DVD is fine, no quality issues, and it features Miss Leigh on the cover, not Garbo as another reviewer mentioned.

On to the romance. Anna Karenina is locked in a loveless marriage to a much older count. She falls in love with a handsome, dashing younger man and defies society by running off with him. In one scene, she comes back "home" to sneak in to see her beloved young son, whom she left to pursue her passion. What a heart wrencing scene that is!

Treat yourself to a night of classic cinema. Buy Anna Karenina!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tolstoy would have approved, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Anna Karenina [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The 19th century's greatest portraitist of women would have been impressed by this very faithful adaptation of his ground breaking novel. Typical of this era in film making, the black and white photography is painterly. The final sequence at the snow-shrouded train station captures Tolstoy's writing and imagery to an astonishing degree. See this picture and harken to each word. You will be well rewarded.

41 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a shame!, December 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Anna Karenina (1948) (DVD)

I can barely review the movie: everyone knows a movie adaptation of a great book like Anna Karenina is bound to have shortcomings. But let me tell you about this heck of a ghastly DVD production! Who on earth is behind this sloppy transfer? The movie was made in 1948, but you'd think it was 1918, looking at the hideously blurry, fuzzy, melted frames, and chopped soundtrack. Funny color gizmos even appear sometime for a split second on the screen, definite signs of the little care that was paid to the DVD production of this otherwise decent movie. A reviewer here mentionned the error in the poster on the cover (yes, that's Garbo indeed): if only that was the only sloppiness in this DVD output! Shame shame shame......