This 1935 version of C&P directed by Josef von Sternberg makes some wrenching changes to the original, not just in terms of plot details, but even to the thematic spirit of the original, but what does come through successfully is a kind of gestalt rumination on the original novel. If Dostoevsky's novel was an exquisitely perfect, ambitious symphony, this film was a jazz rhapsody on the very theme: it borrowed and rearranged motifs and created a new song, nothing like the original, but a worthwhile tune on its own merits. Not among Sternberg's masterpieces (Last Command, Blue Angel, Scarlet Empress) but good.
Review of Crime and Punishment
