Tuesday, June 11, 2024, 7:30 p.m., Dryden Theatre
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(Josef von Sternberg, US 1935, 88 min., 35mm)
Director Josef von Sternberg tackles Fyodor Dostoevsky’s nihilist novel in sound for the first time. In his second American film, Peter Lorre is Raskolnikov, a writer whose family is experiencing extreme poverty. In a fit of desperation he murders a pawnbroker and robs her for valuables. In the meantime, he is employed to write an article for a large amount of money and his life seems to be going well except that Inspector Porfiry (Edward Arnold) has arrested an innocent man for the murder and is willing to send him to jail to maintain a perfect record. This print was made in 1955 directly from the camera negative.