Sadly Over-hyped

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The admirable effort to squeeze one of the greatest novels of all time into a film has resulted in a controversial masterpiece of intensity, and Dostoievsky would have liked it. Maria Schell (Grushenka) and Lee J. Cobb (the murdered father) stand out of a congregation of an ideal acting ensemble. Yul Brunner as Dimitri, Claire Bloom as Katia, Richard Baseheart as Ivan, William Shatner as Alyosha and Albert Salmi as a perfectly loathsome Smerdyakov are all perfect in their performances leaving nothing out, the music is perfectly fitted into the constantly changing and dramatic moods of ever increasing tension, but the greatest credit goes to the writer/director Richard Brooks, who has succeeded with the impossible, to give one of the most complex and polyphonic novels a digestible cinematic form. He adds to the show by including some extra scenes to make the drama easier to grasp, like a considerable foreplay to where the real start of the novel, the family congregation at the Starets Zossima's. I saw this film some 40 years ago and have never been able to forget the performances of Maria Schell and Lee J. Cobb, and the pleasure of reviewing them in what could have been their best performances was a welcome return of a great delight. It was a special satisfaction to observe how Richard Brooks has succeeded in underscoring the romantic element of Dostoievsky, he is in fact the greatest of romantics although well covered under a massive outfit of humanity, intelligence, psychology and the faculty of anatomizing human nature. The romance here is that between Dimitri and Grushenka, totally hopeless because of the circumstances but therefore the more heightened. It is very interesting to compare this film version with the Russian complete screen adaptation of 2008, which will be reviewed later. They definitely complement each other.

This is not a review. See other comments of those who liked this film. For me, it is one of the two worst films of literary masterpieces I have ever seen, the other being The Sound and the Fury. The actors were all fine. The father is wrongly characterized but well played by Cobb. Brynner is excellent as Dmitri. They are less ambiguous and so more easily screened. There is no way that anyone could capture Ivan, though Basehart does his best. And Alexei? It's not Shatner's fault that this role is written so terribly. As you can see, I absolve the actors of the crime committed by the film. Perhaps it is not Maria Schell's fault, either, that she mugs and grins her way through her ridiculous part. But I kept wishing she would stop smiling, just once stop smiling whatever emotion she thinks she is conveying. I felt this intensely both when I saw the film in 1958 and 2010. If anything Schell is worse than Joanne Woodward in the Faulkner film when the latter says, "And this fine old house just falling to wrack and ruin about our ears" Nothing in the film Karamazov, of course, about how the "miraculously preserved" corpse of Zosima starts stinking in short order. And predictably, of course, not a hint of the Grand Inquisitor. The worst omission by far, however, is the boys shouting "Hurrah for Karamazov" at the end of the book. Critics once voted that line the greatest single line in all of literature, second only to "Look up Nicholas, look up!" in George Eliot's Middlemarch. It's not that I expect a film to capture anything but glimpses of a great work, but this film is a travesty. Marilyn Monore would have been a big plus, as she was in The Misfits. The first time I saw this film, I hadn't even read the book, which I've since read many times and tend to think is one of the world's greatest novels. Well, what can one expect from 1950s middlebrow Hollywood? It's like penciling a mustache on the Mona Lisa to make it more accessible. No thanks.

Hollywood rendition of the classic novel by Feodor Dostoyesky deals about the Karamazov family. It starts in Ryevsk, 1870, the father named Fyodor is a selfish libertine , he brutalizes and mistreats his sons . His four grown sons are Dimitri(Yul Brynner), an attractive, wealthy officer who is betrothed to rich Katya (Claire Bloom), the monk is named Alexi(William Shatner), a writer named Ivan (Richard Basehart) and the bastard (Albert Salmi). Dimitri falls in love with a beautiful woman named Grishenka(Maria Schell), but she's the father's lover. Then emerge the tensions , drama and tragedy when brothers and father struggle with their desires for the same women.One of the most interesting films based on the novels by the fascinating Russian writer Feodor Dostoevsky - Crime and punishment-. The writers Julius and Philip Epstein -Casablanca- kicked out most of the psychological undertones of the original. This overlong picture is confined by the demands of melodrama and packs some flaws and gaps. Nevertheless it is full of masterly touches and unexpected flashes of intelligence. Nice performances by all star cast , especially by Richard Bashehart, William Shatner and Lee J. Cobb does an overacting. And Maria Schell who does a sensible and smiling performance as Grushenka, whose role Marilyn Monroe attempted desperately to get. Colorful cinematography by John Alton, a noted cameraman expert on noir cinema.Good and intense direction by Richard Brooks. He was a fine writer/director so consistently mixed the good and average which it became impossible to know that to expect from him next. Firstly he worked regularly as a Hollywwod screenwriter. After that, his initial experience of directing was one of his own screenplays called ¨Crisis¨. The Richard Brooks films that have the greatest impact are realized during the 50s and 60s as ¨Cat on a hot tin roof, Something of value, Elmer Gantry, Sweet bird of youth, In cold blood, Lord Jim and the Professionals¨ and of course ¨The brothers Karamazov¨ .

This is the first time I've viewed this film and am quite impressed. Now I see why it's considered a classic. I got totally immersed in the storyline, even though I had laundry to do. I'm amazed only one actor was singled out for an award. Several of them deserved it, including Albert Salmi. Is it true this was his very first film???