The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
Directed by Richard Brooks

Film Review

1958 marked the highpoint of Richard Brooks' career as a film director, as it saw the release of two of his most ambitious and personally demanding films, The Brothers Karamazov and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  Both films are big budget adaptations of a major literary work, the first the universally acclaimed magnum opus by Fyodor Dostoevsky,  the second a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams.  Yet whilst the second of these films was a massive critical and commercial success and is now considered a classic of its era, the first had comparatively little impact and remains one of Brooks' most overlooked films, perhaps not without some justification.

Dostoevsky's complex epic novel does not lend itself easily to a cinematic interpretation.  To date, there have been around ten adaptations of The Brothers Karamazov and the only one which comes close to capturing the essence of the author's novel is Fyodor Otsep's now virtually forgotten 1931 film Les Frères Karamazoff.  Armed with a massive budget and an even larger dose of Hollywood chutzpah, Brooks made a brave attempt to give Dostoevsky's novel the blockbuster treatment he felt it deserves but he was clearly overwhelmed by the scale of his undertaking.  Whole chunks of the novel are discarded, its author's deep philosophical meanderings reduced to trite, toe-curling sound-bites, and all that remains are the more sensational aspects of the story, with most of the latter half of the film taken up by a murder mystery that feels like the 19th century Russian equivalent of a Perry Mason intrigue.

On the plus side, Brooks manages to get the best out of his remarkable ensemble of actors, particularly Yul Brynner who excels in what should rate as one of his greatest screen roles.  For the part of the most complex and contradictory of the four Karamazov brothers Brynner is a perfect choice, having not only the physique to be convincing as a military man but also the ability to project his character's inner turmoil as he becomes torn by a series of profound moral dilemmas.  Brynner's standout performance is only rivalled by that of Lee J. Cobb, who grabs our attention in every scene he appears as the Karamazovs' despicable and lecherous old father.  Albert Salmi comes into his own in one memorable scene as the bastard Smerdjakov, the scene in which he confesses his crime to his half-brother Ivan with a relish that is chillingly psychotic.   Making a respectable screen debut as the pious Alexei is the future captain of the Starship Enterprise, William Shatner, whilst Richard Basehart does a fine job of humanising the more ambiguous of the Karamazovs, Ivan - it's a shame that both of their characters had to be downgraded so severely to allow Brynner's Dmitri to take most of the focus.  Maria Schell is as radiant as ever as the troublesome femme fatale Grushenka (a part that Marilyn Monroe was desperate to play), but she is out classed every inch of the way by Claire Bloom, a surprisingly effective choice for the part of the idealistic Katya.

Brooks' direction of The Brothers Karamazov is confident but seldom as inspired as in most of his other films.  As commendable as the film is in both the writing and acting departments, it struggles to shake off its suffocating mantle of Hollywood artifice and get to the heart of what Dostoevsky's novel is about.  The performances may be rich and compelling but the film's two and half hour run time makes it something of an ordeal, and it is hard not to be dismayed by the forced sentimentality of the closing scene.  If the film succeeds in getting the spectator to read one of the greatest works of Russian literature that is something, but Brooks presumably had a much greater ambition in mind when he set out to make it, and in this respect he surely failed.

Film Synopsis

Fyodor Karamazov has three sons by two marriages - Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei.  He also has an illegitimate son, Smerdyakov, whom he employs as a servant.  Dmitri, the eldest son, is as debauched as his father, whom he constantly bothers for money to cover his gambling debts.  Ivan and Alexei lead more respectable lives, the first a free-thinking journalist, the second a novice priest.  To save the reputation of the noble woman Katya, Dmitri loans her money he has extorted from his father.  In return, having inherited a fortune, Katya persuades Dmitri to marry her.  But on the eve of their wedding, Dmitri finds his attention drawn to Grushenka, his father's beautiful young mistress.  When his father refuses to give him the remainder of his inheritance so that he can pay back some money he stole from Katya, Dmitri threatens to kill him.   This gives Smerdyakov an idea to settle a few scores...