With an extra half-hour & a slight loosening in film censorship, Alex Korda ’s British version of the Tolstoy classic manages far more of Anna’s story (pregnancy & near death, Karenin’s faith-based forgiveness, Vronsky’s botched suicide, etc., all missing from the 1935 Greta Garbo version), yet Julian Duvivier’s version is possibly even less satisfying than M-G-M ’s. Though she was something of an Anna in her own life, Vivien Leigh doesn’t connect with her great role until the very end of the pic. (Her final meeting with Dolly, Kitty, Levin & the new baby shows everything that's been missing in the rest of the film, but it comes far too late.) As Vronsky, Kieron Moore hasn’t a Russian bone in his body, while the perfectly cast Ralph Richardson doesn't quite register, only to reveal a superb character conception for Karenin the following year working under William Wyler in THE HEIRESS/'49.
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