Anna Karenina (1935)(DVD)

This stunning film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic romantic tragedy stars the incomparable Greta Garbo in the title role. Anna Karenina, a young Russian woman trapped in a loveless marriage, meets and falls in love with Count Vronsky (Fredric March), a member of the Russian army. Karenin (Basil Rathbone), her husband, refuses to give her a divorce, but, determined to pursue true love, she leaves her marriage and child to follow the soldier to Venice. Desperate to avenge his lost love, Karenin tells their son, Sergei (played by child star Freddie Bartholomew), that his mother has died in a foreboding and tragic twist of fate. However, Anna's romance with Vronsky falters when he deserts her to join the Turkish-Serbian war. In pursuit of their love, Anna follows him to St. Petersburg, but only tragedy awaits. Garbo gives a masterful and remarkable performance as Leo Tolstoy's ill-fated heroine--one of the most remade film stories--set against the sumptuous vision of czarist Russia.