A Tale of Two Cities (1980 film) A Tale of Two Cities (1980 film) A Tale of Two Cities is a 1980 American made-for-television historical drama film directed by Jim Goddard and starring Chris Sarandon, who plays dual roles as two characters who are in love with the same woman. It is based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name set in the French Revolution. Dickens' London-lawyer hero (Chris Sarandon) makes the ultimate sacrifice for the woman he loves in Paris during the Reign of Terror. Producer Norman Rosemont specialised in adaptations of classic novels. Most of the $5 million budget came from Hallmark Greeting
A Tale of Two Cities sign of the gold-beater's craft) now resides at the Charles Dickens Museum but you could have seen a modern replica sticking out of the wall near the Pillars of Hercules pub at the western end of Manette Street (formerly Rose Street), until this building was demolished in 2017. In United States politics, at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, the keynote speaker Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York delivered a scathing criticism of then-President Ronald Reagan's comparison of the United States to a "shining city on a hill" with an allusion to Dickens' novel, saying: "Mr. President, you ought to know