the 1935 film A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is played by Blanche Yurka. In the 1958 film A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is played by Rosalie Crutchley. In the 1980 TV movie A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is played by Billie Whitelaw. In the 1981 Mel Brooks parody History of the World, Part I, Madame Defarge (played by Cloris Leachman) is the chief conspirator in the plot to overthrow King Louis XVI. She has become so poor she has run out of wool and simply rubs her knitting needles together. In the 2008 Broadway musical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is played by Natalie Toro. Influences In the 2012 superhero film The Dark Knight Rises the character of Talia al Ghul played by Marion Cotillard was heavily influenced by the character of Madame Defarge. Also, in the same movie, the villain Bane can be seen sitting and knitting (like Madame Defarge) in the audience of one of the "trials" presided over by The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy). References Literary characters introduced in 1859 A Tale of Two Cities characters Female literary villains Female characters in literature Female characters in film Female film villains Fictional French people in literature Fictional revolutionaries