Following a long skein of sex-laden productions, the Fine Arts' latest offering is a program more in keeping with its name. The job of compressing 1000 pages of Feodor Dostoevsky's two best novels in to four hours filmfare is almost impossible, but the two features, one in French, the other in German, nearly succeed in their task.

"Crime and Punishment," the psychological study of a starving student who murders because he thinks he is above the laws of man, follows the novel more religiously than its companion piece. Only minor characters and actions are omitted as the French production, a morbid thriller from the first scene, is forced to compress pages of introspection into mere celluloid suggestion. The fiery-eyed Roskalnikov is forced to break down and confess his act under the shrewd handling of detective Porphyr, excellently portrayed by Harry Baur, and his prostitute-turned-saint follows him to Siberia. Pierre Blanchar, who plays Roskalnikov, may be a little too hammy in his actions to suit an American audience, but his overacting detracts little from the film.

To gets its performance under "Gone With the Wind" length, the German producers of "The Brothers Karamazov" are forced to omit huge chunks of plot. The entire tale of Aliosha, dreamy near-mystic and perhaps the hero of the novel, is scrapped to make way for the study of Dmitri Karamazov, his love Grushenka, and the intricacies of another brutal murder. The German production is good so far as it goes, but Dostoevsky fans will weep at the wholesale butchery of the novel. Anna Sten, as the seductive Grushenka, contributes a fine performance.

Both films are somewhat aged, and the soundtracks are occasionally off key, but good photography and acting far above the usual Hollywood level more than make up for the shortcomings. The performance will prove more interesting for those who haven't read the novels than for those who have but if you don't mind two trips to the salt mines in four hours' time, a subway ride to the Fine Arts will prove a gripping antidote for November hours.