Das Erbe von Monte Christo

This little gem is by far the best of the batch in the Forgotten Noir Vol. 4 DVD Collection. I had trouble believing this was a Lipperts Films Production, but now I realize that William Berke was the reason as the best films in this set were directed by him. At first, after a prologue regarding the treasure of Monte Cristo, I wondered after 20 minutes, what does this have to do with Monte Cristo as it was going in a complete different direction and then at one point about 30 mins. in...there it was! It's loosely based on Dumas' story. Everything including writing, direction, cinematography, pacing was topnotch unlike others in this series. Glenn Langan, whose dubious claim to fame is the title role in "The Amazing Colossal Man", shows that he's a decent actor and can carry a film, Adele Jergens and the rest of the cast are very good. San Francisco is also a star in this film. It has all the elements of the best noir films! I can recommend this one with confidence.

You wouldn't guess it from the title, but this is a film noir about an elaborate frame-up job. A seaman gets off his ship, rescues a damsel in distress, and finds himself on the hook for murder. The plot is fairly predictable but still engaging enough for a good time. However, don't go looking for classic noir. Bland characters, including an annoying ethnic stereotype. Glenn Langan is okay but rather generic, and a lot more could have been done with the Adele Jurgens character. Only Steve Brodie stands out as the sleazy attorney. Except for a terrific POV shot at the climax, the photography is serviceable but nothing special. The film clips along at a reasonable pace and is mildly entertaining -- nothing more.

Treasure of Monte Cristo brings to mind certain images, elements, a a loose storyline. This particular story is very far from what the title could rightly be interpreted as offering. Glenn Langan is a handsome lead actor for sure, and initially looks like he's posing for a magazine shoot. He does begin to loosen up a bit and become more believable as the film progresses, but overall I don't think this was the part he was meant to play. There are several holes in the story/script and the direction of the film creates confusion to the degree that I found myself a bit confused at one point. The remainder of the cast is adequate at best. In the end this noir film is a bit too disjointed to recommend itself.

Hmmm! Maybe this looked better on the page but sadly this attempt to modernise (and Americanise) the Monte Cristo tale just fell a bit flat for me. The one-gear Glenn Langan picks up the role of modern-day sailor "Edmund Dantes". He arrives in San Francisco only to find himself the victim of some thugs as he rides to the rescue of damsel in distress "Jean" (Adele Jergens). Consoling her leads to a quickie marriage but is she all she seems? Might she be trying to get him to reveal the location of the legendary treasure of his distant ancestor (which somehow might have managed to cross the Atlantic and the continental USA!). If you are expecting any swash and buckle, or a tale of vengeance and betrayal then don't bother. This is neither - it is a cheap and cheerful film-noir that uses the Monte Cristo treasure as a template for a rather far-fetched and silly story peopled by actors who are mediocre at best and who deliver a rather sedentary script that, along with some basic production standards, left me feeling just a bit hoodwinked!

Not bad for a bad show, but the improbabilities get a little massed up into absurdity, and the protagonist is stupid enough to trust anyone and believe anything he hears. He gets married to someone he has never seen before in his life, she claims she is an heiress to a fortune of billions, and that her guardian with other thugs want to keep her hospitalised in an asylum to get at her fortune, while the protagonist questions nothing. Of course he is being framed in a grotesque set-up to get at his own fortune, which he has no idea that he has inherited. His lawyer tries to post him a letter of the details and gets slain after posting it, he survives but only as paralyzed in a hospital, until someone kills him off there. The hotchpotch of intrigue gets worse and worse, but it doesn't last too long, only 78 minutes, and then everything is cleared up, partly thanks to the protagonist's Italian friends in San Francisco. Everything happens very quickly, it is difficult to hang on to the bolting merry-go-round, and very much is lost in the way, especially all possible shades of individual characters. It is an interesting entertainment but no more, while only the music is terrific.