El tesoro de Monte Cristo

Glenn Langan is Edmund Dantes, a merchant mariner on leave in his home town of San Francisco, He runs into Adele Jergens. She is an heiress whose guardian keeps sticking her into asylums so he can hold onto her money. She offers him $10,000 to marry her, so she can gain control. He does so, and the next day is framed for murder. Now the story she tells the police is different; Langan picked her up, they got drunk and married in Reno, and that's all she knows.

It's a cheap Lippert production with little in the way of star power, but it's a nicely tangled little mystery in which, alas, many of its secrets are revealed in the title. Nonetheless, B director William Berke gets some nice performances out of the actors, as well as some nice location shots around San Francisco.

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.

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.

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.

One does not expect a whole lot from a Lippert feature but since noir enthusiasts are sifting through poverty row features to find new titles, they should check this one out. William Berke directed and Benjamin Kline lensed this competent,engaging crime actioner.Shot totally on location in San Francisco with plenty of night street scenes,the chase covers the Marina,the Filbert Street stairs on Telegraph Hill,the Embarcadero,downtown business area,the Tenderloin and Twin Peaks. Most Lippert films were produced in as little a five days,and rarely in over two weeks, This venture took eleven days but does not particularly look like a rush job. The stars Adele Jergens and Glenn Langan ,a very handsome couple indeed, allegedly met and married about the time of filming. Steve Brodie fans will love his portrayal of a sleazy lawyer. Michael Whalen,Michael Vallon and Dead End kid Bobby Jordan turn in good performances. Given an edgy title this film would be better known. It may not be in a class with the recently revived WOMAN ON THE RUN but it certainly should appeal to noir enthusiasts who crave a San Francisco locale.