The Count of Monte Cristo

This excellently made picture is one that those you can watch over and over again. It's not however going to be anyone's all time favourite because you can't help feeling that it could have been a bit better. It's a great film but the extra magic which a film like this should have seems missing.

It was the STAR WARS of its day. It's a proper big budget, exciting adventure story and although it's as old to us now as it was to the makers of this film from the writing of the novel, it's still the most accessible and easiest to watch. There are none of the old fashioned traits of silent movies sometimes seen in some 1930s films in this. Perhaps it's because it's set in the past but the style of acting feels absolutely perfect for a story like this. It's almost a classic.

Although as a film it's faultless, in the hands of a different director I am sure it could have been even better. The themes of vengeance, justice and hope are explored well but they don't quite engage on an emotional level. Had this been made by someone like David Lean - or possibly even by Michael Curtiz or George Cukor, the nuances of those themes could have spoken to our hearts rather than just to our heads. There's nothing wrong with this film at all, it's just lacks that spark of magic to raise it to the next level.

Delightful film of the classic stage warhorse, a bit creaky and slow starting, but with cumulative power sustained by the subtle yet vivid characterizations. Each principal has a uniquely nuanced personality, brought forth by gesture and language -- something sorely lacking in today's 90 percent trash. NOTE FOR CINASTES: I never fully appreciated the comic outrages of Jame's Whale's use of the Hermit in Bride of Frankenstein until I saw the prototype, created here by the same actor, O. P. Heggie. The Hermit in "Bride" is a gleeful, unabashed parody of Faria, even in the crescendo of music that mimics the "Ave Maria" in the Whale picture. I'm sure Whale wondered if his in-joke would be caught, and by how many. See the picture and you'll understand.

This briskly paced, attractively packaged version of the Dumas classic continues to stand the test of time, owing in large part to Robert Donat, an actor for the ages, and a supporting cast which includes the able Louis Calhern as Donat's strongest enemy, the florid Raymond Walburn as the weakest, and the aristocratic beauty Elissa Landi as the love interest. The story itself is melodrama at its best, with the hook of an innocent man not only wronged by self-seeking villains but wronged in a spectacularly cold-blooded, inhuman manner: railroaded to a veritable dungeon for a crime he did not commit and left to rot forever, only to be saved by a chance encounter with a noble fellow prisoner who bequeaths to him the location of a hidden treasure which he uncovers after a daring escape from his confinement. And then, using his vast fortune, he plots a great act of justice for his enemies, now prominent personages of great corruption, not by stooping to their level, but by cleverly manipulating them into self-exposure and ultimate destruction.

Robert Donat was a fine actor who went on to win our hearts with Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. People often forget that he was slated to play the lead in the Sabatini novel, Captain Blood, which went to Errol Flynn, thus establishing his career and mark on Hollywood (and what a mark!). Donat, according to his biographers, detested Hollywood and made several films in Great Britain. His role in the Hitchcock 39 steps is legend. This film, which is a slightly more faithful adaptation of the Dumas book than the one only recently (1/02) released, is superior to its predecessor in several ways. Alas, the other reviewer here is likely too young to have seen in its original B/W but it is a fine film. the lovely Elissa Landi plays Mercedes and Sidney Blackmer, Donat's betrayer. The character actor, O.P. Heggie plays the priest and fellow prisoner of Dantes. Veteran Louis Calhern, here youthful, plays the other betrayer and villain. There's no video or DVD, so if this shows up on the late show, by all means, check it out.

I was lucky enough to obtain a video copy of an excellent black & white print of this movie, as I believe the colourisation of current copies falsifies the viewing experience. The photography and lighting are so exquisite, only the 1930's movie-making artists - it was an art form then - could accomplish it and it has to be appreciated like an antique: old, but immensely valuable for that.

They truly don't make them like this any more, and after having seen some of the subsequent screen versions, I still don't believe this one has ever been surpassed. I have also read Dumas' novel and would say that except for some minor alterations to the plot, the movie is largely true to the book.

Robert Donat is a dashing Dantes, whose ageing in body and spirit during the course of the movie is utterly believable (but he even improved on his ability to portray a physical and mental journey a few years later, when he made "Goodbye Mr. Chips"). Elissa Landi is a sweet and witty heroine, and the villains are so beautifully characterised (notably Sidney Blackmer's Mondego) that it becomes all the more satisfying when Dantes deals with them according to their own villainous traits.

I particularly enjoyed the intelligent flashes of irony with which the grim story is suffused, such as Dantes' double-speak as he flatters his enemies, at the same time telling them truth which they choose to misunderstand. The script is fantastic, the acting luminous. I feel sorry for those who hesitate to watch black & white classics like this one - they miss out on the very essence of what the art of movie-making and acting really used to be about.