The Son of Monte Cristo

Screenwriter George Bruce concocted a pastiche with affection in this film, wherein each scene and, indeed, each read line of dialogue is parodic in nature, although the work is so well crafted and edited that it has been accepted as simply an example of a swashbuckling adventure featuring some major studio players, including Louis Hayward and Joan Bennett. The plot involves a contest between Hayward, as the Count of Monte Cristo, and the redoubtable George Sanders as his rival, Gurko Lanen, for the hand of Bennett, who portrays Zona, Grand Duchess of the imaginary Balkan state of Lichtenburg, during the mid-nineteenth century, and ancillary issues involving Lanen's craving for the small state's throne. The three leads give full-bodied performances with straight-forward interpretations appropriate to a pastiche, while Hayward's rapid-fire intonation and expressions create a unique characterization, contrasted nicely with Sanders' satiny villain, all supported well by numerous Hollywood stalwarts, notably Ian Wolfe, Montague Love and Clayton Moore. Direction by Rowland W. Lee perfectly matches the clever Bruce scenario, and the cinematography by George Robinson, production design by John Schulze, set decoration by Edward Boyle (the latter two Academy award winners for their efforts) and the Saturday matinee serial music of Edward Ward are about as pertinent as can be imaginable, while the excellent print enhances a neatly packaged tale of derring-do.

It is almost invariably a bad sign when the villain of the piece utterly steals the show in the first ten minutes - even when said villain is played by the inimitable George Sanders. I was seriously tempted to give up on this film before the eponymous Count had made his (delayed) appearance; indeed, memory suggested that on a previous occasion I had actually done so. To have missed the remainder of this charming film, however, must now rank as one of my most serious misjudgements so far!

George Sanders is superb as the ruthless Gurko Lanen, but a performance of this calibre in the role of the villain holds the danger of overbalancing the film in the absence of a totally outstanding performance on the part of his opponent. But the introduction of Louis Hayward's slender, charming Monte Cristo as an outsider into the cliche'd Ruritanian mix proves to be the vital spark that not only saves the film but catapults it to rank as a joyous classic of its genre. As Gurko Lanen sardonically observes, it is an adversary with a sense of humour who is dangerous.

No-one could claim originality for the plot. There are strong echoes of 'The Mask of Zorro' to be found, as our well-born young hero alternates the pose of a fop - suffering the scorn of his ladylove - with the role of masked defender of the downtrodden masses. But expectations are constantly subverted; like its title character, the film has the endearing knack of not taking itself too seriously.

This is one hero, for all his skill, who has been known to lose when launching himself gaily into battle against overwhelming numbers of his rival's henchmen; who takes his nom de guerre at the whim of a moment from the banner heading of an underground news-sheet; who shrugs off his enemy's imprecations and his lady's upbraiding both alike, with a merry grin; who clearly takes enormous enjoyment in sending himself up by playing the part of a foppish banker to deflect General Lanen's suspicions. In a nod to the Dumas original, the tool that gains him access to the General's plans and confidence is the prospect of a banking loan from the fabled Monte Cristo fortune, and despite his title the young Count is able to point out that, like Gurko Lanen, Edmond Dantes the elder was a self-made man.

For, if the hero is not entirely infallible - and all the more likeable for it - neither is the villain entirely without our sympathy. As we see in the opening scenes, Lanen is neither a fool nor a coward, and despite his cultured suavity he is the son of a stonemason, and proud of it; a gifted peasant who has dared to aspire, first to the rulership of his tiny country, then to the hand of the greatest lady in the land, the Grand Duchess herself. It is not a romance that the audience can possibly favour - the would-be suitor is too old, too brutal, too jaded to be a suitable match for young Zona - but it is hard not to wince at the haughty manner in which his courtship is dismissed. To this viewer at least, the proposal sounded genuine, evoking the old proverb that 'if she would not take him, still the lady might make him' - but any possibility for redemption is lost by the all-too-evident contempt of the Grand Duchess for the low-born upstart General.

(And I never could see why Baron von Neuhof's arrest for plotting to bring in Louis Napoleon's troops in order to return his own faction to power gets dismissed as "trumped-up charges", when Lanen's last-ditch resort to a similar bargain with the Tsar is trumpeted as a vile betrayal of his country....)

It's obvious from the start that this is one villain who is going to give the hero and his allies a run for their money; and so he does. Monte Cristo's flattery doesn't fool the General for an instant, though he is prepared to tolerate the fop as long as he remains useful, and the identity of the spy who ultimately betrays 'The Torch' has been skilfully established from the very first scenes. As soon as Lanen's suspicions are aroused he contrives, with only a little manipulation of those most loyal to his audacious guest, to discover both his secret identity and his concealed escape route in time to have him arrested and thrown in jail.

Ruthless and resourceful to the very last, Gurko Lanen keeps us gasping as he gambles everything to achieve his aims. Yet above all, it is Louis Hayward, in the irrepressible part of Edmond Dantes the younger (surely a kindred spirit of Simon Templar?) who really brings the picture to life. It will take all the wit and daring of an opponent as ingenious and endearing as the Son of Monte Cristo to stop the General... with a little help from Zona, who at the crucial moment yet again subverts the genre by saving herself!

Bloopers are few, although the Grand Duchess' achievement in adhering side-saddle behind her rescuer on the rump of a galloping horse is little short of miraculous, as is the apparent availability of sticky tape in 1865 for silencing the mouth of the Russian ambassador! During Lanen's balcony speech, a distant off-stage voice can faintly be heard prompting him line by line; while it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that the character would have had a prepared speech 'cued' to him in that situation, I somehow doubt that this was intentional :-)

While watching the movie, I was shocked that it took so long for the son of the count to get even with George Sanders as the ruthless Gurko Lanen. The son of Monte Cristo, as the Torch, spends a lot of time trying to save Joan Bennett from the evil clutches of Saunders. Why, by golly, he had the most famous cop in the world and the hero of the Old West to help him out. Lieutenant of the Guards is played by none other than that masked man himself, Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger). As the film begins we also see Ralph Byrd (the essential Dick Tracy) duking it out with Sanders. And to top it off, Rand Brooks is on hand to give aid to the Torch. Rand, as many should recall, would a couple of years later play Lucky Jenkins, one of Hopalong Cassidy's crime-fighting sidekicks. Is it s coincidence that with these two cowboy stars on hand that the script resembles more the "Mark of Zorro" than a sequel to "The Count of Monte Cristo"?

Dashing Edmund Dantes Jr. (Louis Hayward), the son of the famed Count of Monte Cristo, uses the masked guise of the Torch to come to the aid of his beloved the fair Zona (Joan Bennett), royal grand duchess of Lichtenburg in an attempt to rescue both her and her country from falling into the hands of a determined dictator named General Gurko Lanen (George Sanders) who would be king and force poor Zona to be his queen.

While this is pretty typical fare of its type, that doesn't make this swashbuckler any less entertaining. This certainly manages to capture one's interest and imagination throughout, its supporting players even proving more than up to said task particularly Ian Wolfe as Stadt and Montagu Love as Baron Von Neuhoff. In the end, while this does deliver the expected goods in terms of lush scenery, a dashing daring do lead hero in Hayward and a devious, devilishly clever lead villain in Sanders, exciting climactic swordplay and further action and intrigue and even perhaps some symbolism of the political intrigue at work in the world at the time this was filmed, it really offers up very few actual surprises and proves far too predictable overall. Regardless, this proves a most enjoyable film experience.

I had watched this via a recording off local TV a few years ago and, though I subsequently erased it, I remember enjoying the film. As with director Lee's SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939), it's rather talky but never boring and emerges as an agreeable, though slightly overlong, swashbuckler (even if occasionally bordering on camp).

The same director had previously made THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (1934) and this sequel to it re-unites the stars (Joan Bennett, Louis Hayward) and writer (George Bruce) of the definitive screen version of yet another Alexandre Dumas classic, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1939) - directed, interestingly enough, by James Whale. Incidentally, these two - both, as is THE SON OF MONTE CRISTO itself, produced by independent Edward Small - are perhaps the classic adventure films I would most like to watch and I wonder which DVD company owns the rights to all three titles...

Still, the film is equally influenced by THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934) - in its hero's dual personality of fop/crusader - and THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937) - the Ruritanian setting - and, despite being a 'B' movie at heart, it's stylishly handled (with Oscar-nominated art direction/set decoration). It also makes the most of its fine cast: good leads, wonderful villainy from George Sanders, a nice role for Ian Wolfe (billed "MacWolfe"!), and including three actors from Universal's Frankenstein saga - Lionel Belmore (as a bartender), Michael Mark (hilariously made up as a bishop) and Dwight Frye (in a 10-second bit as an embassy official).