La contessa X...

Janet (Fay Wray) is a European movie extra who is tired of trying to be a star - and besides, she and her boyfriend have broken up. So, one day she and her pal (Patsy Kelly) drive off the set in the car she was to use as an extra in a scene, and from Vienna they drive to a hotel on The French Riviera. Through a series of comical mistakes, she is mistaken for a real Countess and meets a real Count - and falls in love. Then reality rears its ugly head ...

"The Countess Of Monte Cristo" has nothing to do with the movie of (almost) the same name. This is a gem of a movie, by turns funny and romantic, and has been overlooked all these years. Fay Wray gives a marvelous performance as the phony countess and Patsy Kelly adds comic relief, with help from Reginald Owen as an international jewel thief. A big surprise is Paul Lukas as the male lead in a sympathetic part as the Count. It has a first class screenplay, lovely background music and a top director in Karl Freund ("The Mummy" (1932)).

"The Countess Of Monte Cristo" succeeds on so many levels and is a prime candidate for Turner Classic Movies or another cable movie station. It has probably been in Universal's vault gathering dust and deserves to be seen again and again. It was shown at the Rome, NY Film Festival via the Library Of Congress archives - 8/17.