La contessa di Montecristo

If you're going to appreciate this adentures movie ,you 've got to forget French history because the screenwriters certainly have : the story takes place during Louis-Philippe 's reign, the last king (who called himself "king of the French" and not "king of France")of Dumas's land : one character says he's going to Versailles to appeal to the king !!!But Louis -Philippe lived in les Tuileries and it was him who turned the palace of Versailles into a museum ; the prefect is totally fictitious : in Dumas' novel -which is summed up is a remarkably succint manner as a flashback - ,he's the villain who sent Edmond Dantès to the Château D'If prison .

Ulmer's film is most likely inspired by the second part of the novel ,in which Dantès (now known under the pseud Monte Cristo )takes revenge on his enemies ;it was purely personal .In the film ,he fights to help the oppressed people ,he becomes some Robin Hood of the nineteenth century ;and it was only natural to make Villefort the villain ,now a hateful prefect who exploits the poor ; the prefects were not all "wicked" :in 1833,one of them ,Rambuteau ,was concerned with the 1932 cholera epidemic ; he gathered that it was caused by insalubrity in the narrow streets of the capital ; preceding Baron Haussman ,he began to modernize the city :"my duty is to give water, air and shadow to the Parisians " was his motto. A far cry from Villefort's dirty deeds!

With its scenes taken by force from Robin Hood cum Zorro , the movie is only a very average adventures movie: its best side is the feminist feel : to put the bad guys off the track, the wife of Monte Cristo (check the title) replaces her husband and even winds up in a dungeon! Bravo,madame!

When this film was released to the public, the movie theaters were using carbon arc lamps of copper rods the light was very strong and bright and the nitrate film prints looked amazing! Almost 3-D! 35mm films projected in this was had so many advantages that even today with all of our digital technologies - nothing can compare. So when 16mm prints of this film were made, and since the film was shot in dark images, they look very dark and the lamp in a 16mm projector can't accommodate these very dark scenes like the arc lamps. Still worse showings on TV and video and DVD the film in the dark scenes look even worse! We projected an old 16mm print made in 1948, and the print suffered from "Arc Burn" or "Sun Burn" which causes an effect that looks like each frame of film was embossed! No effect on the screen and the print held focus perfectly. This means that the 16mm print we bought was used on a 16mm projector equipped with an arc lamp. Most likely the Navy or Army used this old exchange print. Sadly who knows if 35mm nitrate cut negative still exists? But I give it ten stars just for Eva Gabor, since my old boss and dear friend Richard L. Bare directed her in the Green Acres TV series. This was Eva's seventh screen credit! She was so young! And of course Lenore Aubert, who doesn't love a sexy woman holding a sword! Tan ta ra, cries Mars on bloody rapier! See it on a film print if you can!