Monte Cristo

Bad adaptation of the book. Hollywood is a failure to adapt the count of monte cristo. Hollywood should learn from the Russians, who made a great adaptation with th count of monte cristo in Uznik zamka if (1988).

This is the earliest adaptation of the novel that I could find on the internet. It was taken during the silent era. There are many characters and some of them are introduced a little too fast. The second part of the movie is different from others. But it has some memorable moments, like the underwater shots and the sword fight scene. Generally, the cinematography and costume designs are beautiful.

This movie had had a big advantage - the story based on which it was made. That had very minimal flaws. In this particular movie version however, the story had been modified and not for good, but exactly opposite. In fact I don't even see any reason for the change that had been done. The plus point is - despite the initial disclaimer on the screen (of preservation), the print on DVD had been sharp, and without any visible discontinuities. The movie more or less faithfully adapts to the classic approximately three-fourth of the way - after which the adaptations start and spoils the taste in the mouth. Some of the sequences had been avoided, and that is understood, to compact the story, and didn't hamper the flow e.g. Morel & daughter, or Pharaoh II. But there had been distortions as well as wrong characterisations which made the story and the character's especially Edmond's actions not as logical as in the classic. The first of such instance came with regards to Mercedes' wedding. The circumstances and her helpless condition was made into 'fickleness of women'. Mercedes, had she been, would have strongly objected. Another very strong error was in the introduction of Princess Heidi. In the story she was kept incognito, a slave girl, till her veil was removed to bring the traitor in open. Here she is a known, and naturally Ferdinand would have smelt a rat. Even the end is not only not in line with classic, but concocted - Heidi can't really forgive the son of her father's killer. I will rather go with the 1954, Jean Marais Version, with much lesser distortions.



Even if it is around 100 years ago, there

Edmond Dantes is not a generic fox as Homer simpson believe. He is a dark, powerful, unforgiving figure, but he can be generous. Here he looks like a generic fighter and sme his dark charm as in the book. Lower than the French version of 1929.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO is one of Alexandre Dumas père's most successful novels, along with THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Eugene O'Neill's father, James O'Neill, made a career of the role for decades, committing an abbreviated version of it to the screen in 1913. Indeed, the IMDb lists more than thirty screen adaptations of the work. The most successful version was, I feel, the 1975 version starring Richard Chamberlain. Yet all of the versions I have seen -- about a dozen of them -- struggle to simply tell the tale, let alone infuse the story with the depth and breadth of Dumas' novel, which runs to a thousand pages in full translation, a novel which encompasses issues of morality, godliness, the Vampire Theater of Paris which flourished for half a century in France -- and the ultimate futility of vengeance.

Therefore, it is a shock to see this movie, recently restored and issued on DVD by Flicker Alley, directed by little-remembered Emmett J. Flynn in a two-DVD set with the recently rediscovered BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT. This is a wonderful retelling of the story, with fine performances in what was heralded as 'an all-star cast'. The script is carefully written to cover the scenes not shown on the screen. If the print seems, at times, to be a bit washed out, this apparent failure can be laid on the film stock of the era: the orthochromatic film that had been a standard of the industry for almost thirty years would be superseded within a couple of years by faster, panchromatic stock that could film blues more effectively.

If the story seems a bit rushed and more straightforward in its telling than seems proper: alas, that's what happens when you try to get so a long story into a two-hour picture, folks, and director Flynn does a highly competent job, given the Augean task.

Other reviewers for the IMDb have written that John Gilbert does not really seem to be John Gilbert in this picture. True enough, but he is not busy being John Gilbert the star, but an actor playing the Count of Monte Cristo, born Edmond Dantes in the fertile mind of Dumas. Although the modern film-goer may have some issues with the conventions of a movie made almost ninety years ago, those who enjoy silent films will find little reason to regret the time they spend watching this version.