O Conde de Monte Cristo

When you convert a novel of 1100 pages to a film of about 100min, you're inevitably going to lose a lot of details - probably a few important ones. But under the circumstances, this film was about as good as it could get. I love the original novel, and was a fan of the 1973-74 films of "The Three Musketeers" (in which Richard Chamberlain played Aramis, incidentally), and so was interested to see this.

The most obvious change is that the first half of the film deals with about the first quarter of the book - making it a little unbalanced. But then, the book has so many subplots, it was probably necessary to let go of a lot of them.

The other obvious change is that in the novel, Danglars is the main villain, whom Dantes pardons at the end. In the film it is Mondego - which makes more sense from a film point of view, as Mondego took Dantes' bride. But apart from that, here, Dantes does not show any mercy - whereas in the book Danglars was pardoned, in the film he does not show any remorse until all four villains are either dead or locked up - and only then because Mercedes does not love this new version of himself. So that's a pity.

Still, changes aside, this film is about as good as it could be. Someone else said probably best for those who've not read the book. They're probably right. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it if you have read it. I'd give this 7/10.

When you convert a novel to film you are taking a story from one medium to another. To do this you will need to make certain changes in order to preserve the intent of the story. If you do a direct conversion you will be telling half a story at best. In this version of one of Monte Cristo there are many alterations. The changes made in the first hour makes sense and were probably needed given the time to tell the tale,103 minutes. The changes in the second hour make no sense and undermine much of Dumas' dramatic, timeless and romantic epic. If you love the book, watch the flick just for .... Yucks ... But don't expect to see the Count you read about.

In this "classic tale of injustice, revenge and ultimate retribution," according to the DVD description, "Edmond Dantes is about to marry the love of his life and become a Captain in the Navy until he is falsely accused of conspiracy and is sent to the hellish island fortress of Monte Cristo. Locked away from his perfect life, he feels only hatred and revenge towards the perpetrators of this horrible injustice, but can see no way of exacting his revenge...

"Told of a secret treasure by a dying prisoner, Dantes finds a new hope and escapes to find the treasure. Now with a fortune, he assumes the identity of the wealthy and influential Count of Monte Cristo. Here, he seeks his revenge using his enemies' greed and corruption to bring about their ultimate downfall."

This is a handsomely mounted ITC-TV production of the frequently adapted Alexandre Dumas classic. There are some hair and make-up distractions, but most of it looks nice, at least.

Richard Chamberlain performs the leading role with focus and style. Of his quartet of veteran co-stars, Trevor Howard (the Abbe Faria) is most impressive. The younger cast includes an early Kate Nelligan (as Mercedes) and the grown-up Dominic Guard (as Albert) kid from "The Go-Between" (1970). But, with piercing sword and courtroom play, the lesser known Carlo Puri (as Benedetto) makes the most memorable impression.

****** The Count of Monte-Cristo (1/10/75) David Greene ~ Richard Chamberlain, Carlo Puri, Kate Nelligan, Trevor Howard

As all movies made from books do, it simplifies the plot to a miniscule point and takes as much drama from it as it can. As a movie, this works surprisingly well. Chamberlain is excellent as the conflicted changeling, but others don't do so well. Tony Curtis has never been my favorite actor and Kate Nelligan doesn't have much screen presence. Watching Louis Jourdan try very hard to play to the camera is kind of sad, but Donald Pleasance is very good and almost steals scenes away from Chamberlain.

Unfortunately, this is a TV movie (1970s), so the direction is awkward and stage-y. But a pretty good script and Chamberlain's performance make this a strangely compelling experience.

A good TV effort for this timeless tale. Chamberlain's performance carries the story along. I recently picked up the video at a yard sale and was disappointed to find the "tableaux" scenes missing. Too bad, as the sequence of Dantes' confrontation with Mondego makes a lot more sense after the deleted scenes.