funkytapir This movie was however worse than A Pirate's Heart. In particular the part where the imaginary rat Clifford was left out in the script was very disappointing. Nonetheless, in those days you could get arrested for bonapartheid, which isn't good nowadays either.The walls under his eyes had magically disappeared after making friends with the senior in the prison. It would be useful for the Nintendo brains to make this film into a role-playing game, with the walls as an easter egg. This movie has a few drastic hypnotizing scenes in the beginning with the red and white stripes of the sailors and the climbing up and down the rope ladders of the ships in the background. The metaphor being: holistic approach of fantasy proneness can be soothing as well as disturbing for those ill at heart.

thinker1691 If you are a scholar of great books which have laid the foundation of Literary knowledge, then like most modern readers you are interested in the visual version of the book. True there are many works of art which have been put to celluloid, but having been a fan of Alexander Dumas, I have long awaited this one. " The Count of Monte Christo " is one of the finest story of it's genre and I often fancy myself in the part, discovering many versions dating to the 1930's. True, some films make stars of unknowns, while an exceptional actor can make that particular role his trademark. Thus it is with this offering. Here we have the inimitable Richard Chamberlain playing the hero Edmond Dantes. Of all the versions and actors before or after, this is my favorite. He is superb as the innocent Captain-to-be, who is trampled under foot by ambitious and unscrupulous men, stripped of his naval position, livelihood and his beloved Mercedes (Kate Nelligan) and sent to an island prison for life. There as fate would have it, he meets the equally innocent Abbe Faria (Trevor Howard) an Italian monk and teacher who has been entrusted with a fabulous treasure which he bequeathes to Dantes. With such a fortune, Edmond plots revenge on those whom he blames for his imprisonment and his father's death. The superior cast of Louis Jourdan, perfect as De Villefort, the ambitious Prosecuter of the King, Donald Pleasence is excellent as the greedy Danglars and Tony Curtis who is delightfully despicable as Fernand Mondego. Although a bit weak in the substance department of the story, the film makes up for it in the cast assemblage. The result is nothing sort of memorable as a classic come to life. ****

sonnyschlaegel There is obviously a 119 minutes (TV-) version of this movie, but I only know the shorter (theatrical) version. The longer version is probably better than the short one. It really suffers from being so short. The novel is very long, especially the part that deals with Edmond's revenge. Here, there are about 50 minutes for the first part (up till Edmond finds the treasure) and another 50 minutes for the second part (Edmond's revenge). This is much too short because too much of Edmond's revenge is left out.However, I liked this adaptation. I liked the acting, especially Chamberlain is very good. Trevor Howard (Abbé Faria) is also good. I especially liked the scene where he shows Edmond - by means of logical deduction - who betrayed him. Carlo Puri is very good as Benedetto (a.k.a. Faustino). My favourite scene is the end of the court scene when de Villefort moves over to him (Benedetto) and they look into each other's eyes, shattered.Although it's too short the script writers managed to keep the core of the story, and the story stays coherent. As to the plot changes: Caderousse has only a small part, the story of Caderousse and the diamond is left out. The sequence in which Edmond deals with his enemies has been changed. Even the way in which he deals with some of them is different - for example, there is a long sabre duel between Edmond and Mondego. Edmond doesn't show any real mercy to his enemies, whereas in the novel he shows some mercy to Danglars. Even the ending is a bit more drastic, Haydee is nowhere to be seen. At least they did not change it completely (as was done with some other adaptations, where the ending is changed to a happy ending). Some of the lengthy (sometimes too lengthy) subplots of the novel have been left out completely, e.g. the episode in Rome (with Edmond, Albert and Frantz d'Epinay), Maximilien Morrel's love story, how Edmond rewards Maximilien's father for the help he has given Edmond's father, and Madame de Villefort's poisonings.In my opinion, this movie really deserves 8 out of 10 points. Perhaps the longer version even deserves one point more. If you're interested in a long movie version of the story, try the version with Depardieu in the title role (it's actually a mini-series). It isn't perfect - for example, they changed the ending too much - but all in all, it is closer to the novel than this version.

Belli 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.